Duck, NC
Beach vacations for me are challenging on a number of fronts. For starters, I live at a beach (Virginia Beach, Virginia) so the notion of heading someplace 50 miles south as the seagull flies, so I can look at the same ocean lacks appeal. Plus, I’ve never been a big fan of ocean-based activities like surfing, fishing, paddle boarding and watching squishy tourists amble down the beach only to bend over in tight-fitting swimsuits to pick up broken shells.
In early August of this year, I spent a week at a beach house in Duck, NC. It was a modern cedar sided, oceanfront home with kitschy beach art adorning the walls, a pool with crab grass escaping from patio cracks and five bedrooms suitable for resting after a day of resting on a beach. Mind you it was a nice place; spacious and airy with ample views of the Atlantic. A peculiar phenomenon occurred every morning I was there. Upon waking, I would peer out the window to see a chorus of waves playing to over fifty empty beach chairs. Evidently, tourists felt the need to claim their spot in the wee hours of the morning to prevent competing tourist from stealing their place in the sun. It was odd site indeed: colorful empty chairs all facing east and nary a soul in site.
Come early for the best seats. In Duck, visitors feel the need to set up beach gear in the wee hours of the morning and evidently go back to bed,
But peace and quiet was short lived. Come around 9:30 am, a minor traffic jam of golf carts and ATVs loaded down with additional beach provisions and piloted by sunburnt visitors stormed the beach. Shortly thereafter, more folks waddled over the dunes and parked themselves in beach chairs while others tested the waters or lathered up for a day of baking in the sun. Kids squealed. Waves crashed. And beers were opened. In Duck, it must be five o’clock somewhere.
I wouldn’t call Duck a town. It’s more like a neighborhood of expensive and expansive beach houses near a mile-long strip of vacation rental home offices and touristy shops with names like “All Ducked Out,” “Ocean Annies,” “Flip Flop Shops,” and “We Winks Market” where a six back of domestic beer will set you a back a ten spot. Up until the early 80s, Duck was isolated and relatively unknown because the only way there to brave mud and sand trails. This didn’t stop waterfowl hunters and fisherman from flocking to Duck, so to speak. When Highway 12 made its way up into Duck development quickly followed. Thank goodness building restrictions prevented chain hotels and massive box stores from plopping down on this quaint, sliver of land. One category three hurricane could easily erase this place from the map. In some areas the distance from the sound to the ocean is maybe a 100 yards and elevation tops out at a two feet above sea level as long as you are standing on a bench somewhere.
The “downtown” where the stores and shops were located teemed with people peddling beach cruiser bikes while cars moved at a crab’s pace searching for parking spots. A quick scan of license plates reveals that Duck is popular with the northern set in search cheaper alternatives to The Hamptons or Nantucket. Still, a vacation rental home for one week in the summer on the “front row of the Atlantic” runs around seven grand Homes in the $20,000 / week range are available for those who are borderline crazy.
Most of the time, the view from the “front row” was of three bold, horizontal stripes. Bottom stripe was a tan, sand color. On top of that, ocean blue-green. On top of that, a hazy, light blue. That pretty much sums it up. Monotony was broken by the sight of brown pelicans skirting waves, surfers bobbing, and dogs chasing tennis balls. A quick glance to the left and right and I saw people sitting in chairs facing the ocean as if they were waiting for something to happen. Not much did. I guess that’s why they were there in the first place.
One of the benefits of a large vacation home on the beach is that it affords close interaction with family members. It’s a chance to catch up on old times and plan new ones; a time to enjoy each other’s company without the constant distractions of everyday life. Then again, the same could be said about a train car traveling from Zurich to Venice.