My wife and I will be at the OBX for a week (10/8 - 10/15). We will be staying in Avon.

We've been there once before (2 years ago, at Kill Devil Hills, a week after Hurricane Isabel) -- some places were closed as a result of the storm.

We'll mainly relax and enjoy the beach (extended forecast is excellent for all next week). But we'd also be interested in hearing your recommendations on places to eat, things to see, etc. We're taking our bikes and will do a little biking, too.

FWIW, we've read through some of the older threads, but still wanted to ask again. Thanks in advance!

I find many of the seafood places have similar menus but for breakfast or lunch, I like Sam n Omie's on the Beach Road in South Nag's Head. They have great local-style clam chowder and they serve their bacon and eggs with grits and biscuits, if you like 'em (and I do). We also go for breakfast or lunch to a restaurant on a pier but I can't remember which one. Nag's Head or Jeannette's maybe. For hamburgers/ribs/chicken, etc. we like Jockey's Ribs on the Beach Road at Jockey's Ridge. There's a charming bookstore in Manteo with a nice coffee shop across the road and a good craft store next to the coffee shop. Also, we always go to the Christmas Shoppe near Manteo to buy ornaments and jams/sauces/jellies, etc. We have our 'good-bye' fancy dinner at Penguin Isle. The Tanger (?) Outlet Mall has some good shopping.
Have a wonderful time!

THe Christmas Shop is Manteo will be closed down! We were there at end of August and through Labor Day and everything was 50% off for the closing. I believe the final closing date is end of Sept.

Avon is further down as you know, so you may want to stay down there once you get there. If you want to eat GOOD steamed crab legs and just good seafood, go to Dirty Dicks on HWY 158 on way down- it is around milepost 7 or 8 I believe, on right side. They have all you can eat crab legs from opening til 2 pm, a good deal.

I'd suggest bringing your binoculars and a bird book. Go to Pea Island and stop at the bird look-outs. You will be there for fall migration so there should be lots of shore birds, waders, waterfowl, terns, interesting gulls, song birds, you name it. Be sure to look for Avocet and Black-necked Stilt. Be prepared for bugs and ticks. (No big deal - just bring some Off!, wear a hat, and inspect yourself when you get home.)

On the ocean look for Northern Gannet (if you get lucky) and of course pelicans, Osprey, terns, shorebirds, etc.

Here are some good web sites for Pea Island:

http://www.fws.gov/peaisland/index.html
http://library.fws.gov/Refuges/peaisland02.pdf
http://www.fws.gov/southeast/pubs/Pe...d_birdlist.pdf


(The second one is a brochure and has a great photo of Black-necked Stilt on it.)

Enjoy! I'm jealous!

emd,
do you mean the Christmas Shoppe is permanently closing or just closed for the season (which would seem odd, since they're the Christmas shop!)?

The Christmas Shop is closing permanently. They're retiring I believe.

The closing of the Christmas Shoppe is a real loss. We have gone there for a million years. Half our Christmas ornaments are from there. My sister told me it was closing. I also heard that the Wheeping Radish is no good anymore and also seems to be going defunct.

Weeping Radish in Manteo was fine, and packed at lunch on a weekday last week of August. And we brought home two cases of their beer and I can attest that it is as good as it ever was.

The people at Christmas Shop know the loss the community and toruists feel at their closing. They had a nice poster up w/their whole history on it, the story of how they opened, how they almost closed about 10 yrs ago but held on "a few more years" that turend into 10, how they just can't keep it going anymore and couldn't find anyone to buy it and keep it going as the Christmas Shop...

I can't believe it! We've been going to the Christmas Shop for 20 years. Our grandkids each have 20 Christmas ornaments from there -- we'd try to find something that related to a special event in their lives for that year and their stock was so enormous we could always find just the right thing. My favourite was a little red-haired girl driving a tiny car. We gave it to my red-haired goddaughter the year she got her driver's licence. That's a real shame. I looked at their website and didn't see anything about it closing, so I went phew! Now I'm taking my phew back!

Thanks all.

We're heading out first thing tomorrow morning (Friday) -- and looking forward to it!

Oh my goodness, that was a wishful thinking typo. I meant to say godkids not grandkids!