ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604230010
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
PERHAPS because I was a romantic teen-ager when I first vacationed at a beach, I have maintained a lifelong affair with spots where ocean meets land.
I have never met a beach I didn't love, and each new one I find is different from all the others. People who like beaches get their souls renewed in the way sunrise and sunset plays with the scenery. A beach person understands the woman who after traveling all day with grandmother and children didn't even stop to check into her hotel upon arrival in Key West, Fla., but instead drove straight to the docks to photograph the sunset.
Beach people can even find joy in the way the sand massages bare feet. Others, however, consider sand a nuisance and need lots more than endless horizon and the perpetual crash of waves. Fortunately, there are East Coast beaches to please both types, and often it is the same beaches.
The Outer Banks of North Carolina fit this bill.
About an eight-hour drive from Roanoke begin the islands and peninsulas of the Outer Banks that string out about 125 miles along the North Carolina coast. The area is considered treacherous for ships and can also be a challenge for swimmers.
Each year, the shift of sand tries to take over more inhabited areas or block the only road that runs through most of the banks. But each year more and more people also choose the area for a second or retirement home so it keeps getting more populated.
It is possible to get away from it all or have it all in the Outer Banks, depending upon which area you choose. Each community on the Banks has a special cachet. Corolla and Duck, which are close to the Virginia line, (but you can't drive from them into Virginia,) are largely residential and offer lots of opportunities for cottage rentals. Wild ponies graze along the road and in the yards here, but are fast losing out to a growing population. However, until about two years ago when a large supermarket was built, there was not even a place to buy groceries.
Heading down the banks, you find Kitty Hawk, Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. These communities have numerous places to hang out and at least one where you can hang glide over huge sand dunes in Jockey's Ridge State Park.
If you've ever considered a sightseeing flight as part of your vacation activities, this is the place to take it. An air view of the Outer Banks is educational, entertaining and especially appropriate because Kitty Hawk was the site of the first airplane flight on Dec. 17, 1903. You can even walk a path from the hangar and workshop of Orville and Wilbur Wright to the takeoff and landing spots of that historic flight. The living history guides that tell the story of the Wrights' efforts daily in the Wright Brothers National Memorial Museum are exceptionally good and love explaining things to children.
Once you cross the Oregon Inlet Bridge, you enter an area dominated by wildlife. Communities with names like Rodanthe, Salvo and Avon bloom with rental cottages, motels and campgrounds, but the real appeal here is fishing in the ocean or the sound, beach combing (although shelling is not very good) and watching wildlife. Strong winds, and sometimes fierce bugs, can make the beach area unpleasant, but at those times, you read or visit art galleries or shops.
The piece de resistance of this area has to be the free ferry ride from Hatteras to Ocracoke (OHK-ruh-coke) Island and a day spent exploring where Blackbeard (Edward Teach) hung out.
Tips for the Outer Banks:
Visit Roanoke Island (Manteo, Wanchese, Manns Harbor) while you're in the area. Manteo's harbor features a replica of the type of ship that brought settlers to America. It also has a tremendous bookstore, Manteo Booksellers, and among its notable restaurants is Clara's Seafood Grill on the waterfront.
In Nags Head, don't miss Sam & Omie's restaurant. It has a good bar, but is a family place with reasonable prices on all three meals of the day. When it opened about 50 years ago, it belonged mainly to locals and diehard fishing types. If you get a chance, ask the women who run the restaurant if they have any T-shirts from the women's fishing tournament held annually to raise money for cancer research. Sam & Omie's shirts also are keepers.
A couple of other restaurants worth checking out in this area are Queen Anne's Revenge, in the woods at Wanchese (time this outing to watch fishing boats come in at Wanchese docks before dining); and Windmill Point Restaurant in Nags Head. Windmill is a little pricey, but the food's good and the furnishings are from the SS United States luxury liner.
If you like books at all, don't miss Roanoke Press-Croatoan Bookery Ltd. in Kill Devil Hills. It has more than 100,000 volumes of used and antiquarian books and can easily eat up a rainy day.
Some cottages and a couple of motels on the banks allow pets, in case you want to take a dog, or cat or bird along. However, some communities, such as Kill Devil Hills, don't allow dogs on the beach between May 14 and Sept. 16.
If the Outer Banks appeal to you, you can learn more from the 1996 Vacation Guide available from Dare County Tourist Bureau at 1-800-446-6262 or you can contact the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce, 1-919-441-8144, or send e-mail to chamberouter-banks.com.
Myrtle Beach
The Myrtle Beach Grand Strand, which runs for 60 miles beginning in Little River near the North Carolina line, is another stretch of home beach for me. When my family was short on vacation funds, Myrtle was one of the few places where we could camp and still stay on the ocean front at Myrtle Beach State Park and at several private campgrounds. My family and about 25 other campers watched an American walk on the moon for the first time on a portable television added to our camping gear in 1969 just for the occasion. Myrtle is also the first beach where I ever took a pet along on a vacation, a puppy too young to board at a kennel.
You can probably guess what that holiday was like. That aside, Myrtle Beach is ideal for families because the water is warm and gentle and kiddie entertainment abounds. Accommodations are plentiful enough too so that you can find a place to stay at reasonable prices. The Myrtle Beach area also has 90 golf courses some of which are regular destinations for Roanoke Valley golfers. If you decide to go and want to know which course to play you might pose the question at an area golf course.
Beginning in 1986, Myrtle started growing as an ocean "Opryland." Ten theaters, some owned by music luminaries like Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap, the Gatlin Brothers and Alabama, are now major attractions.
