OBX: Saturday in Pictures

I sat in bed last Saturday morning, writing my previous post, thinking about the string of sunrise photographers I saw on the beach. How wonderful to be sharing a moment of silence with perfect strangers. 

I sat, scrolling through the photos, trying to write words, thinking about the pourover coffee I would make with David and Glenna when they roused themselves. 

When the text came through, I headed up and entered a room already smelling of freshly ground No. 46.

I love the ritual of pourover coffee. I love it more when I get to share it with friends. It becomes a sublime experience when you get to sit out on a balcony and look to the left and see this:

And to the right and see this:

We each sat with our coffee, our thoughts. We chatted intermittently, felt the rising sun on our cheeks.

Hard not to be joyful on a morning such as that.

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After going to the expo to get our packets, we headed north to Corolla to see my first North Carolina lighthouse. (I know - five years in North Carolina and nary a lighthouse yet visited? For shame.)

First, we stopped at the Coastal Provision Market in Duck for some local beer and killer crab cakes.

We sat at the bar and chatted with the server, scoped out our options for pre-race dinner. We left content and with a complimentary loaf of focaccia.

We set back north, winding along NC 12 under Carolina blue skies. We drove until we ran out of road, their Toyota wheeling up to sand. We looked at each other in confusion. Where was the lighthouse?

We turned around, winded back down south.

"Uh, there's the lighthouse." David pointed out Glenna's window.

Our momentary mystification evaporated when we saw the bend in the road, the towering pines that obscured it perfectly from one direction but yielded a spectacular view from another.

Looking at, climbing up, and on top, Currituck Beach Lighthouse was fascinating, stalwart against the fiercely blue, happy skies and fiercely blowing wind.
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Thoroughly chilled, we headed back down the spiral, into the car, and south again to Kill Devil Hills. We picked up some more beer, some playing cards, and headed to the hotel to welcome some more family. We trundled down the beach in full winter clothes as the sun set behind the buildings.

After the walk, after a dinner, they taught me a new card game and we drank some beer to the sound of waves in the Outer Bank darkness.

Two losing hands later, I threw in the towel and headed back to my room.

Morning would come soon.