A Personal Love Letter to the Outer Banks

By Hayley Hutson
Dec. 14, 2022

My first trip to the Outer Banks happened when I was about six. After spending a few summers moving between the crowded, expensive beaches of Maryland and Delaware, my parents wanted a different kind of vacation. In the early 2000s, the Outer Banks had beach homes that felt newer, bigger, and more affordable for families like ours.

I can’t honestly claim that I instantly fell in love; at six, my memory of that stage of life is pretty hazy. But my parents immediately recognized that these untouched barrier islands along the coast of North Carolina were exactly where our family should be vacationing. After that, we kept coming back. Our yearly beach weeks shifted to Duck or Corolla, with the choice often depending on whether my parents were in the mood for the 4WD beaches.

The Outer Banks has mattered to me for as far back as I can remember. During the last twenty years, the area has changed in countless ways. More travelers with the same appreciation for the islands began arriving, new businesses opened, and the community continued to grow. Families from Virginia, including mine, started trading old Rehoboth condos for oceanfront rentals in Nags Head, Duck, or Kitty Hawk. As I got older and my parents trusted me to travel with friends’ families, I found myself visiting the Outer Banks multiple times each year.

Those days were filled with bike rides through town, inflatable rafts on the Sound, boogie-boarding in the ocean, early mornings spent lining up for Duck Donuts, and evenings that ended with either a homemade dinner or a quick ride to Pizzazz Pizza. In the Outer Banks, life felt uncomplicated, and that simplicity was its own kind of beauty. Whatever was happening back home seemed to fall away as soon as we crossed the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge. As time moved on and life became more complicated, the Outer Banks became the place I could return to for a short stretch of peace.

Through every season of change, the Outer Banks stayed steady for me. It was part of my life during high school heartbreaks that felt dramatic at the time, devastating losses, moves to unfamiliar cities, my parents’ divorce, my first serious job, and every major transition that has brought me to now. I first came here with my parents and grandmother, later with my younger siblings, then with our family dog, and now with my boyfriend.

Even as both my life and the Outer Banks have shifted over the years, the feeling of arriving has never really changed. The moment I breathe in the salty air again, everything familiar comes rushing back. Riding my bike through Duck brings back the happiest pieces of childhood, and for a little while I feel like that kid again. Lying on the beach and hearing the waves break along the shore makes me feel grounded, calm, and complete, as if everything else pauses.

I loved the Outer Banks at seven, and I love it just as deeply now at twenty-seven. It will always be the place that makes me happiest, surrounded by people who seem to understand how fortunate they are to be there. The Outer Banks has been present for my hardest days, my most joyful ones, and all the ordinary life in between. It has seen me as an excited child, a depressed teen, an uncertain college student, and a confident adult, remaining there through every version of who I’ve been.

I live in Charlotte now, six hours away from where I grew up in northern Virginia. I don’t get to see my family as much as I’d like, but I never skip our family trip to the Outer Banks. Not long ago, my father bought a house in Duck, the quiet town that has always given us so much happiness. When he is there, he seems different: lighter, calmer, and more at ease. Something about the Outer Banks makes life feel a little brighter and a little better. I know what a gift that is, and I’ll never take it for granted. Wherever life leads, I’ll keep coming back to the Outer Banks, the place that brings my family back to what matters most. It is my home away from home, and my safe haven.

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Hayley Hutson is a Professional Freelance Writer in Charlotte, NC. https://hayleyhutsonwrites.com/

A Personal Love Letter to the Outer Banks

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