11/21/2009
11:07 am
Vacationing on the North Carolina Shore
If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am on vacation. Let’s let that sink in for a minute.
This is what a North Carolina vacation looks like.
We have been coming to the same area of North Carolina for the past 7-8 years. A small island called Oak Island, just south of Wilmington. You can find a reasonably priced beach house pretty much any time you need. And if you want to live a little frugally, you can get a house off the ocean pretty cheap.
This is Toki Doki on the North Carolina Shore.
The area is beautiful. Of course, any place that you are on or near the ocean is beautiful. In my opinion, of course.
Tourist areas are pretty interesting to me, being that I work in retail. Being on the opposite side of the counter can be amusing. There are some folks who just do not want to be doing what they are doing down here, but they are kind of stuck. Like the guy who runs, and I assume owns, the convenience store on the island. He is there early in the morning, and up until 6 at night every day. If you ask him how he is doing he says the same thing every time. “Living the dream”.
At least he says that every time that I see him, and ask how he is doing. If you look real close when he says it, though, you will see that his eyes are dead. He is just saying the words. And I can understand that. What I can’t understand is why he just doesn’t sell the business and get the hell out. The store is worth a good bit of money. A cool couple of million at least. He could retire on that, as he is pretty near retirement age. But he keeps coming in day after day. The store closes for the winter, so maybe he just works the few months of the summer and puts up with us tourists so that he can do what he wants over the winter.
Vacations. Vacationing. Being the opposite side of the counter. We are going to keep visiting this theme this week.
Stay tuned.
