Getaway #10392

The Story

Here is a beautiful fair weather day at the ocean and a beautiful old school beach house with a porch to spend it. It’s sitting right on the surf line and I’m sure the ocean surf can be heard all the time. That would be especially nice at night. My favorite part of the image is the laundry blowing in the breeze telling the story of someone making a vacation home here, along with a few coolers.  Perhaps they’ve just stepped back inside. I also enjoy the color of the water which matches the color of the beach house. The locals told me the ocean will turn greener when the warmer gulf stream water moves closer to the coast.

The placement of this seaside bungalow makes me wonder if it’s still standing after all the hurricanes that have come across the Outer Banks coast since the photograph was made. Forever and always, shore weather can be severe at times and the Outer Banks are known for it. Missing gray shingles have flown downwind some time ago and some fascia has cracked. Nevertheless, the place is well kept with new stilt work underneath and a good paint job in ocean green.

I’ve taken this image on the road to art shows where it hung on the booth walls to pull patrons inside. Twice over the years at shows, I’ve encountered people who had rented this place and stayed there on vacation! Just one of those little small world things and whooda’ thunk it?

I can also imagine this old beach house wasn’t originally built this close to the water and surf, but the beach itself has changed over time. As always though time, the sands have shifted according to wind and water. There were likely more of these seaside bungalows here at one time on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, but this was the only one I saw.

Getaway is a fair title for this image, nearly a no-brainer, but this one was nearly rightfully called Margaritaville. Although there are plenty more beach pictures in the Water Galleries, there is another OBX beach image you can see called OBX Beach Fence #10339.

Location: near Kitty Hawk, Dare County, North Carolina, in the Outer Banks. Picture and story © Andrew Dierks