OBX Places You Need to Know About: Ascension Sanctuary, Hi-Vibe Holistics and Shine On Juicery

Meet the Women Lighting up a Little Corner of KDH

Tucked in among the chain restaurants and pharmacies of French Fry Alley in Kill Devil Hills is a magical utopia of kindness, health, healing, community and connection. Here you can heal your body with vegan food, cold-pressed juices and healing herbs, shop for fair-trade products and metaphysical tools, rest and heal your body, mind and soul with yoga, meditation and Reiki, connect with others through beautiful music, and take your spiritual journey to the next levels.

You might remember this place as the former Pit Surf Shop, restaurant and live music venue. Over the past five years it has been transformed into a paradise-like compound that feels far from the typical Outer Banks experience.

At Ascension Sanctuary, Hi-Vibe Holistics Apothecary and Shine On Juicery, three women owners (and their many helpers) are following their personal passions and visions for creating a better world one individual at a time.

“It’s three separate businesses that complement each other synergistically to bring health and vitality to body, mind, spirit and Earth,” says Emily Howell, owner of Hi-Vibe Holistics,  of this collective of businesses.

Here is a taste of the magic you’ll find at Milepost 9 between Five Guys and Destination Fun.

Shree Fulcher guiding heart-centered offerings and raising consciousness at Ascension Sanctuary.

Ascension Sanctuary

Celebrating its fifth anniversary in November 2024, Ascension Sanctuary is an ever-evolving space that could be best understood as a yoga and meditation sanctuary, but it really goes far beyond that.

After receiving her Reiki master attunement in 2019, founder and owner Shree Fulcher opened Ascension in a small Kitty Hawk space in 2019. But Ascension quickly outgrew that space and by the summer of 2019, Shree was renovating the old Pit Surf Shop as a metaphysical shop. She added yoga, sound healing, Reiki sessions and trainings, readings and so much more over the years. Five years later, Shree describes Ascension as a “Starseed School and Academy of Awakening.”

“We are all about giving a higher vibrational experience than what you find in the mundane world,” Shree says. “We are a sanctuary, a place of refuge and safety from the insanity that’s going on out there. It’s a place that reminds us of the paradise that is our birthright to experience here on earth.”

Weekly, Ascension offers regular classes in yoga and meditation. All levels of yoga, from restorative to gentle to yin and vinyasa to slow flow, is offered Monday through Friday mornings. On Monday evenings there is Sound Journey with Reiki and on Thursday evenings there is Yoga Nidra, both deeply relaxing meditative experiences. Classes are available by drop-in or with passes, including a weekly unlimited pass for $77 up to a yearly pass. The yearlong pass is on an amazing special right now – $888 for a whole year of yoga! After December 31 the price goes up to $1,111 for a year. Every Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. there is a free yoga class, a great way to get a taste of what Ascension is all about.

Ascension also offers retreats and trainings, including Reiki I and II trainings and a Reiki Master training. Shree and other practitioners offer private coaching, card and channeled readings, healing sessions (try the Body and Soul Massage!), monthly Cacao Ceremonies, events around the moon phases, ecstatic dance gatherings in summer, sound journeys, private Reiki and chakra balance sessions and so much more. A yoga teacher training may be coming in 2025 so stay tuned.

Inside the peaceful Ascension Sanctuary during a sound healing meditation.

"It's like a spiritual spa," Shree says. "We are not just working on the physical level. We go deeper than the surface level. We are assisting in polishing up every facet of the genuine gem that we each are to keep our energetic/emotional fields clear so we are conducting and co-creating from our most virtuous selves, therefore raising the collective consciousness to phenomenal levels!"

Ascension has a Spiritual Book Club that all are welcome to attend. It’s held on the fourth Sunday of the month at 10 a.m. In November the group will discuss The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and in December the book is Anna, Grandmother of Jesus: A Message of Wisdom and Love by Claire Heartsong.

