Yikes! Our favorite secret is a front page NYTimes Travel section feature. Does this mean more people will be on the Island complaining about the slow service at the eateries? (Really are you in a hurry? There is no where to go which is sorta the point.) More people asking “What do you do here?” (Really do you have to be entertained? Doing nothing is sorta the point.)
But worse the writer stays in the same little place on Silver Lake where we stay often and have rooms reserved for Thanksgiving. The picture the Times published is our favorite view. Several of the places she eats are our favs as well (Howard’s, Pelican, Ocracoke Coffee Company, Fig Tree, Cafe Atlantic), but several secrets are better kept and I’m keeping them myself.
The Times automatic indexer managed to link Rudy Austin’s last name to a city in Texas. His father took me over to Portsmouth Island way back in the 1970s.
Oh no. The quiet morning coffee at Ocracoke Coffee is forever doomed. Let’s hope people are deterred by ferry. I can just hear them now “WHAT?? No bridge??” *sigh*
No fair publishing a “my favorite restaurants” list that covers half the restaurants in town.
Hee hee! That list is the NYTimes list. Our own favs, other than those in the NYTimes, remain secret. Note that Cafe Atlantic isn’t open in the late Fall and that I didn’t mention two of the NYTimes picks because they aren’t our favs — altho I would cut sMcNally’s some slack.
I, too, am sorry the secret is out, but there are a lot of
folks who will go only once and be so bored that they won’t go
back. A number of years ago, after hearing my husband and I rave
about Ocracoke, some friends in Atlanta begged us to go out there
with them. Now I knew this particular couple would have to be
doing something every minute of the day, so I asked, “Are you sure?
There’s absolutely nothing to do but enjoy what the day brings.”
They both said they would love being in a place like that. I had my
doubts but we flew out there in his private plane. The first thing
I did after getting out of the plane was to throw an apple core in the
bushes. The swarm of mosquitos that arose from this disturbance was
the most exciting thing for them that happened while we were there.
The first night was novel enough for them to enjoy themselves, but
the next day after a leisurely breakfast, my friend asked, “What are
going to do today. I was perfectly content to just walk around the
village and stare at Silver Lake, but they had to think of
something. We rented bikes and I’m afraid my friend’s husband
was one of those tourists who rode in the middle of the street.
Longer story short, they found the place charming but to my
knowledge never returned. Not enough action for them. So the place
itself will weed out the foreigners and as long as the hurricanes
stay away, Ocracoke will remain for those of us who love the place
where the biggest event of the day is watching the sunset.