Let's Just Go Somewhere: A Refuge in the Outer Banks

We left Forest Lake RV Park around 8:30 and headed east to the Outer Banks. We started out on Hwy 64 as we left the campground, then I-85, then I-40 around Raleigh, and ended up back on Hwy 64 as we drove toward the Outer Banks.

As we got closer to the coast, we crossed Alligator River and then a long bridge across the Croatan Sound to Roanoke Island where we will be staying the first four nights of our Outer Banks excursion.

We decided to stay at The Refuge of Roanoke Island which is around the upper area of the Outer Banks so we could explore this area before heading south to Hatteras. The campground is very nice with full hookups and sites backing right up to their lake.

Pretty nice, wouldn't you agree? It would have been great if they had designed the sites as pull-in rather than back-in sites so that you could have a front windshield view of the lake and the afternoon sun would be at the back of the camper. But I'm not complaining. We like our "refuge" of sitting and relaxing at the back of our campsite.

I was so surprised to see a loon swimming in the lake. I thought that loons were only found further north.

He or she was swimming around and kind of flipping over her belly to clean it.

With some patience, I got a picture of her (or him) spreading her wings.

I think there may be a couple of loons. This loon swam very close to us but was kind of camera shy.

There is nothing cooler than the sound a loon makes. Makes you feel like you are way out in the wild. I'm hoping we hear them call while we are here. :)

We decided to ride down to the south end of the Roanoke Island (which was only about 2 miles away) to the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park. There were several big boat builders and we found three places to buy fresh seafood. All but one of them were already closed. The one that was open was next to the Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant. We decided to eat dinner at the restaurant and maybe buy some seafood to cook at home later this week.

We split the Captains Broiled Trio which consisted of scallops, shrimp and crab meat. We liked the scallops and the hushpuppies the best. The view wasn't that bad either.

We timed our dinner just right. It started raining as soon as we sat down at the restaurant and stopped raining as soon as we left. When we got back to the motorhome, there was a rainbow behind the campground.

After getting back to the motorhome, I checked to see when the sunset would occur thinking I might get some good sunset pictures this evening. I walked around the lake a little around 8 pm and the sun was beginning to set beautifully!