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The Perfect Day
Text By Bonnie
Brown |
| You have an entire day before you.
It’s your favorite weather, you don’t have to be at work, your health
is good and you are feeling fine, with no pressing obligations, and some extra
money in your pocket that you can spend any way you want. What would you
do? |
My perfect day starts with a cup of coffee and a
newspaper on the back porch. When the rest of the family wakes up we go
to the Kitty Hawk Pier for breakfast. Afterward we take a nice long walk on the
beach. When we get home we go out on the boat and hang around the sound for a
few hours, and then we head to Rundown Café for burgers. John and the
kids have plans for the afternoon so I get to curl up with a book. By
dinnertime, everyone is home for the evening. We throw some fish on the grill
and spend time enjoying each others’ company. |
| Deborah Kuchta, Manager, Outer Banks Insurance Agency,
Inc. |
I’ve just finished up a busy weekend.
It’s Monday morning. My wife, Eden, and Bailey, our beagle, and I are up
early heading to our home away from home, Ocracoke. When we get to the
Oregon Inlet Bridge a feeling of peacefulness and relief comes over us. The
trip down Hatteras Island, with the sun rising over the Atlantic and the
beautiful Pamlico Sound to my right, is something I always enjoy. When we reach
Hatteras Inlet and hop on the ferry, the weekend’s stress is totally
forgotten. We head to the cottage and then directly to my boat. I pick up some
squid, ice, and a few beverages at the Anchorage Marina; we fish a few hours
and catch some nice gray trout. We head back to the marina, pick up a few
friends and we’re on our way to Portsmouth Island, crossing over Ocracoke
Inlet. Dolphins are everywhere. We anchor off the beach, just inside the inlet,
where we spend the afternoon shelling and just hanging out. We head back to
Ocracoke and go directly to the Jolly Roger. The sun is just setting over
Silver Lake...what a day! |
| Greg Honeycutt, Owner, Ocean Atlantic
Rentals |
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For a perfect day, I would enjoy the natural
beauty of the Outer Banks! I would head out to the cool, calm waters of
the Albemarle Sound on my boat. I would pack a cooler full of food and drinks,
our fishing poles and a bunch of toys for my daughter, Gretchen. My husband,
daughter and I would leave Colington Harbour, stopping along the way to pick up
a few friends. We would spend the day sunning, swimming, fishing and crabbing,
not returning to the dock until after viewing a beautiful Outer Banks sunset.
I’d spend the evening on my porch, with family and friends, enjoying good
food, good company and a beautiful star-filled sky. |
| Linda Hess, General Manager, Ocean Vacations |
It would be a summer day, clear and calm.
I’d watch the sun come up over the ocean, sorta just like I have thousands
of times since I moved to my beachfront home in Southern Shores nearly 20 years
ago. The ocean would be calm with a gentle breeze from the east. I grab a
pre-packed goody bag, some sunscreen, my 16-weight fly rod and some big
saltwater flies. One of the Oregon Inlet guys I used to get to fish with —
John or Sam or Marty or Tony or Kenny, or maybe even my nephew, Sean, would be
waiting anxiously at the dock and off we’d go to the Gulf Stream.
(I’m sure that they would have liked to have left the marina earlier.)
We’d pull hookless teasers hoping to raise a
billfish that we could “tease” into range with successive bait
take-aways so that I could cast a fly to him. There he is! Left teaser! Little
blue marlin! He teases in well, madder each time we crank — jerks the
hookless bait from his mouth, all lit up now, he’s right at the stern of
the boat, maybe a hundred pounds. Boat out of gear, out of the water comes the
teaser, into the backwash goes the fly, strip it a couple of times — he
sees it! Crossing left to right! He’s got it, no hook set required, line
comes tight, no drag. Whoa, there he goes, rod only slightly bent, no pressure
on him. Pop. He’s gone. Rats! A slow crank-in brings back only the fly
line and butt section, and a little bit of the twenty-pound-test tippet
section. Probably just touched the tippet with his raspy bill. On this day,
he’s the only one we see. We’re all happy on the way home, though,
just having gotten to see him “up close and personal” on the strike.
I’ll probably have a couple of beers and enjoy the ride; and I’ll
replay it in my mind over and over. There’s only one thing that would have
made it the really Perfect Day. I’m sure you know what that would have
been. |
| Mickey Hayes, President, Kitty Hawk Land Company;
Developer of The Currituck Club in Corolla |
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The day’s journey would have a wonderful
slow pace to it so that everything could fully be enjoyed, and it would
be shared with my family and close friends. Breakfast starts the day at the
Nags Head Fishing Pier so that I can see the ocean and smell the salt breezes.
Next would be a stroll through the Elizabethan Gardens — all the flowers
would be showing off their colors and the air would be soft and fragrant. Lunch
would be at one of the restaurants on the causeway. I would choose the
“seafood of the day” and watch the life on the sound and the rhythm
of the water. Art galleries and bookstores are two of my weaknesses. It would
be wonderful to have the time to enjoy them and come home with a few treasures.
Dinner would be prepared by my boyfriend, who has spoiled me with his cooking.
It would be served on my deck along with a glass of red wine. Candlelight would
enhance the evening and we could hear the wind move through the trees and
softly play with the wind chimes. The day would end with a hot bubble bath and
a good book. |
| Melanie Smith, Owner, Seaside Art Gallery |
It would take more sunshine, less wind and about
ten bucks in my pocket for me to have a perfect day. But a day with no
pressing obligations? Does anyone have one of those days? I guess you’d
just have to pull a Miss Scarlett and worry about that tomorrow. For sure, I
would sleep an extra hour on my perfect day. I live on the oceanfront and
it’s great having that first cup of coffee on the deck while watching and
listening to the beach birds fish for their breakfast. I would linger there in
the sun’s warmth for an extra cup of brew while reading the morning paper.
Then I would spend at least two hours pam- pering myself, and maybe even put on
mascara. And the ten bucks? That’s for a two-hour lunch catching up with
what’s happening with a good friend at either Tortugas’ Lie, Chilli
Peppers, or the Flying Fish. By the time lunch is over, I should be feeling
really shiftless and ready for an hour’s stroll on the beach with my
husband. Then it would be back to the deck for an hour or so reading a new
Stuart Woods thriller. As my perfectly lazy day comes to a close, I’ll
pull out my gourmet food magazine, Bon Appetit. And with my husband as co-chef,
we’ll prepare a meal so elegant as to surpass some of the Outer
Banks’s finest restaurant offerings. |
| Jewel Bond, Writer |
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The perfect day on the Outer Banks, hmmm. . .
That would have to be spent on a secluded beach with a peach-colored sun
umbrella, a brand new, very large, thick terrycloth peach-colored beach
towel (washed twice to bring up the nap and lessen the lint), with a delicious
gourmet lunch that must have a great dessert. The water would be jade green,
very warm with large well-formed waves, but soft waves (not crashing). I would
stay in the water most of the time (sans bathing suit). When not swimming,
I’d eat, nap and read. Just before sunset, I’d gather a bunch of
friends and board Brad Leohr’s (Zephyr Charters) boat and take a sunset
cruise on the sound with Dom Perignon Champagne and dinner (again, with
dessert). After dinner I’d go overboard and paddle around in the sound
until nearly dark. After returning home, I’d take a long Jacuzzi soak,
crawl into bed and dream about the next time I’d have such a perfect
day. |
| Gail Kowalski, Owner, Jewelry By Gail |
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