Outer Banks Articles & Shorts - Issue 11: Summer 2016

PUBLISHER’S LETTER

Outer Banks This Week - Summer 2016 - Issue 11Take a moment to see how many songs you can think of about summer. (Wait, don’t read my list here until you’ve done your own mental inventory.) Hot Fun in the Summertime, Summer Breeze, School’s Out, All Summer Long, Summer Nights, Summertime, Summer in the City, Summertime Blues, In the Summertime, Summer of ’42 … ok, that’s all I can come up with off the top of my head. How’d you do? I find it interesting that there are so many songs about this time of year. If we were to attempt the same exercise about any other season, I don’t think we’d come up with as many. 

Summer is our season in a way that gets into our skin, and I don’t mean only sun-kissed bodies. We wear summer with many fewer barriers than winter. We open ourselves up to the warmth, the sand, to Mother Ocean without the arm’s length that often comes with cold. We dive in and let summer surround us. Perhaps that’s why we celebrate it so in song (and in poem too, btw). It’s a primal season, and we get back to our roots under the summer sun.

Those of us who live here deeply understand this pull, and it makes sense to us that the thousands of visitors who come to swim in the ocean and merge with nature are looking for what we locals chose to live around. We make room for them and know that the same filling up the soul process we experience every day of summer is theirs for the week or two they’re here. There’s more than enough to go around.

We’re so excited to bring you this Summer Issue of OuterBanksThisWeek.com magazine. It’s filled with stories about local businesses that give you a better insight into who they are vs. only what they do. You learn about the people behind the business and their motivations. As always, we hugely enjoy co-creating with these business owners and appreciate their enthusiasm and their trust in letting us help to get their word out to locals and visitors. 

Since our feature story is about novels set on the Outer Banks — and there are so many you need to read! — we encourage you to grab a chair, umbrella, some cold drinks and your favorite local book and head to that warm sandy beach to read away a summer day. You’ll feel renewed!

Happy summer, everyone!

VIEW A DIGITAL VERSION OF THIS ISSUE

Jewelry Fit For The Stars

By Katrina Mae Leuzinger
It's not really so surprising that Gail Kowalski’s jewelry appears on the red carpet. When Hollywood starlets are choosing their ensemble they know a standout, unique look will keep the magazines talking and help them stay famous. That’s why the gowns that grace the red carpet are often so different from anything you’... Read More

Patience With Faith

By Amelia Boldaji
For many, Stack ’em High is synonymous with more than three decades’ worth of Outer Banks breakfasts. Go ahead and call it a tradition if you will — one that stems from Perry and Kiki Kiousis’ revolutionary idea to open the very first pancake house on the Outer Banks in 1981 after relocating from Greece to America in... Read More

Quality Food and Quality Time

By Lexi Holian
The casual, coastal atmosphere and classic beach architecture are going to make it seem like you’re dining over at a friend’s old flat top beach cottage, but the food tells another story entirely. Contemporary Southern coastal cuisine pops with Caribbean flavor and attracts diners all day long whether it be for a full... Read More

Art Galleries

By Beth P. Storie
Art feeds our soul and expresses the best in our human spirit. It shows us the beauty in nature through carved wood shaped into bowls or other objects, exquisite stones placed into gold and silver or clay and glass fired into practical or pleasing shapes then painted with rich colors. It gives us images that capture... Read More

Heritage and History: Oregon Inlet Fishing Center

By Heather Frese
When I speak with Minta Meekins, general manager of the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center, it’s immediately clear she was raised on the Outer Banks. Her vowels roll in the Elizabethan brogue that’s native to the region, words like “website” lilting to “websoight” and “fish” to “feesh.” It’s an auditory link to the history... Read More