Duck!

Last Wednesday, my son and daughter-in-law and their two girls, as well as my younger daughter and her fiance left to go to the Outer Banks. Mr. kenju's niece (his brother's daughter) decided to get married in Manteo, NC; where her fiance had vacationed as a child and she and the groom had also spent time together. It was a destination wedding, as the bride and groom are from Chicago, her parents live in New Jersey and the groom's family is from Ohio. I'm glad we only had to go about 250 miles!

On Wednesday evening, the bride's family hosted a cook-out at their rental house in Nags Head. The bride's uncle grilled burgers and hot dogs, and the groom made Italian sausage with red and green peppers (it was to die for!) Did you know you can buy much better sausage in the north than we can here in NC?  Wow, was it ever good (and spicy!)

We got to see people we hadn't seen in years.....I had not seen the mother-of-the-bride's sister since she was the flower girl at her sister's wedding in 1971. She is now an editor of a major woman's magazine. It was nice to re-make her acquaintance and meet her husband, the grill master. I had seen the bride twice in her life; once when she was in a high chair and again when she was about 16. The bride's grandmother was there too; holding court on the couch. I had not seen her in many years. The groom's family proved to be a nice group and we enjoyed meeting and talking to them, however briefly. 

The bride's brother and sister-in-law were the couple who traveled the farthest distance to attend the wedding. They have been living in South America for the last 18 months; first Ecuador and now Peru, teaching English. I had not seen them in about 10 years, since I was unable to attend their wedding. Her parents were invited too, and they came from California. 

On Thursday, we spent hours relaxing and sitting on the beach, and for dinner, we went to The Sunset grill and Raw Bar, in Duck, NC. We stayed at the home of friends in Duck  (hence my title.) It was wonderful of them to lend it to us for 3 nights. The only problem is that Duck is about 30-40 miles from Nags Head and Manteo, so we had to do a lot of driving back and forth over the 3 days. It was worth it, though. 

As you drive north from Nags Head through Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk approaching Duck, the spit of land narrows to the extent that you could almost throw a rock from the Atlantic beach to the Albemarle Sound. I tried to get a photo of the map, but it didn't work for me. The house we stayed in is nearly at the narrowest point of that spit, just below Corolla (where the wild horses are.) My daughter-in-law and I wanted to go see the horses, but we found out  by accident that you need to make a reservation and the guy who told us got the last available opening in the tour van the next day. Maybe next time. We went there when our children were very young and we drove right up to the point and saw a few of the wild horses, but now it isn't allowed (or so we were told.)

The wedding was Friday evening in Manteo.....100* in the shade at 5pm, so we were very happy they had not planned an outdoor wedding or reception. The church was cool and comfortable, the decoration simple and tasteful, and the wedding party was composed of a bevy of beautiful girls, handsome guys, and a few cute children who did what was expected of them....lol  (It doesn't always happen that way, you know.)

The reception was held in a special event site called 108 Budleigh, in the heart of Manteo's business district. Had it not been 100*, I would have enjoyed strolling around the downtown area. Our table was close to the buffet (nice!) and the food proved to be excellent. The appetizers and cocktails, wine and beer were free-flowing; in fact we remarked that we'd hate to be the ones paying the bar bill. The appetizers were very good and we over-indulged, only to discover that the buffet was chock full of excellent food! Beef, chicken, shrimp and scallops and all the trimmings - and all prepared very well. We had eaten so much at first that we didn't have room for seconds. The wedding cake had two flavors; lemon and red velvet, with butter cream icing. I was so full at that point that I couldn't eat much of it.

We left the reception about 9:30pm, just as the dancing was getting underway. The younger ones stayed to party, while the oldies went back to rest and try to digest all the food we had packed in. It was a lovely 3 1/2 days. Perhaps in my next post, I'll show you some photos from the trip.