Shree also describes Ascension as a Metaphysical Mecca as it's filled with crystals, rocks, oracle card decks, books and ritual tools. While the store does not have regular business hours, it is open before and after classes, events and trainings – which means it’s often open.

The Ascension space is available for hosting next-level events and Ritual Rites of Passage like marriages, bridal and baby showers and blessings. “This is a space for soul-connected, heart-centered events,” Shree says. “For example, that looks like brides booking self-care spa parties for their bridesmaids rather than going out and partying.”

Shree is excited about building the Academy of Awakening in the Ascension space. “For practitioners ready to go to the next level, we have step-by-step opportunities for your ascension path so that there is a clear and simple path to get to your next levels.”  

Overall, it comes down to being a refuge for working at the deeper levels.

“In this busy world where we’ve learned to employ the human body to be the doer, we need places and spaces like this where we can let the body rest and the mind rest so that we have a connection to our higher power, higher consciousness, higher intelligence, our higher self instead of just employing body and mind to run the show. All these practices bring us into the heart. They get us out of the body and mind and into the heart, which is our devotional space so that we can make our offering to this planet while we are here.”

Ascension Sanctuary is open to the public for shopping and walk-in offerings every second Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m. so be sure to stop by on December 8. On Friday, November 29 come to Ascension for a FREE Family Fun Yoga class at 9 a.m. (all ages welcome) followed by shopping hours from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Visit them online at ascensionobx.com.

Emily Howell stocks herbs in her vast herbal apothecary at Hi-Vibe Holistics. 

Hi-Vibe Holistics

Herbalist Emily Howell founded Hi-Vibe as a coop in 2020, but it has since evolved into an herbal apothecary, fair-trade shop and listening room that Emily and and her husband, Greg Howell, operate together. There’s a lot going on here, but it all fits together with Emily’s beautiful vision.

“Healing of the body, mind, spirit and earth can only come when we remember we belong to one another,” she says. “We have to honor the earth and all the medicine she provides, honor the artisans and make sure they are treated fairly and honor the sacred sound through the music, healing and connection it provides.”

Emily’s journey to becoming an herbalist started with having profound negative impacts from any type of over-the-counter medication, even ibuprofen. From a young age, that led to an interest in natural alternatives, which led her to study herbalism in the early 2000s. She always kept a home apothecary, treating her own MS symptoms and using herbs to heal herself and friends and family until a friend encouraged her to come out of hiding and bring her gifts to the larger community. “I have the abilities, so it was time to get out and help people,” Emily says.

In the Hi-Vibe Apothecary, Emily helps people with issues like immunity, digestion, pain, seasonal sickness and much more. She teaches people about the importance of lymph and liver health and about the importance of caring for and maintaining their bodies with health and vitality.

“I help people realize that their bodies can be vital with dedication and consistency,” she says, adding that customers can come in for quick-fix remedies or work with her one-on-one for in-depth health optimization.  

Hi-Vibe Holistics is a sweet space to shop, get an herbal consultation, listen to music or sit on a sofa.

But Hi-Vibe is much more than herbs. In her shop Emily curates a collection of nontoxic, artisinal body products like soaps, candles, shampoo bars, deodorants, face serums, massage oils, sunscreens and makeup. She sources locally made and globally made fair-trade items in which the artists are paid a fair wage, not exploited as in fast fashion. You’ll find sweaters, dresses and other clothes and accessories, leatherworks, wall hangings, chimes, bells, baskets and blankets – all of which make great gifts.

Emily is especially proud of her Zero Proof Bottle Shop, which offers beverage alternatives to alcohol. She has products that mimic alcoholic beverages, like N/A beers, wines and spirits, but also beverages that are just tasty and really good for you like herbal elixirs. “They’re not just for people who are sober,” she says. “They’re also for people who want to drink less or are sober curious or just want something really to good to drink. There are some really beautiful products available now.”

