Just back from a week on the Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina – Duck, NC. We usually go to Ocracoke Island at the southern end of OBX, but that added two to three hours to the trip, and many people talked about how much they liked Duck, so we made reservations and loaded up the dog and headed to Duck.

First, the rental house had a great location: two blocks from the ocean (I could hear the waves and see them from the rooftop deck), and about four blocks from the main "downtown" part of Duck...