Outer Banks Trip Recap

Last week Joe and I spent some time in the Outer Banks with some of his family and our friend Erin. Mostly we just laid on the beach, went for walks, and ate lots of seafood. Joe, his dad, and uncle went on a couple of fishing expeditions and brought back enough tuna and mahi mahi to feed an army. The town where rented a house, Rodanthe, was pretty quiet, but one food highlight was the amazing apple uglies (aka apple fritters) that we enjoyed from Orange Blossom Bakery. They were crisp on the edges, soft on the middle, and had a thick glaze. Joe's grandfather used to love going to Orange Blossom Bakery so we kept up the tradition on this trip.

We drove to and from the Outer Banks and it was a loooong 14 hours each way. On our way home we stopped for a BBQ lunch at Pierce's Pitt BBQ in Williamsburg, VA. For anyone who likes collard greens, I'd recommend a stop at Pierce's. I know the point of BBQ is the meat and sauce, but for me the highlight is always the sides and the collard greens were an outstanding side.

The best part of driving was that we got to visit a new town, Lexington, VA, and check two more schools, VMI and William & Lee, off our list (sidenote: someday soon I'll have to blog about our mission to visit as many college campuses as we can). Lexington is an adorable town full of Civil War history and natural beauty.

For dinner we went to a cozy little restaurant called Brix. Brix offers small plates of seasonable, sustainable, locally grown food. Everything we tried was delicious from the mustard green and herb salad that was grown in the owner's mother's garden to the potato and cabbage "trichats" with white truffle oil. Our hands down favorite dish was the posole, made with hominy and locally raised pork. I commented to Joe that it was the best thing I'd eaten since our dinner at Husk and he agreed. Although I wasn't able to enjoy any of it, Brix did have an extensive list of wines by the glass, which on a non-pregnant occasion I would have really appreciated. After dinner we headed to a little ice cream shop for black raspberry and mint oreo ice cream.

Overall, I'd say we loved our visit to Lexington!