More observations about the Outer Banks week:
1) Robert's family is Methodist, and the wedding itself was Baptist, as was the bride. I had never been to a Baptist wedding before, nor one held on a beach where all the guests and wedding party took their shoes off and went barefoot. (Somehow, the phrase "Baptist beach wedding" just sounds wrong.) Going barefoot made a great deal of sense, given the sand and warmth of the day.
Baptist weddings are dry, something I'm really not familiar with, having been raised Catholic where a wedding without beer is like . . . well, a Baptist wedding. The reception was very nice, but where's the bar? I had to face about 100 people, none of whom I knew, without the social lubricant of a stiff gin and tonic. That said, Southerners are gracious and really know how to throw a party. I would guess that when they have beer, the parties are even better.
2) The beach houses on the Outer Banks are giganto-normous. They tend to be three stories tall, though sometimes that's midleading because so many of them are on stilts in case of the flooding that must occur when hurricanes blow through. (In some cases, houses are four stories tall.) They tend to be rented by multiple families for a week or so, given that the average square footage of the average beach house is maybe 3000 square feet.
They're made of wood, of course, and either painted in appealing pastels or left to bleach to a silvery gray. Being made of wood, they are undoubtedly as fragile as the dunes they sit on, and when the next hurricane roars through, I'll be willing to bet that entire little towns are going to disappear into Pamlico Sound. I understand that the federal government will no longer ensure houses built on the Outer Banks because the risk factor is just too high. I'm surprised that developers were allowed to build so much in the first place. The Outer Banks are overbuilt, and the Department of the Interior has had to insist that long stretches remain off-limits to building so that the ecosystem can retain some of its pristine nature intact. Occasionally beaches are closed to walkers and swimmers, too, in order to allow sea turtles to lay eggs and birds to establish nests--a slightly annoying but necessary and ultimately wise decision.
3) The Outer Banks are mostly treeless, thugh there are low scrubby pines in various groves where they've been able to establish a beachhead. In addition, there are all kinds of low plants, shrubs, and grasses that have grown wherever they've been able to--or perhaps where they've been planted by the Department of the Interior in an attempt to hold the dunes down. Because of the constant winds off the ocean, nothing grows very tall, and everything leans in toward the sound. There's something really appealing about this arrangement, but I can't put my finger on what it is--maybe the huge expanse of sky you get because trees don't block the view and the long sight lines that you get because the coastal plain is so very flat.
4) Okracoke Island is an isolated island in the Banks and makes for a splendid day trip. You get there by taking car ferry (drive your car right onto the ferry and get out for the duration of the half-hour trip) and then driving it to the village of Okracoke. There's not a lot there, and I suspect that this is the appeal of the place. You can look at a lighthouse, buy fish from the local fishing cooperative, and check out the wild ponies that have roamed the island for centuries. The beaches on the island are reputed to be among the best in the country, and they are really isolated. It's very possible to be the only person on them for miles.
Okracoke does have plenty of day-trippers, and I wonder what it must have been like in the early part of the 20th century when it existed in splendid isolation. There's something about living in such a place as this, though my guess is the reality was it must have been difficult and boring. Febraury on Okracoke? I don't think so, thanks.
5) The Outer Banks has a number of lighthouses. I personally don't see what all the fuss is about lighthouses, but they are popular for reasons that sort of escape me. (I bet it's the same "splendid isolation" principle at work; see above.) The most famous one is Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which you may know was moved 1/4 of a mile inland when the encroaching ocean threatened its base. It cannot be easy to move a lighthouse.
6) Where the Outer Banks really shines, however, is in the number of Wings reatail outlets. Wings is a local t-shirt and trinket shop that has taken over the place. There is a huge Wings (and I do mean huge) about every half-mile in any part of the Banks that is populated. Need a shell keychain? Elvis t-shirt? Crab paraphernalia? Wings has you covered and then some.
7) The OBX (this is how locals refer to it) is windy. Very windy. This is why it's a major site for hang-gliding and windsurfing. In addition, it's where the Wright brothers launched the aviation age when they flew a plane a Kitty Hawk. The National Historic Monument in honor of their achievement is well done, but I have to admit that it's unimpressive in that what you really want to see is a plane like theirs take off. Static dioramas on the subject just can't capture how amazing that flight must've been. (The first flight was actually a very short distance, amybe about 100 feet. But amazing enough.)
8) I hope to go back to the OBX next summer for a Partners in the Parks gig.
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