Great Vacations At the Beach
Years ago a trip to the beach for us was a temporary escape from a high pressure job in the technology industry. Until they have lived the life, few appreciate how much pressure makes it home from a tough job.
We kept going farther and farther south on North Carolina’s Outer Banks until we found some places where the only phones were pay phones in the walkways to the beach.
Cell phone coverage was almost non-existent. It was a perfect place to escape the hundreds of emails that found their way into my inbox. I would spend my time standing in the surf catching a few fish or jumping waves with our children.
I remember a few things that made those vacations special.
- Civilization was far enough away than even teenagers could relax.
- It took me at least a week to really disconnect from my job.
- Situations which were close to consuming me lost importance.
- Nothing ever happened at work while I was gone on one of those vacations which made me regret my time away.
- Leaving was always hard to do.
We had the last of those vacations in 2004, but luckily we were able to get a second home on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast in 2006. As the years have quickly passed, North Carolina’s coast has become our only home. It has turned out to be a wonderful place to be close to nature. We seem to get enough city time on our visits with our children, and we rarely discover a need for something that we cannot find within a few miles of our paradise.
Recently we decided to take a trip back to the area that stretches from Ocracoke Island north to Nags Head. We really enjoyed ourselves, but we also found that much of the area seemed to have been invaded by just those things we were trying to escape.
It amazes me that we strive so hard to recreate the very things that have so troubled us.
My first trips to Ocracoke Island were in 1969 and I have been visiting Nags Head since before I could even remember it.
It is a wonderful area for those who never really experienced the feeling of being well beyond the mainland where the sounds are bigger than you can imagine and the Atlantic Ocean makes most of the decisions.