In recent years it’s become a tradition of ours to take a family vacation with my parents and my brothers and their families.
Fishing is important to our family, so we usually tend to pick a location that provides ample opportunity to put lines in the water and sit back and relax.
This year, we vacationed in Corolla, NC and stayed in an amazing house called Bill and Barb’s Sea Dream right on the beach.
We booked through the online service Twiddy and found them very helpful in arranging our booking.
We had originally planned to vacation in Emerald Isle but the houses we were interested in were still being rehabbed from significant hurricane damage from the previous year.
However, the change in location worked out well, as we all loved the house in Corolla. Bill and Barb’s Sea Dream is a huge 3 story house that has 7 bedrooms, 5 of which are master bedrooms, so all the couples got a master along with an ocean view and deck access.
The kids loved the room with bunk beds and enjoyed getting to spend one on one time with their cousins for a whole week.
They particularly loved the array of entertainment options, with a pool table, foosball, and ping pong, not to mention the heated pool and two hot tubs.
We went a little before peak season in early May, so while the ocean water was a little on the cool side, the air temperature was enjoyable making it for great weather to spend time out in the sun.
I spent a good amount of time on the beach surf fishing. While we didn’t have too much luck, we still managed to catch a variety of fish, such as whiting, blue fish, and sea trout, providing fish for several meals.
We also took the children out on a cobia charter fishing trip and unfortunately only managed to catch a few Spanish mackerel and small tunas. We saw plenty of cobia around but none of them were interested in taking our bait.
In one particular instance, we found a couple cobia hanging around a sunfish who was floating at the surface.
In addition to our fresh caught fish, we also ate out and got some delicious seafood at the nearby Mama Easley’s, which offers a variety of fried seafood choices.
Bill and Barb’s Sea Dream offers a huge luxury kitchen, so we were able to cook and enjoy family meals together while watching the surf.
The grandparents favorite activity, apart from spending time on the beach, may have been serving up pancakes and bacon for their grandkids each morning at the kitchen bar which was large enough to seat all of the older kids.
There is also great outdoor kitchen, allowing the family to swim and have lunch without having to dry off and head inside.
Unfortunately, we had a couple complaints that were not addressed in a timely manner by Twiddy.
The door to the elevator was tricky to open and got worse as the vacation went on, requiring many turns of the handle to get the latch to open.
Also, the seat covers for the outdoor furniture cushions were being cleaned when we arrived and were never brought back despite calling.Despite this, we still had an enjoyable and highly recommend this house for anyone looking to vacation in Corolla.
Bill and Barb’s Sea Dream can be found here on Twiddy.
