From My Hometown to Yours - - Katie of Miss Dixie

Its Tuesday and also my Friday, hello 5 day weekend! I'm looking forward to my parents coming into town tomorrow, to be with Sean and I for this holiday. Who are you spending your Thanksgiving with this year? 

I have another installment today for you of From My Hometown to Yours series.

Today Katie is taking up to North Carolina. I have only been there once to Elon, when my sister was graduating from Elon University. A lot of Sean's family is from North Carolina so along with Katie and Sean's family, we have many reasons to go visit. Katie is a new blogger friend and I have enjoyed getting to her and building a new bloggy friendship.

Take it away Katie!

Good Morning Friends! I'm Katie from Miss Dixie and I am thrilled to be sharing a little place in the south that I call home. Even more so, I am happy to be sharing this on Meg's blog, which I always find inspiring, fun to read and incredibly genuine. Thank you so much for having me, Meg! I live on the coast of North Carolina in Morehead City. Morehead is surrounded by other popular destinations like Beaufort and Atlantic Beach. First things first, I would insist you come visit me anytime from May-September during prime beach season! We would spend most of our time outdoors enjoying the "Crystal Coast" that my town is known for. Welcome to the laid back southern living... 

When we have a summer day that is wide open we like to take the boat to Cape Lookout National Seashore. This island is unreachable by any bridge, so a boat ride is necessary. The boat ride here is about thirty minutes from our marina, but we will enjoy tons of beautiful scenery the entire way. There is a lot to explore on this island once you are there.  Cape Lookout is home to tons of wildlife and we will be sure to observe while we are visiting. We usually bring fishing rods and nets because of the great fishing, and the guys love it! On several occasions we have seen dolphins swimming right by our boat, pretty cool.

The dogs absolutely love the boat also, this is Dixie enjoying a boat ride with us!

A day at the Cape usually entails bringing a great picnic lunch to feast on. Beaufort Grocery is one of my favorite restaurants and their lunches are amazing-especially the pimiento cheese sandwich, my favorite! After lunch we might be ready for a mimosa or two- you are on vacation here! 

After relaxing on the beach for a while we might start to head back towards mainland, but not without a few stops along the way. Another popular barrier island to visit is Shackleford Banks. This island still has wild ponies that live and roam here, that descended from horses in Spain 400 years ago. 

They will walk right by you on the beach, it's amazing!  

On a typical summer day you can find a lot of familiar faces and meet new friends. You pull up, anchor the boat and can spend hours wading in the water with beach music in the background. The boats will be lined up as far as you can see in the summertime. This is a huge destination for anyone that visits our area and we like to refer to this island as "Shack".

We might decide to take boat cruise down Front Street in Beaufort for one last stop. Our favorite place to grab a drink on a hot summer day is Stillwater. The view is incredible and lots of times they have live music playing in the afternoons. You feel like you are in the Bahamas here, which is alright with me!

We have had a full day so far but you just have to try some locally caught, super fresh seafood for dinner. Whether it is shrimp, tuna, grouper, scallops...it just doesn't get any better! We would probably go to one of my favorite restaurants, Chefs 105, right in the middle of downtown Morehead City on the water. Chefs is a great dinner spot, and they also have live music in the summertime that carries on into the evening for a nightlife destination. Although, these days we seem to soak up the evening sunset rocking on the porch at the beach house or on a dock with friends!

The next day I would take you shopping in downtown Morehead or Beaufort. Although we already would have cruised by on the boat,  Beaufort also offers great antique shopping and local unique boutiques.    

This is a photo I took in one of my favorite shops, the Blue Gardenia in Morehead City. 

Everything is precious!

For lunch, I would take you to a wonderful lunch spot, Ruddy Duck. Ruddy Duck is also on the waterfront, (I obviously don't want you to miss any views!) They have great seafood and burgers, and a great place to have a drink, socialize and relax.

In addition to what I named here, we also have a blue marlin fishing tournament, The Big Rock, and host the North Carolina Seafood Festival, which are huge attractions during the year. 

I really hope you enjoyed hearing about our little piece of paradise, and hope you want to come visit now! I had a great time putting this together and now I cannot wait for a summer day just like this! Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Ok Katie, the seafood festival, when exactly is that each year because I am booking my ticket now! Thank you again for writing about your hometown and participating in this series.

Again, the offer still stands that is anyone wants to be featured in this series, please let me know, I would love to have you, email me at megmouch(at)gmail(dot)com