Labor Day

Rumor has it tomorrow the ferries from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island will be unrestricted once more.  Welcome back, tourists!

It was such a relief to come through Irene with such minimal damage.  Ocracokers are well aware of how lucky we were and thinking of how to help our neighbors, especially those on Hatteras Island and the Hyde County mainland, who lost homes and suffered flooding. 

We have also enjoyed the time together, a rare event during the summer months.  Yesterday Ruth and Bob hosted a brunch for the Cafe Atlantic family, which includes current and former employees and a few random adopted folk.  All of us ate an obscene amount of bacon, in addition to Ruth's other culinary offerings. 

Then it was an epic beach day.  Dozens of us got together at the airport beach to play volleyball, swim, surf, and socialize.  The falling tide created a shallow channel of water, several hundred yards long, and a tribe of kids drifted along it on boogie boards, then raced one another screaming to do it all over again, and again, and again.  Matt Tolson put on a skim boarding show, doing aerial flips.  Claire and I spent a long time swimming, body surfing in the line up a safe distance from the board surfers. 

I came home slighty sunburnt and terribly happy.  Too tired, sadly, to make it to the square dance at the community square, with Molasses Creek playing.  Ocracoke is a great community.  Even if it takes a little extra time and effort to get here, please come visit this fall.