What Day is it? – Beach Daaaay!

Every year we head to OBX for our family vacation, spending time with my siblings and their families.  It is a great break from work, enjoying the surf and shore.  We get on the road at o’dark thirty from Grammy’s house and get to the beach just in time for my favorite shop to open.  We need supplies, so Jenn lets me go to Chip’s Beer Market (http://www.chipswinemarket.com) for some local brew specialties; such as Foothills Torch Pilsner, People’s Porter, and Seeing Double IPA as well as Mother Earth’s Raspberry and Blackberry from their Window Pane Series.  They even have a few drafts available, so I even got a Widmer Kill Devil Brown ale (a beautiful brown ale aged in rum barrels that was 9.5% ABV).  We then met up with my sister and her family at the lunch spot that each year signals that my vacation has started, Outer Banks Brewing (http://www.obbrewing.com).  I got the tuna tacos for lunch, with a Summer Rye Stout, and enjoy watching my kids catch up with their cousins. It was a great start to the week.

Sunday is typically spent on the beach, and this year we were rewarded with the biggest waves I’ve ever seen here at First Wave (Grammy’s Beach House for us this past 10 years, but sadly coming to an end this year).  I have always gotten up for the sunrise, enjoying a beer with the view, and then I head out to the beach to enjoy the day.  We had a theme this year, modeled after the Geico commercial with the camel, where we took turns screaming hump day at the top of our lungs.  Wild and crazy at the beach.  I got to ride the waves with the family, watching my water bugs do their thing.  The waves were great until I got side swiped by one and got swimmers ear.  Oh well, there are more fun things to do at the beach.

Each year I get to go out with my sisters and brother and their spouses to a restaurant, and this year we chose to go to Trio (http://obxtrio.com/).  Trio is a wine, cheese and beer bar that offers great sandwiches and a self service wine dispenser that the ladies REALLY liked.  I had the capicola, mortadella, parmigiano and mozzarella panini with Natty Greene Southern Pale Ale on draft.  Jenn got a sandwich, but enjoyed the most.  It was fun to leave the kids with my folks and let our hair down.  Afterwards the ladies went shopping while we stopped in to the Red Drum Taphouse for dessert.  My came in the form of a Foothills Hoppyum IPA and People’s Porter on draft (I do love these NC brews).

Later in the week Jenn and I went out for dinner with the kids, some needed quiet time by ourselves.  We headed over to the Full Moon Café in Manteo, a nanobrewery that offered great southern cuisine.  Manteo is a small town on the water, and it is nice to take a break from the beach scene.  I got the shrimp and grits with a wonderful imperial stout with a fantastic name, the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.  Jenn couldn’t stop talking about her baked stuffed shrimp (stuffed with crab meat no less) for weeks.  We got back to Grammy’s Beach House and found out that we were not able to reserve the house again.  The realtor gave us a BS story about when we are allowed to rent, and I used my beer book to prove that they were wrong (I knew that beer book would come in handy).

We wrapped up our week (had a week gone by already?), and drove back to the farm with my nephew in the car instead of Jessica (she was riding with her cousin and a promise of crab cakes on the return trip).  Jenn remembered a place that my cousin Brian had recommended, Evolution Brewing (http://evolutioncraftbrewing.com), so we bypassed the Salisbury bypass and stopped for an early dinner (or late lunch).  What a fantastic place!  They offered slates with cheese and/or meats, a huge selection of their own regular, seasonal, and high end beers, a tasting room next store, and they even provided their ice water in Patron bottles (classy).  I got a plate of Camembert, aged cheddar, aged gouda and hot copa which came with a spicy tomato chutney, walnuts and honey (just a shot to do the trick).  For beers, I got a sampler of their regular brews, including the Rise Up Coffee Stout and Lot 6 DIPA.  I loved the Menagerie 8, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, weighing at 9.5% wildflower honey and candy sugar while aging in red wine barrels.  I even got several big bottles to go, including their Winter Migration (Bourbon Barrel dark ale), Fall Migration (Chardonnay Barrel Belgian Ale) and their Spring Migration (Rum Barrel Golden Ale).  I decided (and better yet Jenn agreed) we now had our own bit stop for our journey next year.

We made it home safe and sound.  In some ways it is kind of sad that this is the last year for our family at First Wave, Grammy’s Beach House.  However, the kids were all excited about picking out a new place for next year.  The important thing is that we get away together as a family. - 6324/14245

 

 “Beer will change the world.” – Sign at Trio at OBX