|
|
 |
The Perfect
Day
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 husband,
Doug, brings me coffee to sip in bed while I wake up gazing from my windows at
the sound. I go downstairs in my sparkling clean and orderly house where my
daughters Frieda and Lucy are preparing breakfast – Lucy’s strawberry
banana smoothie and Frieda’s wholegrain bread and soy Cheddar start my
day. Since the laundry and grocery shopping are done (I love this fantasy), I
can concentrate on the menu for that night when we have friends and family over
for dinner on the porch. The girls and I shop in the morning; we buy strawberry
lip gloss and satiny hand creams and test lots of perfumes on our wrists up to
our elbows. Doug joins us for turkey and bacon sandwiches and oatmeal and dried
cherry cookies from The Good Life, then we go home, where my family changes
into bathing suits and leaves for the beach. I stay in the air-conditioned den
on the comfy couch reading a book plus my favorite magazines — The New
Yorker, Vanity Fair, and US News. With my teenagers out of the house, I feel
free to put on the CDs I enjoy…(we have, ahem, different tastes). I dance
around a bit, steam some shrimp, and cut some flowers from Doug’s garden
for the table. Everyone comes home, our guests arrive, we set a table full of
stuffed mushrooms, crab dip, bruschetta, shrimp and Utz potato chips, and we
open the wine. We continue on through the evening…we eat way too much,
laugh a lot, and say goodnight to a truly pleasant day. |
| — Bonnie Brown, Public
Relations Coordinator, Regional Medical Center; Writer |
Photo by Steve Alterman |
| That’s easy! My wife, Ann,
and I would be on our boat, a sportfisher, from sun-up to sundown. Fishing!
Sometimes we take a bottle of wine and a chef’s salad with us; on this day
we would spend the day fishing on the boat, then boat over to Manteo, have
dinner at 1587 and spend the night at the Tranquil House Inn. |
| — Jack Williams,
Billboard Artist |
A day all to
myself on the Outer Banks… I’ve had it lined up in my head for as
long as I can remember. I am up early and headed to the beach with my book that
I have been reading for a year…I read in my spare time. A few hours with
the sunrise and a little sun and I am off the beach by noon. I head to Mama
Kwan’s Grill and Tiki Bar (my favorite lunch spot) for the best seafood
tacos and a few laughs with my friends who work there. Then it’s time to
head back home to the animals Max, Mozart and Buddy. Max is my lab — we
hang out together in the yard, I pull some weeds and water the hydrangeas,
expecting them to look someday as good as they do in the gardening books. I
still have the afternoon ahead of me. I get back in the car and head up to
Total Communications at The Marketplace to sit for a while with “the
girls,” where we enjoy some laughs and conversation and advice about
“self-preservation” from my dear friend Dee. I’ll spend the rest
of the day looking for a charity event that WVOD can promote…something for
someone else always makes me feel like I didn’t waste the day doing
nothing. |
| — Lynn M. Capogrossi,
General Sales Manager, 99.1 The Sound |
Photo by Steve Alterman |
| It’s 4:30 a.m. and my wife
and dogs think I’m crazy. But the perfect day has to begin with an Outer
Banks sunrise — preferably somewhere around Cape Hatteras. So I’m off
on the hour-plus ride from Duck, south across the Bonner Bridge toward the Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse. The photographic opportunities were better before the
lighthouse was moved, but it’s still a spectacular place to watch a new
day begin. With a little luck, the sky and water will explode into a
kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors and patterns. |
| Then it’s on to Hatteras
Village to catch an early ferry ride to Ocracoke. Time to relax, eat some
fruit, and watch the gulls, pelicans and egrets that line the shores. After
landing, the short twelve-mile ride to Ocracoke Village takes me past beautiful
beaches and marshland. And the village itself is a great place to walk and
photograph in a place that is far removed from the activity of the Nags Head
area. Trying to find a new angle to shoot the bright white Ocracoke Lighthouse
is always a challenge. Time for a late breakfast or early lunch usually lands
me at The Pelican in the heart of town. |
| Retracing my steps across the
island and on the ferry, I stop once again at Cape Hatteras Light — this
time to climb to the top for a spectacular view of the surrounding area. A
short break to watch the windsurfers at Canadian Hole or the wildlife at Pea
Island is the only break on the way home. It’s now mid-afternoon and time
to do what I do best — nap. |
| After re-acquainting with my
wife, we top off the day with a leisurely dinner at Ocean Boulevard, followed
by a late-night trip to the hot tub. |
| If only every day could be that
perfect! |
| — Steve Alterman, D.C.
