After 5 days of traveling, we arrived in Duck, North Carolina.  Duck is a charming town just north of Kitty Hawk and is one of the newer residential areas on the Outer Banks.  The roads are curvy and tree-lined with beautiful Live Oak trees.  They are called Live Oaks because they keep their leaves all year round and they have lovely twisted trunks that form great shapes.  The downtown area is quaint looking with delightful shops that entice you to want to stroll in.  I know I will spend a few days poking around the shops.

We arrived on a Sunday around 3:00 PM and the traffic was fine until we got near Duck and then it came to a slow crawl due to the evidently never-ending changeover traffic that happens each summer weekend.  This would have been great for leisurely looking around, but we had been on the road for a long time and would have rather sped by the town to arrive at our new home.

About 5 miles and 45 minutes later, we arrived at Jessica’s Dune, a large house, high up on a hill – one house from the sound and about 12 houses from the ocean.  Our original plan was to take a quick look at the house, get a storage space, unload storable items and then go back and unload the items we wanted in the house.  The only problem with this plan was that we were tired and just wanted to stay at the house.   However, this meant that most everything we wanted for the house was neatly packed in the front of the truck – behind the items to store and, therefore, was difficult to get to.  We had stopped as we went through Duck and got some grocery essentials so dinner was all set.  We opted to just unload the suitcases that we traveled with and call it a night.  Next time we travel, we’ll rethink how we load the truck and load all essentials near the back for quick and easy access.

Jessica’s Dune is a 3 level house with most of the living quarters on levels 2 and 3 to take advantage of the view and wow is there a great one.  The living room and part of the wrap around deck face west and have a commanding view of the sound and sunset.  I’m really looking forward to seeing lots of fabulous sunsets from the deck.  We had a house on Cape Cod for a several years that had a similar west view over water and I really loved how easy it was to see beautiful sunsets almost every day. The west deck also has an outdoor hot tub which I expect we will use almost every night.  Can’t wait to try it out.

The kitchen, dining room and screened porch are also on this level.  The deck is so large that we can easily have both our hammocks set up as well as plenty of sitting room – heaven.  There’s a gas fireplace in the living room which should be lovely once it cools down and fall arrives.  The 3rd floor has three bedrooms – a master bedroom suite, a queen bedroom and a bunk room with 4 twin beds.  The first level, formerly a garage, has been closed in and has a pool table, bar area and general game room area.  We’ve set up all Michael’s photography shelving on this level  as well as all the boxes we need to sort through to sell off their contents.  This is great because they are out-of-the-way and we don’t have to drag them up one or two sets of stairs.

After staying in our adorable conch cottage in Key West, Jessica’s Dune feels like a mansion.  The house has a nice open layout on the main floor and the deck which wraps around three sides of the house provides ample outside space with some part always in the shade, some part always sheltered from the wind so you can really get the exact experience you want.  The kitchen is large enough for both Michael and me to work together easily which is also nice.  Mick has even figured out how not to be underfoot every second.  Jessica’s Dune has more of a rental house feel and we are using more of our household goods here but is still comfortable and will be very workable.

The next couple of days will entail securing storage, unloading the truck, and settling in.  Living in Florida means mostly no stairs so being here where we will be going up and downstairs multiple times everyday will be an adjustment and good exercise for me.  (I’m going to keep telling myself that as I’m lugging up boxes.)  This should be a good incentive to think about what items are really important and what we can get rid of!  Can’t wait to complete the move in so we can begin exploring and having fun.