One good thing about the shoreline here is that it is considered public property so anyone can access the beach. We find it so annoying when in many other states, people own their beach front property making a part of the beach inaccessible to us.
During the summer season, the entire Outer Banks must come alive with vacationers. Right now, most of the homes we passed were boarded up for the winter months, their For Rent signs hanging expectantly for the next season.
Seafood is obviously popular, whether sold in small seafood markets, or featured in restaurants with some type of sea reference in their name - Dick's Crab House, The Blue Crab Tavern.As we walked to the Wright Brothers National Memorial, we passed many homes with crab pots stacked up in their yards. Crabbing must be quite an enterprise if not pastime. Likewise, wherever there is a bit of water, you will see fishermen hoping to get lucky.
In every direction, there is water, if not the pounding surf, then a silvery lagoon with marsh grasses. Many here have property on the water. And on the days we have been here, the sky and water have been the same piercing blue.
We are definitely in the South - just listen to the way folks talk! They speak in a sing-song lilt that can be rather catching. I find that it also sounds very friendly. And so far, everyone we have spoken to is very friendly, courteous and very polite. I have never been addressed with "Yes, ma'am" and "Thank YOU ma'am" as much as I have these last couple of days.
North Carolina's OBX seems like a happy, sunny, relaxed place, and "Y'all have a good day now, ya hear!".