Attorney; Cargo Airline Association President; esteemed Edge
photographer |
My idea of a
perfect day starts like this: sleep late — no 4 a.m. alarm clock! First
I’d wander into my teensy garden to see how my tomatoes and hot pepper
plants are doing. I’ll even pull some weeds just to be virtuous. Then my
husband, Joe, and I would pack up a bag and walk to the beach. We’d take
the fishing poles, but if they sat perched in their holders next to us with the
line thrown out for an hour at a time, that would be OK, too. We’d bring
some chilled wine, and after a while I’d walk to John’s Drive-In for
a couple of fried dolphin sandwiches. Then, after a few hours of reading,
napping and collecting shells, we’d collect our things and stop at
Frisco’s for some steamed shrimp and the week’s gossip. Then
we’d head home — pleasantly tired from the sun — grill up some
fresh fish and corn, watch a good movie and play Scrabble. Boring? Maybe —
but it sounds like heaven to me. |
| — Marsha Bacenko, Owner,
Max’s Real Bagels; Writer |
Jogging down the beach already sparkling in the early morning
sunlight, with the rising sun brilliant before me and the cool breeze starting
to dissipate to the expected warm 80s of the day, I am already savoring the
anticipation of a day relaxing on the beach. |
| After finishing my jog with the
traditional walk out on the dock to enjoy the breeze and view over the sound, I
am treated to a show by the river otters that are fishing and playing in the
shallow water in front of me. Then I change into beach attire, pack munchies
and a couple of homemade cherry cokes into a small softside cooler, and head
for a less-populated spot on the beach to spend a few hours baking in the sun
(with sunscreen, of course) and devouring a long overdue sci-fi novel.
Ahhhh! |
| About mid-afternoon my husband
and kids arrive with boogie boards (just as I was thinking about a cooling
dip). We all take to the water to “ride the waves” for the next hour
or so. Then it’s home for a bit until we meet our friends for dinner at
one of our favorite restaurants, like the Red Drum in Nags Head. We still get
back to the house in time to catch the spectacular late evening sunset over the
sound from the back deck. |
| What a day! |
| — Dana Walker, MD, Urgent
Care/Family Medicine Practitioner, Beach Medical Care in Kitty Hawk
|
Photo by Heather Hagler |
| The perfect day on the edge of the
world…the Jeep is packed and we are ready for an early departure. Our
destination: day trip to Ocracoke Island. My sidekicks, Mary Ann (after three
cups of Southern Bean java), and Phoenix and Boo, our dogs, are awake and ready
for adventure. The top is down. We drive down the Beach Road and because it is
early, the sun has risen over the ocean and the people who drive 20 miles an
hour on the Beach Road have not. We’re cruising. I pass by my office and
make a common driving hand gesture. I wave, longing for the open road. We pass
over the Oregon Inlet Bridge and it does not collapse. The day is off to a
great start. |
| We hit the ferry and there is no waiting line.
The water is calm and the sun is warm through our open-top Jeep. We run the
gauntlet and escape the many near hits of Doritos and bread-by-products aimed
at us by the sea gulls. Perfect aim the seagulls do not have today. |
| We arrive on Ocracoke and the island is
deserted. There, fine white-powder beaches as far as we can see. Ball aerobics
for the dogs, reading for Mary Ann, and a chance to let my mind go into neutral
are the activities for the rest of the day. We depart the beach, as the sun and
sky turn orange off to the west. |
| We drive north and I am reminded, for some
reason, of the final scene from the movie “Raising Arizona.”
Don’t know what I mean? Rent the movie. |
| — Gene Williams, General
Sales Manager, Charter Communications |
My perfect day would begin without any deadlines, any work, and
my cell phone would be turned off. The day would have no alarm clocks and I
would rise feeling rested. The temperature would be 93.8. I would start the day
with a cup of coffee from Southern Bean, my grandmother would be serving
Zonkies, an old family favorite, and, of course, Mimosas. |
| My family would gather from the
ends of the earth and be with me. Paige, my 4-year-old granddaughter, would be
with me from the get-go. We’d start with a trip to Eden Spa and Mary would
work her magic with our hair. Then, off to another favorite, the Sanderling Inn
Spa, where Paige and I have our toes done and make appointments for massages in
the afternoon. We then go back home, everyone is ready (a miracle indeed), and
we caravan to the beach in Corolla, unload the kids and Boo and Phoenix, the
dogs, and begin to play in earnest. Gene would throw the ball for the dogs, and
I would read while my sisters Becky and Michelle waited on me hand and foot.
|
| Our picnic lunch would be my
mother’s chicken, ice-cold beer, and my mother-in-law’s country ham
biscuits. And since this is a “perfect day,” there would be no
“emergencies” — my father and father-in-law would not have eaten
everything before we arrived. |
| We head home just in time for
cocktails on the veranda, and marvel at the beautiful sunset, which rivals
sunsets across the world. Paige and I have our massages at the Spa; at home we
enjoy the second miracle of the day: everyone is ready to go out. We meet six
— no, twelve — of our closest friends for the perfect martini, then
we’re off for an evening of fine dining and wine. Starting with duck
confit, we eat our way across the Banks. Being the publisher of The Restaurant
Guide, I have so many favorite restaurants — some of the finest in the
world are here. The evening would be Grand and Big. Everyone behaves — the
kids, as well as my brothers Steve, Louis and Bobby. My son Paul and his wife,
Debbie, would let Paige stay another week, even though two weeks would be
better. My daughter Angela will help if Paige gets homesick. |
| Finally, with everyone off to
bed, I would be alone with my best friend, Gene, who’s also my husband. As
you can tell, family, friends and this incredible place mean everything to me.
My grandfather in Utah used to say that he lived “in God’s
country”; he should have lived on the Outer Banks. |
| — Mary Ann Willliams,
Publisher, 3 Dog Ink |
|
 |
|
