Summers at Atlantic Beach

When I was about five years old, my parents made the decision to move my sister, brother, and myself from Cincinnati to Washington, North Carolina. Never heard of it? Not surprising. Washington is a little town on the Pamlico river, about fifteen miles east of Greenville and about an hour and a half north of Atlantic Beach. Washington has two claims to fame, the first and most touted being that it was the first town named after George Washington. The second, less known feature is that Washington is located near Chocowinity, home to Fountain Powerboats—a company that specializes in luxury powerboats bought by drug dealers and law enforcement agencies alike. But that is neither here nor there.

When I look back at my childhood, the memories that remain the most clear and the most sentimental center around family trips to Atlantic Beach. Even when we moved back to the Cincinnati area five years later, my parents still loaded us all into a car for the thirteen hour trip back to Washington and the Atlantic Beach every summer. It was a family tradition that could be waylaid by nothing.  No financial difficulties, nor surly teenagers, nor forces of nature could keep the five of us from our yearly trek to the beach.

When we lived in Washington, the trip to the beach was  regular affair. We would often spend long weekends at the Whaler or one of the other many ocean-front hotels. These trips were fun of course, but the highlight of the season was always the week long stay that would occur around late August. My mother was a teacher and my father an accountant, so this vacation was always a last fling before the encroaching advent of the new school year and the fall tax season. My parents would book a week at the Whaler Inn, whose amenities included a fully equipped kitchen. This was an important feature for a family of five; it allowed my parents to bring a car full of groceries along, negating the need for expensive restaurant trips. Over the years, my family established a list of sacred destinations and activities that filled the week with adventures that have remained vivid in my mind for the past twenty years.
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