holiday road

Southern Shores, NC - A warm, still, and sunny morning at the beachhouse.

The past week has just been a little slice of paradise. The consensus amongst those still here is that we should tough out another couple weeks or so. Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head. There are national parks and wildlife refuges all around. Mini-golf and ice cream. Horseshoes has become the official sport here. Hours have been spent refining one's horseshoe grip and release point. Frisbee, baseball, and timer-shot pool divin'. Good times.

Up until now we've been amongst sleepy beachside villages with barely a beachgoer walking about. Most of the houses have been vacant. The coastline has been only sparsely dotted with folks determined to get the perfect tan. The driving has been relaxed, as no one's in a particular hurry.

But it all changes this weekend. The locals have been murmuring. They're bracing for the upcoming tide of holiday-minded visitors who will quickly transform the outer banks into a carnival-like frenzy. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After posting last Tuesday, the group of us went to the Outer Banks Brewing Station in Kill Devil Hills. The building reminded me of a church, with a high-pitched roof hanging exposed over the dining room. A few of us tried their porter, a very tasty beverage (A-). Then we tried a second. Dinner was awesome, crabcakes and seafood pastas. I'd give the food and the service an A-. We returned to the house for a marathon of horseshoes followed by hours spent trying to finish a game of Trivial Pursuit.

On Wednesday we spent the entire morning preparing for a trip to Pea Island NWR (http://www.fws.gov/peaisland/). A fair amount of lolligagging went on. That, and a lot more horseshoes. It took about an hour or so to drive south to Pea Island, over the Oregon Inlet. Pea Island is a wildlife refuge, most impressive for the variety of birds visible from its big-looped trail. Hundreds of types of birds visit over the year as its a popular winter migration destination. At the beginning of the hike, we passed a little pond with turtles swimming about. Along the trail, there are observation decks, with fixed binoculars, allowing the everyone a better view. In the visitor center, the rangers had telescopes set up, aimed at birds' nests. Some majestic looking bird of prey could be spied through the eyepiece.

Once everyone finished their hike, we made for the beach across the street. It was empty and we set up our camp. Ocean-soaked and sandy baseball toss. Paddleball. I read Sterling Hayden's autobiography and day-dreamed about long ocean voyages. Squadrons of pelicans would cruise by in formation. The water was pretty choppy and cold, but good to cool off quickly with. Naps.

The drive back was relaxed. Chad, Helen, and I stopped at a Dairy Queen for ice cream. We met with an older gentleman originally from Morristown, NJ. He'd lived in the area for 26 years or so and told us how he was bracing for the imminent flood of vacationers. He says:

"For eight months out of the year, its just like this. Calm and relaxed. And then, for four months you can't make a left turn."

We went to the local Food Lion to get ingredients for dinner that night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Lion). I got the makings for a big ol' salad and Chad got the last of the things he'd need to make eggplant parmesan. Back at the house, Chad made an eggplant parm to die for. He sliced up the eggplant really thin and then spent an hour just pan frying them all up. And to boot, there was a Red Sox/Yankees game on that night on ESPN. it was clear from the start of that game that the Yankees were in the driving seat. Andy Pettitte totally out-pitched Curt Schilling and the Yankees won 8-3. Dinner was wonderful. That night, the girls of the house stayed up until about sunrise the next morning.

I think I must've awoken only a couple hours after that. Horseshoes were played for a good part of the morning. In the late morning we were visited by a local chihuahua, who was named "Napoleon" due to his gigantic ego and small size. He was dy-no-mite. We walked all over the neighborhood looking for its owner, but no go. So, the dog hung out with us for a few hours and then moved on to the next party. It was very friendly to us, but very territorial whenever anyone, or dog, approached the house. It would only let Chad pick it up.

In the afternoon we hit the beach and later had burgers and beers for dinner. Not too long later, we watched the newest Mike Judge film called "Idoicracy." (B) Not a whole lot of note went on this day.

On Friday, Chris, Hiedi, and I got up relatively early and drove to the Alligator River NWR, back on the "mainland." The the wildlife refuge key attraction seemed to be its many waterways, canals, streams for canoeing or kayaking. We didn't have any floatation devices with us, so we went for a hike along the Sandy Ridge Trail. It should have been called the Buggy Ridge Trail. All the bugs nearly carried the three of us away. They were persistent little buggers. Chris spotted a cool little frog.

Meanwhile, back on the outer banks, Chad and Helen rented a two-person kayak and cruised the Currituck Sound off of Duck (just north or Southern Shores). Chad said later that the water they explored was no more than 2-3 feet deep in most places.

At the Alligator River, the three of us were marching back to the car double-time. We'd seen some beautiful marsh flowers and some critters, but the bugs were too much. On the way back, we made a stop for ice cream and fresh seafood at the local market. Hiedi was collecting ingredients for dinner.

I took the Integra for a spin over to the post office, and found that it hadn't liked sitting still for the last four days. The white wonder stalled a couple times at red lights. It was as though the fuel line were a little clogged, or maybe the filter. Whatever it was, I was sure that nothing had completely broken, as the problem went away after driving another twenty minutes or so. Perhaps I could give click and clack a call, it is Sunday morning after all...

We all returned to the house later in the afternoon and shared stories of our trips. Poolside. After a long pool session, Hiedi made dinner for us all. Red snapper, broiled shrimp, green beans, and coconut rice. The group of us were pleased with the results. After a short food-coma, we played round-robin style Taboo, which is a lot of fun after a couple glasses of wine.

Saturday. We spent the bulk of the afternoon Saturday on the beach, watching the tide come in and napping. A little nerf football. A dip or two in the ocean. A whole lot of sunblock. We watched pelicans fly by in formation. I read Sterling Hayden's autobiography and day-dreamed about ocean voyages. Napoleon the chihuahua came back. A bit later, a white escort station wagon pulled up and claimed him.

In the evening we drove to Henry's Beef and Seafood, which on the outside looked to be a nice seafood restaurant. In reality, the place was a little divey. The waitresses had a pronounced southern accent. Overall I'd say the place gets a B-. Afterwards, Chad, Helen, and I went to Lost Treasure Mini-Golf for eighteen holes. Being a Saturday night, the place was a little crowded. What was unique about this spot was the train-ride one had to take before the competitive putting. The train would whisk the golfers around the putting courses before dropping them off at the start-point. We stopped for ice cream on the way home.

Later in ther night, the group of us made one last trip to the moon-lit beach. The air was warm and the ocean calm. We stared out at the sea. I reflected on my trip, on how far I'd come and how far I had yet to go. I returned to the house to finish this blog and publish it when the laptop crashed. When I finally got it back working, I found that somehow half of the blog had vanished.

That brings me to this Sunday morning. I woke up a little early to re-write what had been lost. I have to pack the rest of my stuff in the Integra. Today I go to Washington D.C. to visit with my old San Mateo roomie Adam.

This trip is unbelievable. I've more or less managed to completely unplug here. I feel so fortunate and lucky to be able to do all this. I miss you all.

More soon.

Andy

To see all the OBX pictures: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcMnLVq3aN2Hh