Thanks for the Memories
Writing for magazines like Field & Stream and Audubon takes me to some exceptional coastal regions. I also write exhibit copy, and one of my clients is the Cape Lookout National Seashore, the string of barrier islands just south of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. So when I went to Cape Lookout on assignment for Endless Vacation, I was able to worm my way into the keeper’s quarters at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. The 134-year-old house is usually open to anyone visiting the area, but, during the time of my visit, workers were installing some new exhibits. A 360-degree panoramic photograph shot from the top of the lighthouse reminded me of a visit with a local fisherman, David Yeomans, several years earlier. Yeomans was born on nearby Harkers Island in 1921, six years after the last whale was harpooned there. As he told me stories about life on these remote isles, the lighthouse’s brilliant beam washed through his windows, lighting eyes rimmed with tears. “Oh, Eddie-boy, the dances we’d have out on them open porches, stars up above, lightnin’ bugs down below . . . the world won’t see nothing like it ever again,” he’d said. This place has a powerful hold on its native sons and daughters.

Fisherman’s Potluck
History comes alive at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island. During a recent visit, an elderly man caught my eye: He was staring at a framed black-and-white photograph of himself as a young boy peering out from the cabin of a fishing boat. Though raucous conversations swirled around him, the man was oblivious, transported to another place and time. Such intimate moments are typical during Community Night, held on the third Tuesday of every month, when residents of the mainland fishing villages on the Core Sound gather at the museum. The get-togethers start at 6 p.m. with a covered-dish supper: You might eat stewed hard crabs, rutabagas, collard greens or roasted mullet. (Bring a dish to share, or just show up hungry.) After dinner, residents from one of the maritime villages present a program on local history or current events. “Our Community Nights are the glue that holds the Core Sound area together,” says museum director Karen Amspacher, “We don’t want folks to feel shy about coming. We don’t bite, although we do talk funny.”

Pony Up
Everyone who comes to this region wants to catch a glimpse of the wild ponies. The animals, possibly the descendants of Spanish horses from shipwrecked vessels, thrive on the remote islands. Once, I pulled my boat up on Carrot Island, just across the water from Beaufort, and embarked with my two children on a sand dune hike to the far marsh shore. Suddenly, I remembered that I’d left our cold drinks back on the boat. To save time, I sat my four-year-old, Jack, on top of a dune (in plain view—I promise!) while I walked back to the boat with my seven-year-old daughter. That’s when I heard the thundering hooves: A herd of about 10 ponies, manes flying, was running straight for Jack. As I screamed for him to stay still, the herd parted around my son, leaving Jack laughing and hooting in a cloud of sand. It’s moments like those that make time spent on the “other” Outer Banks so unforgettable.