What’s your hurry? NC beach vacations force us to slow down and meet good people
For working folks, nothing is less motivating than going to work the day after a holiday.
I have a solution. What if all holidays moved to Fridays? North Carolinians could start their three-day weekends with gifts and big meals — and then have two days to recover without the curse of a morning alarm tone.
Gov. Roy Cooper might veto this silly proposal to move holidays to Fridays, but unpack the holiday decor and count on the veto override!
Something needs to be done to improve North Carolina’s post-holiday malaise. Or at least mine.
How else can I explain Wednesday morning? Why was I so tired when all of our energy on the Fourth of July went towards relaxing?
Granted, we were on the Outer Banks for the July 1-2 weekend, doing our best to knock everything off News & Observer reporter Martha Quillin’s must-do beaches list. And then some.
We climbed the sun-pounded dunes at Jockey’s Ridge State Park, splashed in the waves near Kitty Hawk Pier, and walked hand-in-hand on the beach as the sun snuck above the hazy horizon. We even saw a slightly irritated ghost crab weaving its way home after a night of, well, avoiding people like us.
Cue the lighthouses. This was the complete OBX summer experience,
We got caught in traffic. (Everywhere — including the Target parking lot.)
We bought T-shirts.
We stood in line at Duck Donuts.
And stood. And stood.
Slow down, what’s your hurry?
That’s another tradition of Carolina beaches in the summertime. You’re constantly waiting. In traffic. In restaurants. Even when catching a wave.
We showed up eight minutes before Henry’s Restaurant opened its doors on Sunday morning and found ourselves eighth and ninth in line — much to the not-so-hidden chagrin of a Henry’s regular who found himself in the 10th menu spot. (If only he hadn’t spent time backing his truck into a parking space between two trucks backed into their parking spaces.)
Damn us for being tourists with non-local parking tendencies. No wonder the marketing slogan at Bob’s Grill in nearby Kill Devil Hills is “Eat and Get The Hell Out!”
Apologies if this feels like passive complaining. It’s OBX in the summertime. You’re going to wait in lines.
But waiting can be the best way to slow down and absorb the essence of North Carolina. Mountains or beaches, no matter where in the state, you meet good folks.
There was Nathan, the barista at Target Starbucks, catching up on a long line of drink orders while not missing a smile. And the Gray’s Outer Banks employee who helped a picky customer by tracking down a special T-shirt at another store. And every person who refilled our water glasses or shared local knowledge.
So, all of us are guilty of letting our minds chill when it’s time to return to the office in the middle of a holiday week. But we’re justified.
In the Triangle last week, the news arrived in varying degrees of complexities and reactions. The N&O’s Chantal Allam wrote about major development projects in Durham, and Teddy Rosenbluth reported on how consumers could be affected by North Carolina’s Medicaid expansion.
Readers, though, also showed interest in stories on stinging Portuguese man-of-wars found on a state beach and an uninhabited North Carolina island.
Our digital audience analytics prove it’s not me. It’s you.
I’m at my laptop, trying to find 585 spiffy words worth your time. But your mind is still slathered in SPF 50.
Bill Church is executive editor of The News & Observer. He prefers holidays over Mondays.
This story was originally published July 8, 2023 at 5:30 AM with the headline "What’s your hurry? NC beach vacations force us to slow down and meet good people."
