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

The New Way to Buffet

By Lexi Holian
Cruise past the bustling lunch and dinner spot on any given day in the summertime and you will know what I mean. For one, patrons waiting on a table aren’t leaning disinterestedly against a wall or watching the clock. They’re playing a game of putt putt, tossing cornhole bags or lifting their kids up for a pony ride.... Read More

Coming Together to Celebrate the Spirit of Hatteras Village

By Heather Frese
Hatteras Village is a community that creates an amazing sensory experience. The promise of sandy beaches, salty air and warm ocean waves is one that is unbroken.  Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the beautiful Pamlico Sound, there are always spectacular sunrises and brilliant sunsets. Hatteras Village is a place... Read More

The Place Where it all Began

By Amelia Boldaji
It just might be the scent alone that lures you into a Duck Donuts … at least the first time, that is. After that? As many thousands of converts will attest, it’s your first bite that will get you hooked. Established in 2006 right here in the seaside town of Duck, Duck Donuts has developed a cult following over the... Read More

Sanctuary for the Wild

By Lexi Holian
It’s a sight you never forget. Your expedition has carried you to the shores of Carova to roam amidst high dunes and clusters of live oak trees — your eyes fixed on the horizon all the while. And then you see them, long and lithe, cantering in the ocean’s shallows and standing tall atop the dunes. Manes and tails... Read More

At the Heart of It All

By Amelia Boldaji
There’s a lot to it,” laughs Jarrod Umphlett, and he’s not kidding. Along with his father, Wayne, the Umphletts own and run Outer Banks Marina, which is located at the heart of the Outer Banks’ fishing community in the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park. With daily marina operations that include everything from dry... Read More