Road trips are one of the staple summer activities. I love traveling and getting to see as much of this beautiful Earth as I possibly can. Living in North Carolina, there are many great opportunities for day trips. The beaches of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are not far away, and the mountains are a wonderful place to visit.

Typically, my beach trips are to the southern coast of North Carolina, such as Oak Island and Wrightsville Beach. This June, we planned a beach trip for a friend's 22nd birthday, but we wanted to go somewhere new and different.

When I was a preteen, my dad had planned out a few trips to lighthouses of NC. On one of these trips, I remember visiting Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks and I suggested this as our destination. There are a lot of unique things to see and do in the Outer Banks, especially in the Kill Devil Hills area, and we definitely had a great time!

We arrived in the early afternoon, and since check-in at our hotel wasn't for a few more hours, we decided to go down to the beach. One of the great things was that there were many public beach accesses with free parking! There are several beaches in NC where you have to pay hourly/daily to park, but not at Kill Devil Hills. The beach itself was beautiful. The water was a beautiful sea green color and in some spots, you could see the sandy bottom.

The shore at Kill Devil HillsPaige Ryan

Swimming here was amazing. There was a sandbar right where the waves were crashing and once you fought your way past the waves, the water went up to our chests. We spent the afternoon staying in that sweet spot, floating and letting the ebb and flow of the waves carry us. In the distance, we could see dolphins swimming. To save money, instead of buying lunch, my friend and I brought our own snacks to the beach. We had some avocados, cherries, and blueberries and it made for a delicious, energizing lunch.

After spending some time at the beach, we checked into our hotel and went to grab dinner. It ended up raining the rest of the evening, so we hung out at the hotel. In the middle of the night, the rain had finally subsided, so we walked down to the beach and climbed up one of the empty lifeguard towers. It was nice and tranquil.

In the morning, my friend and I woke up around 5:30 to walk back down to the beach and watch the sunrise. Not everyone is an early riser, but living on the East coast, waking up to watch the sunrise over the ocean is a tradition for me anytime I stay overnight. It is always worth it, even if it's cloudy. That morning, we got to see dolphins again. Nothing beats seeing the wildlife as the golden sun rises up over the water.

SunsetPaige Ryan

Next, I went over to a smoothie shop for breakfast. I tried The Spot OBX and got one of their acai bowls, The Mermaid. It was packed with delicious fruit and almonds.

Acai BowlsPaige Ryan

After breakfast, we decided to see what else the Outer Banks had to offer. We went to Jockey's Ridge State Park, the largest natural sand dune in the Eastern United States. Exploring this unique feature was really interesting and definitely one of the highlights of the trip for all of us. Next time, I would like to visit this place when the sun is setting. While we were there, storm clouds were rolling in and it made for a really interesting contrast against the hills of sand. Jockey's Ridge is completely free to enter and explore. It almost feels like another world while you are there.

FriendsPaige Ryan

With the approaching storms, we decided it was probably best not to try to go back to the beach, so instead, we headed down to Jennette's Pier. It cost $2 per person to walk on the pier. We decided to rent a fishing rod and purchase bait and try our hand at ocean fishing. We didn't catch any fish, but we caught quite a few skates and one stingray, which we released. Our fishing was cut short when something snapped our line. We are not sure what we had snagged, but at that point, we were hungry for dinner anyways.

FishingPaige Ryan

The Outer Banks was an amazing place to spend the weekend. We all enjoyed the different kinds of activities. I highly recommend visiting this place with friends or family. There's plenty of wildlife and natural attractions to see and explore!