Here's my .02
I know nothing about surfing, but if in fact the surfing is better on the northern beaches, you probably want to look at Bodie Island, which has the towns of Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Duck and some others. If you go further south to Hatteras or Okracoke you are getting into a very remote area with few people. Personally I would love to live on Hatteras or Okracoke, but only if I had to rarely leave the islands. Bodie Island has decent highways to reach it and also all your basic amenities like a grocery store and medical care, on Hatteras & Okracoke you've got a local market type grocery and a local doctor probably, but if you need hospital type care you'll have to be airlifted or take a LONG ambulance ride.
Here's a good website for homeschool info
http://www.nche.com/ and here's a link to the division that actually regulates homeschooling
http://www.ncdnpe.org/hhh103.htm I don't know your personal reasons for homeschooling, but you will find that many (not all, but I'd guess most) of the homeschooling families are doing so for religious reasons. There are homeschool "groups" across the state that do everything from sharing teaching the advanced subjects to just scheduling field trips together, but most of them will have a religious "slant" to them. This may or may not be a good thing from your perspective, but if it's something that matters to you it's something you'd probably want to know.
For firearm laws, this document is current through last year's session
http://www.jus.state.nc.us/NCJA/ncfirearmslaws.pdf the one on GRNC's site is at least a year old and there have been changes. Plus you don't have to wade through the hyperbole to get to the facts.
Most of the northern beaches in NC allow vehicles on the beach at least during certain times of the year, so if you live on the coast you can at least take the Jeep on the beach easily. Unlike CA, NC is wide, not tall. It is 477 miles from Murphy (Tellico) to Manteo (Nags Head area). The closest place to the coast to wheel if you want some rocks, etc. would probably be Uwharrie. Look on a NC map and find Troy then follow 109 northwest & you'll see where Uwharrie is located.
If a vehicle is at least 35 years old from the date of manufacture it doesn't have to have a safety inspection, so your Jeep wouldn't be subject to inspection. It would have to be tagged and insured though in order to drive it on the street. If you want the specific statutes PM me with your e-mail address & I'll be glad to send them to you.
Smoking in restaraunts is currently up to the owner of the restaraunt except in a few cities that have adopted local ordinances. If they seat a certain number of people they do have to provide a non-smoking area, but as someone else mentioned it's usually just the other side of the restaraunt with maybe a wall between them, sometimes nothing. However, the legislature has been looking at the issue and I expect some kind of restrictions to be enacted within the next couple of years, so even though we're the big tobacco state, we're heading towards non-smoking public places anyway.
Think that covers everything you mentioned that I know anything about.
