NCsaltaire

Best restaurant not on the beach

September 5, 2008 at 12:00 pm 1 comment

The most frequently asked question I get from our out-of –town visitors is “What’s the best place to eat on the beach”. With hundreds of restaurants to choose from, it is hard to identify just the right one for their taste.

They typically follow the first question with: “Then where would you eat on the beach”. Our response surprises them when we tell them that our favorite restaurant isn’t on the beach at all.  It is located in a little town called Water Lilly, North Carolina, just 25 miles north of the Outer Banks.  Their response is then, “how long will it take us to get there”? We tell them is takes most people thirty minutes drive when they go by car but when we go, it takes two hours.  We prefer to take another mode of transportation – Fantasea II. 

Fantasea II is our twenty-five foot Robalo cuddy cabin power boat. Two hundred, twenty five cubic inches of engine pushes us through the water with ease. It has all the comforts of home and it is perfect to carry four boaters but works best when the first mate and I steer her into North Carolina Sounds – just us two.

On Saturday we decide that we were in need for boat ride. So off we go, heading to Coinjock for lunch. Our trip began in our neighborhood canal system and into the Jean Guite Creek. We then proceeded into the Albemarle Sound and up the North River.  The weather was a little testy for the first hour, but once in the river it smoothed out; resembling a sheet of glass. We cruised along the Inter-coastal waterway at 25 knots with the wind in our hair. The winding river took us through the many estuaries, small ditches and canals along the ICW. Although, the deer and other wild life were not visible from the water, the birds were abundant. 

After two hours of cruising, we pulled along side of the marina dock, gassed up and headed into the restaurant for lunch. We had an outstanding meal of crab soup, crab cakes and fried chicken and that famous southern ‘sweet tea’. 

With two full tanks, and back on the water, we headed south just ahead of a slow moving tug pushing a large barge.  Another beautiful day on the water in paradise.

Entry filed under: Places.