This year, Kenny Rogers, Wayne Newton and Lou Rawls will be among the headliners at The Palace Theater at Myrtle Beach, which opened in October as part of a $250 million entertainment complex, Broadway at the Beach. In case you don't already have enough Hard Rock Cafe shirts, here's a chance to get another one. The place also includes a Mickey Gilley's Texas Cafe.
Myrtle Beach doesn't appear to have any off season. From Nov. 22 through Dec. 21, the Palace Theater will feature a Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes chorus line. The show was spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
However, if the activity - golfing, musical extravaganzas and even beach volleyball - is too much for you, you can sneak away to parts of the Grand Strand that have a lower profile than Myrtle. Check out Murrells Inlet, on the Intracoastal Waterway; it is known for its seafood. Or visit Brookgreen Gardens, which has more than 500 sculptures and 2,000 species of plantings. Peak color seasons are early April and then October and November.
To order information about the Grand Strand, including special publications on golf and music activities, call 1-800-356-3016 or visit the internet site http://www.myrtlebeach-info.com.
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are as deceptive as the Outer Banks and the Grand Strand in the time it takes to travel them. They are 113 miles long so you don't just bop up to Key Largo from Key West. But both keys are worth getting to know. The only good martini I've ever had was mixed in Key Largo; it's also the only place where I ever got seasick, and it was unrelated to the drink. The seasickness resulted from a trip on a glass-bottom boat to view the reef on a "Dramamine" day when I didn't have any of the medicine to take.
This is a strong area for water activities. If you like to scuba or snorkel, Key Largo's John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park with its underwater "trail" is for you. You can also gamble there aboard a casino cruise ship.
The best-known key, or cayo, is Key West. If you can afford it, Key West is an ideal winter vacation spot. If you can't afford winter, go in summer when air fare and room rates are lower. You can still expect to spend a $100 or so a day though just for a room.
In August, when my daughter and I visited Key West, it was hot as you know what. But we managed to find ways to cope with that and enjoy the low-key atmosphere that begins when you arrive at the one-story cinderblock Key West airport. We sipped drinks, soft or otherwise, under the ceiling fans in the restaurant on the beach next to our hotel. We took a dive boat out for a day of snorkeling. We also found that you can spend more than one day in the shops on or near Duval Street and that a great deal of the night can disappear while you visit places like singer Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant and bar and gift shop.
Sightseeing is excellent here, too, and includes writer Ernest Hemingway's home where descendants of his cats (they have an extra toe) also dwell. Key West hosts an annual Hemingway festival if literature is an interest.
Also, if you plan sufficiently, which we didn't, you can catch a boat for a day at Dry Tortugas National Park, 60-plus water miles west of Key West.
One thing I promise about Key West is that you will meet some of the most interesting people found anywhere. The culture is slightly different from that of most areas; the hotel next to us had a nude beach. This is also the headquarters of Mel Fisher, best known for finding the artifacts from the 1622 wreckage of Spanish galleons and for not finding the Beale Treasure in Bedford County. Fisher's museum is a major attraction.
For material about Key West, call 1-800-527-8539.
Other enticing beaches
Big strips like the Outer Banks, Myrtle Beach and the Keys get lots of attention, but there are other beach destinations that are equally good bets depending upon how much you want to spend, when you wish to travel and what you like to do. Here are a few:
Virginia Beach, of course. Every Virginian ought to stroll the boardwalk there. In June, a major art show is featured and similar events are planned throughout the season. Virginia Beach can be a base for visits to shipyards and military bases or to outlets in Williamsburg.
Carolina, Wilmington and Wrightsville beaches in North Carolina take you close enough for trips into the city of Wilmington. This port on the Cape Fear River offers river cruises, tours of the battleship North Carolina and a chance to check out a railroad museum. Information is available from Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, 910-341-4030.
The Golden Isles of St. Simons, Jekyll and Sea islands along the coast of Georgia offer that exotic combination of huge trees, hanging moss and inviting ocean. The only time I ever had to evacuate a vacation site because of hurricane warnings was during a stay on Jekyll Island. But that's no reason to stay away. This place is a study in the way life was for late 19th century millionaires like Frank Henry Goodyear, the Goulds and William Rockefeller. The industrialists once owned the island and used it as a family getaway and hunting preserve and some of their "cottages" still stand.
The islands also are excellent for bicycling, and the ocean water is superb. Just as you might find shark's teeth in the sand at Myrtle Beach, you surely will trip over a sand dollar if you go wading on Jekyll.
All you have to do to find the sand dollars is to "wiggle your toes around until you feel one," said Kelly Hampton, who works at the Clarion Resort Buccaneer on the island. Another appeal of this area is its closeness to other good places to visit. Hampton said visitors to her hotel often make the 45-minute trek to Jacksonville, Fla., or the hour and a quarter jaunt to Savannah, Ga.
These islands are quiet places, and might not please nightlife lovers. But things could get a bit livelier in the area this year because the convention center has been renovated and will reopen June 1 with a Country By the Sea festival. A beach music festival is scheduled in August, Hampton said.
For information on this area, call the Jekyll Island Welcome Center, 1-800-841-6586.
LENGTH: Long : 222 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: SANDRA BROWN KELLY. 1. The waterfront in downtown Keyby CNBWest, where the view is forever, is a gathering place at sunset. 2.
The serenity of Ocracoke Island on North Carolina's Outer Banks
seems not to be lost on a trio of canine beachcombers (right). 3.
"Southermost Mansion," (below) a private residence representative of
Key West luxury, is now surrounded by development in the Old Town
area; view is from Southern Beach Oceanfront Motel. 4. MYRTLE BEACH
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Myrtle Beach has golf, music and plenty to do
for all ages, but mostly it has miles of wide beaches where surf-
and sun-worshippers can spread out. color.