A January Day Trip to Holden Beach

By and far, one of the biggest perks of living in East Central North Carolina is having easy day trip access to the big, beautiful Atlantic oceanfront. From Myrtle Beach to OBX, the Carolina coast is packed with so many bucket list worthy beaches, many of which I’m fortunate to have the ability to frequent all year round, winter months included. Unlike most travelers who fancy summertime beach vacations, my ultimate preference is to visit the ocean during the winter months when there are minimal distractions, cooler temperatures, and far fewer people to obstruct the views. The beach in winter is cold, serene, and desolate, a perfectly therapeutic experience to be one with your own thoughts. Perhaps that’s why I love it so much.

As we’ve been cooped up in our house too many weekends in a row, Alex and I decided to take our dog Mogul for a ride to the Holden Beach coast over the past weekend. Holden Beach, a small, mostly residential seaside town near the southern tip of North Carolina, is a beach I love to visit in the winter with Mogul, namely because its quiet, sandy shores are void of people which yields him plenty of space to run, dig, and bark at the waves as they crash the shore. Because dogs are not allowed on most Carolina beaches the majority of the year, we love taking Mogul to the beach as much as possible in the winter months. Yes it’s often cold and windy, but the experience is so worth the chills and thrills for us.

Saturday’s beach day was definitely a windy one. As the wind whipped the waves onto the beachfront, mounds of sand particles made their way onto my YETI mug, Mogul chased chunks of ocean foam until they dissipated into the cold air, and Alex and I shared a few laughs over our fashionable wind blown hair and watery eyes we could barely keep open. So many times when we looked over at Mogul frolicking around by the water, the hair on his back was standing straight up and his usually perky ears were bent over in a comical fashion. He was completely unbothered by the wind, having the time of his life. Though he’s mostly afraid of the water and won’t get too close to it for fear it will splash up and get him, he loves playing in the sand so much, and it always brings us a lot of joy watching him run around. Beach dogs are the best dogs!

With the pandemic still inhibiting a lot of what we’re able to see and do, our day trip to the Holden Beach oceanfront offered us a safe way to change our scenery and relieve a little stress. There’s a lot going on in this crazy world, so it felt nice to escape reality and have what seemed like the whole beach to ourselves. By the time we finished meandering the coast, our ears were cold, our noses were stuffy, our fingers were frozen, our cheeks were flush, and our shoes were filled with sand, yet Alex and I both agreed the after effects were well worth the time we got to spend together in the salt air.

I’m a firm believer that ocean therapy does wonders for the soul. Especially in the quiet days of winter, a day out on the beach is one of the best forms of self-care for me. Uninterrupted by all the commotion that accompanies the beach on the busy days of the tourist season, a winter beach day is the perfect way to reset your mind and take care of your mental health. I’ve said it before, but I feel so thankful to live two hours away from one of my happiest places. North Carolina beaches pack so much natural beauty and I’m so lucky to live so close to the soothing sounds of the Atlantic ocean.

What have you done to getaway lately?

Enjoy!

JB