Four nights by the sea
We really hadn't planned a second beach vacation just a year after our Pawleys Island excursion,
but when I started getting crabby in the middle of this past summer, we
decided something to anticipate would be good for morale. Pawleys
Island was Mark's childhood haunt, so it seemed like we should visit my
old stomping grounds this time around for balance. My family
always used to hare off to camp on Ocracoke every summer, but Mark and I
instead opted to stay in a beach-front condo in Rodanthe, an hour's
drive and a ferry ride further north up the island chain.
I
was excited to get to enjoy Outer Banks waves again, since Pawleys
Island's waterworks are puny in comparison. Unfortunately, a
dredger made swimming a bit different than I was used to since it
churned up masses of seaweed while harvesting sand to rebuild
hurricane-damaged dunes. I didn't mind swimming amid seaweed,
though (and I even stole a bagful for a garden experiment --- more on
that in a later post).
Either
Mark or I will regale you with the tale of our biggest adventure --- a
visit to the Wright Brothers National Memorial --- in a later
post. Otherwise, we mostly just soaked up the sounds of the ocean,
with occasional sunrise walks on the beach (for me), jaunts to the
seafood market (for Mark), and general relaxation. One of my
favorite events was a morning walk up the road to a little gift shop
where they baked fresh cinnamon buns, during which time I talked to the
lady in charge about the raccoon that had shown up on her porch and
about local sights. I never quite caught the lady's name, but I'm
still thinking of sending her a postcard since I felt like if we'd
stayed longer, she and I might have become friends.
Kayla dropped by to check
on the animals once during our five-day absence, and it sounded like
the only problem was a few broken eggs in one nest box. The ducks
miraculously learned to use their own nest box right before we left, so
the sea of eggs we came home to was mostly clean-shelled, and the
opossum who came to visit while we were 
gone
was eliminated by Lucy. We even arrived back home in time to
scurry around for about an hour before dark Saturday evening preparing
for the first-frost-that-didn't-quite-happen.
Mark and I both agreed
that our farm is even more beautiful than the ocean...but that we might
not have enjoyed its current beauty as thoroughly if we'd never left
home. Next year, we might be due for a staycation, or perhaps
we'll explore something else entirely --- the Outer Banks was fun, but
the landscape was almost too familiar for me. I like vacations to
be an adventure, so we'll have to put on our thinking caps for next
year!
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
- Remove comment
).
- Remove comment
- Remove comment