Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2003, during Mattie's first trip to the Outer Banks. We took Mattie to North Carolina with Peter's parents who were standing right next to me by this wading pool. That day we ventured to the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. We all had our hands in the pool to touch one of the sting rays. As you can see Mattie was sharing some commentary with me about this experience.
Quote of the day: When you reach out to those in need, do not be surprised if the essential meaning of something occurs. ~ Stephen Richards
We ventured to the Northern part of the Island to see Duck and Corolla today. We haven't seen these areas in almost a decade. Duck is where we used to stay years ago! However, even back then we were growing concerned with the area's development trends and feared that by the time we came back to vacation here, we wouldn't recognize the region. So a part of us was a bit leery to return to the Outer Banks again. Thankfully today was a pleasant surprise, we found not a lot had changed! Though I realize we are hitting the area a bit off peak before schools are out and the mass exodus of summer tourists flock into the houses and rentals! Which makes it delightfully pleasant and NOT congested with people and traffic! One thing is consistent.... people are SO friendly and I simply love the trusting nature of the people on the beach with us. I am referring to the tourists. It is as if on vacation, they lose their minds. They leave their car keys and cell phones on benches for the world to have access to and walk away with. The hysterical notion around here is NO one seems to touch anyone else's property. I personally get a kick out of this because in DC, these keys and phones would be gone in a matter of seconds!
I love lighthouses and therefore seeing them and learning about their history are very special to me! A love I tried to share with Mattie early on.
Unlike city shopping, here shop keepers want to you talk with you. In one shop the woman learned that we haven't visited the Outer Banks in ten years. That we used to vacation here with Mattie but then he died from cancer. Now after all these years, we have returned to the region. Mind you I did not start with this dialogue. Nor did I have the intention of sharing that at all. Rather, we started talking about her shop. About the fact that she is a public school teacher who has to work three jobs because they do not pay her adequately enough. We then moved onto the fact that she has three children and is a single mom. One thing lead to another and the conversation moved to hardships and so forth. When I told her about our situation she felt awful and then felt I helped her put her situation into perspective. Again, that wasn't my intention. Needless to say, we had a delightful conversation, I bought some lovely pieces of jewelry in her store (which I had done in previous years too) and to my surprise, she also gave me a gift. She wanted me to know that she felt deeply for our loss and included something in my bag for me. When I got back to our condo, we looked inside and it was a beautiful heart shaped hand blown piece of glass. Again, the lovely people we meet along the coast line of North Carolina. It seems to be a trend!
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