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As we had had numerous adventures over the past days, we just stayed home and did homey little things in our PJs this morning. Below, the girls did their nails (a frequent occurrence).
Jody caught up on some correspondence, while I continued reading "Consilience" (highly recommended). That's me in the hammock in the background.
We were ready for something different, so we got on our bikes and further investigated the island. We encountered a gift shop entirely devoted to all things pirate. It had a Blackbeard exhibit, which was unfortunately closed for remodeling. However, we did catch this image of the ghost of Blackbeard checking on the construction progress.
This is most everyone's all time favorite picture to date. It was taken by Jody, and processed by Joya. This is the front porch of our bike rental/ice cream shop, which we visited daily. We bought ice creams, of course (every day), but we also asked lots of questions of the various folks who we found working behind the counter. We found a pleasant young man who was very forthcoming about life on the island -- although he was not the business owner. The next day, we met the owner: a woman who had spent the last 24 years on the island and was the mother of the young man we had met earlier. Most people on the island worked 4 jobs, largely because there is a labor shortage on the island, but also because it is all seasonal work, and many people are related -- cousins, aunts and uncles abound here. Unless you are a fisherman or a ferry worker (lots of residents are one or the other), you earn all your yearly living during the 13 weeks of summer/high season. Most businesses close entirely for the other 8 months, and many of the populace travel or otherwise live their lives.
Blackbeard reportedly had a woman in every one of his 13 frequented ports of call. Below one of his harlequins is caught on her way to a rendezvous.
See Doug and Jody Go On a Date! As Jody and I had not properly celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, we went out to dinner -- alone. One of our favorite restaurants in the known universe is the Backporch Restaurant, right on Ocracoke and within walking distance of our campground. We dined like kings and queens on Sea Bass with Smoked Tomatoes and Tomatillo Sauce, Crab Cakes with Sweet Red Pepper Sauce, and Coconut Cream Pie. We talked nonstop, like we had not seen each other in months. It was grand. Our waitress was one of the locals who we pumped for islander information. In addition to waitressing, she taught school during the day at the elementary school (68 students, K through 12). She was "an O'Neal", one of the big families here. She had been born here, but traveled often -- she said she was a wanderer. She had been here for 2 years now, but was off to move to Alaska for a stint as a teacher for a year or two. Our waitress, Joan O'Neal, took this shot.
The girls had stayed home, made their own dinner, and watched a DVD on the computer. When we returned from dinner, they were still watching, so we watched the last 30 minutes or so with them before retiring to the 'guest room': we (Doug and Jody) were back to sleeping in the van. |
