The Outer Banks are one of the few places left where you can drive a car out onto the sand. There are designated areas for it, but some are only seasonal, and you can only drive from beach to beach in Corolla, far north of where we stayed in Nags Head. Though we spent a lot on gas, this was the first time my boyfriend had a reason to take his Jeep on to the sand, so there was no way we weren’t going to take his gas guzzler instead of my sedate little Altima.
Jeep culture is kind of interesting. We definitely waved a lot at older guys in tricked out Jeeps, but the dippy girls in newer stock Wranglers less so. They’ll learn after they realize that a thousand people just waved at them, not because they are cute, but because the wavers are driving Jeeps. It’s kind of like motorcycles. I had a friend tell me once that Rule #1 was hang on while I’m riding on back and Rule #2 was wave at other motorcyclists. It’s the same thing.
At any rate, the wedding was very cute. It ended up being a GEICO commercial when a plane with a banner flew right overhead as the bride was about to start walking down the aisle. We all cracked up. My friends had a ridiculous number of bridal party members. (Almost double digits on both sides.) And it was good to spend time with my former boss and his wife, who I think are really neat.
His parents fed us on Thursday afternoon at the Rehearsal BBQ, then again on Saturday morning her parents fed us a post-wedding brunch. There were bonfires on the beach, a little night fishing (mostly rays) and some carousing, which we old folks fortunately skipped. No sunburns for us, fortunately, but the groom was his usual summer-sun-kissed self. I was seriously going to loan Mr. Peanut some green concealer to tone down the red, but it faded to a nice piggy pink by the time the ceremony came around.
I am going to have to write about the food in separate posts as well as some of the local activities. But for now, I’ll tell you the total cost of the trip and how it breaks down.
$266* – Gas for an off-road vehicle, i.e bad gas mileage
$4 - Tolls
$220 – Rental
$22 – Admission to National Parks
$44* – Groceries/beer
$30* – Dare Devil Pizza
$15* – BBQ lunch at Southland’s
$56* – Dirty Dick’s Restaurant
$146 – Owens’ Family Restaurant
$5 – Gag gift
Total Damage $808
Boyfriend picked up everything with a star (*) for a total of $411. Add on various small things like sodas, water, snacks on the trip home and it was pretty evenly split between us. Not too shabby for a 4-day weekend to the beach. It could have been much more expensive, but we had many delicious meals provided for us as wedding guests.
As far as a gift goes, my friends asked for nothing since they know most of their friends can’t afford much beyond the trip and rental itself, but I asked Mr. Peanut what he wanted and he said there is honestly nothing. I know what Mr. Peanut likes and I know what Mrs. Peanut will appreciate. But I’ll have to send something along later since cash is tight at the moment. But I have something in mind.
I will elaborate a little more on food and entertainment the rest of this week.
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