We needed a vacation to recover from our vacation

I've never been to the Outer Banks before; in fact, before I met William, I'm pretty sure I'd never even heard of the place. After a week of crazily wandering all over New England and points south, I was happy to contemplate a week at the beach, but I was also fairly certain that I'd be bored in a day or so. WRONG. We had a splendid, wonderful, fabulous time, starting from the margaritas on Sunday night all the way through sunset the next Saturday.

Why Outer Banks? William's family owns a time-share condo there, they've had it for over 30 years and they go at least once and sometimes twice a year. It was great to see them again and VERY nice to have some other people around to talk to. The condo is right in the middle of a large complex of buildings: there are two swimming pools and hot tubs, walkways to the beach, and a clubhouse with organized activities (and wireless Internet, of course). We spent a good bit of time at the beach but it was ridiculously hot in the middle of the day so we usually went in the late afternoon. The water was relatively shallow and not too cold at the beginning of the week – it did get colder later on, though. The rest of the time we read, cooked, and sat. We sat on the balcony facing the ocean, we sat in the air conditioned living room, we sat on the deck and watched the kids in the swimming pool. We went to some of the bookstores and one of the coffee shops, and we bothered the manager of the wine and beer store until he ordered some Red Sky At Night for us. Not a strenuous week at all.

Finally, on Friday and Saturday, we ventured out so I could see more of the area. We went north on Friday, to Duck and Corolla, and walked around the wetlands preserve and the little restored village near the Currituck Lighthouse. On Saturday we headed south: all the way down Hatteras (with a stop for muffins) to the ferry that goes over to Ocracoke Island. We saw some of the wild ponies and the lighthouse, and looked at a few of the shops in the town of Ocracoke. It was wonderful to be in a place with not too many people and no 'chain' stores or restaurants; everything there is locally owned and even at the height of the summer you can still get around easily. Nearly everyone we met was friendly and welcoming and no one was in a particular hurry to get anywhere. We're going to try to go back in the off season sometime: I can't imagine what that's like.

So, that was the vacation from our vacation. The next stop is Virginia...