Everything in the store has to pass muster with Emily’s high standards for ingredients.

“I have a hand in everything on the shelf,” Emily says. “I have vetted all the ingredients and products.”

Finally, in a throwback to the days of The Pit, Hi-Vibe also offers occasional live music experiences in its Listening Room. Greg, a string musician, and Emily, a live music lover, invite musicians to play in an atmosphere all about the music, where the audience is fully focused on the music. “It’s not about the party and talking with friends,” Emily says. “It’s intentional and deep. The artists and audience feel it, and it’s a very healing experience through sound and connection.”

The next listening room experience is A Very Larry Holiday Hootenanny with The Larry Keel Experience on November 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. You can buy tickets here. More musical experiences will be coming in 2025 so stay tuned!

Hi-Vibe is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Check out their website at hivibeobx.com.

Amy Landes crafts the high-vibrational, plant-based foods and juices at Shine On Juicery.

Shine On Juicery

If what you put into your body is important to you, this is your place. Founder and owner Amy Landes crafts the most delicious cold-pressed juices, smoothies, nut mylks and plant-based foods, and you don’t need to be vegan to appreciate the way her offerings feed you at a soul level.

Amy says she has always been interested in healthy food, where it comes from and how it affects our health. After reading and researching raw food, she attended the Living Light Culinary Institute in California in 2014. While selling her food and juices at popups and markets, she kicked around the idea of opening a brick and mortar then decided not to at just about the time the spot in the former Pit restaurant became available in 2020.

“I just knew it was exactly the right time and right spot,” Amy says. “Ascension was already in the space adjacent, and it just seemed very aligned. I had always envisioned a space like this and now it’s just natural to work alongside two businesses with similar goals and visions. It’s really just been a beautiful coming together of energy and synergy.”

Shine On focuses on whole, nutrient-dense, high-vibrational foods and food as medicine. Everything is vegan and almost everything is organic.

“Shine On was created with a mission to increase the light within us all,” Amy says. “Food is energy and it is part of lighting people up. Everything here is made with love and intention.”

Amy’s phenomenal cold-pressed juices are crafted to be balancing and medicinal, with names such as I Love My Liver and Trust Your Gut. In addition to individually bottled juices, she offers juice cleanse or Juice Flood packages. With a custom order, she can supply you with juice for one to three days.

Inside the cozy log-cabin-style interior, you can pick up juices, drinks, grab-and-go food items like chickpea salad and peanut ginger kelp noodles and artisanal vegan cheeses to go. You can also order from the menu or specials board at the counter. The menu includes grains and greens bowls, various toasts, wraps, smoothies, wellness lattes, kava and elixirs. Coffee is coming soon.

Amy makes everything in house, from the almond butter for the almond butter toast to the cashew mylk used for the smoothies to the organic cashew cheese for the wraps to the sauerkraut that’s added to the bowls and toasts. The smoothies are made with all superfoods, with no ice or refined sugar.

Kava drinks, which help ease anxiety, and wellness lattes are made without refined sugar. Amy serves botanical elixirs, mushroom coffee, chai lattes and more and also stocks bottled drinks with botanicals and adaptogens.

Shine On's log cabin vibe is a cozy place to hang out for breakfast or lunch.

This winter, Amy will be offering her Fundamentals of Raw, Living Foods crash course through the After Dark at All Saints series of classes taught by locals (this year in conjunction with St. Andrews By The Sea and called After Dark on the Outer Banks), so be on the lookout for an opportunity to learn about food with Amy.

Shine On Juicery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a short break in the winter.

Find it online at shineonbox.com

All three of these businesses are at 1209 S. Croatan Highway in Kill Devil Hills. This time of year they are perfect places to buy gifts, listen to live music, eat delicious food or detox before the holidays, destress with a yoga or meditation class or get some insight into your highest purpose! But these three places are open all year and they're always evolving, so plan to return often and be a part of this beautiful community.