The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.” – Karen Blixen

Sunday morning, getting ready to head to the Outer Banks for a little R&R, Rebekah and I did still manage to worship with our church family – but we did it via YouTube and substituted coffee and cookies for the communion elements.

It felt both weird not to be there and also exactly the right thing.

So eventually we got packed and ready to go. The last time we rented an Airbnb was Christmas in Krakow and we arrived in Poland with two medium-sized suitcases and a backpack. This time Max is along for the ride and we managed to almost fill the entire SUV!

We weren’t in a rush. And this of course is the whole idea of our getaway – not rushing around. So we made sure to enjoy every view on the three-plus hour ride across to the Outer Banks and then down – through the long National Seashore – to Frisco on Hatteras Island, just a couple of miles before the ferry to Okracoke.

First we took a side trip over to the Bodie Island Lighthouse, one of a series of iconic warning beacons scattered along the length of the Outer Banks. The first iteration was built (poorly) in 1848 at 57-ft, rebuilt (properly) at 97 ft in 1859, destroyed by Confederate troops in 1861 and then finally rebuilt once again in 1872 as the 167.6 ft structure we see today.

We then stopped in Rodanthe for a really excellent seafood meal at the Good Winds restaurant. It didn’t take us long, over dinner, looking out over the still waters of the Pamlico Sound, to pick up the coastal vibe and slip into the easy rhythms of the Carolina Shore.

This is a remarkable state. We have reached up to almost touch the sky on Clingman’s Dome, we have chased waterfalls, splashed in rivers and boated in lakes, we have hiked trails and explored battlefields and learned history, and here on Hatteras Island (a 565 mile drive from those spectacular views near the Tennessee border, and through every possible elevation and terrain) the open vista of uninterrupted ocean runs thousands of miles all the way to North Africa to the east.

Stay tuned for stories and photographs from the Outer Banks. It’s going to be a good week – DEREK