The house was a big, blue, three floored vacation home, equipped with an in house movie theater and pool table. Guitars, both acoustic and electric, leaned on walls awaiting performace or sing along. A kitchen counter became our stocked bar. A wine fridge was filled with beer, and the cabinets were teeming with supplies. We were ready. Hurricane Ophelia threatened the forecast from day one, making family, friends, guests, and future guests nervous about our continued fun. But she stalled, broke up, and held back from raining on our blue skied sunshine. The pool, perfect for shoulder stretching laps or refreshing wades, cooled our sun tanned and burned skin. The jacuzzi, under the sun, stars (and a couple showers Thursday night) was set at a ripe 101 degrees, soothed aches from long peddles on rented cruisers, not to mention countless drink lifting. The grounds, though managed a little early on Wednesday, held lush green grass, bordered by a wild match of shrub, vine, and cordgrass.
The wooden path of a dock, tipped with furnished gazebo, pointed out into the estuarial coast of the Currituck Sound. Low tide revealed a marshland swing club of gulls, terns, and heron. Wet sand puddles and exposed grasses caused skiddish fish and crabs to run and hide from the hungry prying bills. When the tide did come in kayaks made their way through the waters and out into the sunset.
The sunsets were magnificient. Whether watching the pinkening clouds from the top deck for the wide angle or from the more intimate gazebo, we watched each dusk come as if it were the last Ophelia would let us have on our week long hang in NC.
On more than one evening, as we sat at the pier's end watching the sun go down, we were visited by a muskrat and a red fox. Later in the week, two fox came up to the backyard putting green to get a better look at the gawkers. They were not disappointed. Nature is in no short supply on Duck Road. Though it is fairly well travelled, black swans, great herons, snakes, fox and several species of birds seem to find their home among the tourists.
Late night performances of James "Spack" Boland's "Bert & Ernie's Honeymoon" highlighted the high times and merriment that were our North Carolina nights. Guitar loops in the background as the pool balls fell. Movies projected in our own private screening room. A late night poker game at a table big enough for twelve. The table where we all sat down for dinner most every night. No arguments. No politics. Just vacation. In a little town separating the sea and the sound. A town called Duck.
