Juan Mann is proof positive that one man (Mann?) can make a difference. I just love his video, called “Free Hugs.” It’s short, but carries a powerful message. Take just a couple of minutes to watch it. It will make your day.

It seems everyone wants a share of the gourmet coffee market these days. Dunkin’ Donuts, which has for years dominated the blue-collar coffee market, is planning to open 15,000 new stores by 2016 in an effort to attract the more upscale, white-collar market of Starbucks. Starting this year, all 14,000 of the McDonalds in the U.S. will install McCoffee bars with “baristas” that serve cappuccinos, lattes, mochas and the Frappe, similar to Starbucks’ ice-blended Frappuccino. Even Burger King is getting into the game with their Mocha BK JOE Iced Coffee.

On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the coffee battle is approaching epic proportions. McDonalds and Burger King are offering their new brews, but more importantly the very first Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts just opened their doors, and an additional four Dunkin’ Donuts are underway. It has been interesting to see the reaction of the local coffee houses to these new competitors, both of whom have Read the rest of this entry »

Exploring the back roads of Hatteras Island in search of old homes that have weathered scores of hurricanes and provided shelter for generations of fishermen is one of the many delights of any visit to the Outer Banks. The Old Gray House, tucked into the woods just off the main road in the tiny village of Buxton, is one such structure. If only this house could talk it would tell many tales. Fortunately, the home’s current owners, Dewey and Mary Parr, are happy to speak with visitors about their homestead.

The Old Gray House takes its name from a seafaring family by the name of Gray, whose descendants have inhabited Hatteras Island since the early 1600′s, beginning with Dewey’s great grandmother, who was shipwrecked on Hatteras Island. She was on board a ship coming from Newfoundland that ran aground and, Read the rest of this entry »

For such a small city, Sarasota has a wealth of culture that never ceases to amaze me. The latest intriguing event celebrates the 50th anniversary of the birth of Bossa Nova music with a concert by Brazilian band O Som Do Jazz. The performance will feature selections from the group’s new CD release “Infinita Bossa,” which features classic Bossa Nova and Samba-jazz.

The concert is part of the EMIT series, which, over the past 12 years has hosted over 130 events involving new music, free jazz, world, interactive electronics, improvisation and interdisciplinary art forms that incorporate sound. For those who may be unfamiliar with the suave melodies and irresistible yet subtle rhythms of Bossa Nova, you can listen to two-minute excerpts from the group’s new album at the CD baby site. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought I knew everything about the Outer Banks. Every nook, every cranny, every activity that goes on. But this afternoon, I found out differently. There’s something unusual going on right under our noses, and only those who have been initiated into the new craze of geocaching are aware of it. My friend, G.W. Meadows, is one of those who is “in the know.” He’s done some pretty amazing stuff in his life, which you can read about on his blog, but his newest passion is geocaching, the equivalent of a modern day treasure hunt.

Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing, geo for geography and caching as in hiding a cache of treasure) is an entertaining adventure game for GPS (Global Positioning System) users. Individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and post the latitude and longitude of each cache on the Internet, along with subtle hints as to their location. Treasure hunters visit the Geocaching website, download the coordinates into their GPS units, and then go in search of the hidden booty. At a minimum, the cache contains a logbook, which is signed by every person who finds it, however it can also contain maps, books, software, hardware, CD’s, videos, pictures, money, jewelry, tickets, antiques, tools, games, etc. Since G.W. is visiting the Outer Banks for a couple of days, we got together for lunch and he offered to let me tag along on his treasure hunt this afternoon.

Our first GPS coordinates led us to the beach access at the site of the wreck of the USS Huron. Halfway across the boardwalk leading over the sand dunes the GPS beeped. We had found our destination. But where was the cache? We retraced our steps Read the rest of this entry »

Once I made the decision to retire from real estate and leave the Outer Banks of North Carolina, it remained to decide where I would relocate. I made a list of the things that were important to me:

• Warm year-round climate
• Location on or near the ocean
• Access to cultural amenities
• Safe environment, low crime rate
• A thriving downtown with viable housing options
• Access to vegetarian restaurants and organic markets
• Availability of yoga and meditation
• Nearby airport

For two years I traveled the east coast of the U.S. visiting every coastal community south of the Outer Banks, searching for my perfect place. Eventually, I settled on Sarasota. A few other places made my short list, but in the end, it was Sarasota’s downtown that won me over. I love the fact that it is what I call a “local” downtown; it is not focused solely on tourism, as it offers businesses and services that the locals require. I am impressed that Main Street is home to a hardware store, dry cleaner, shoe repair shop, and tailors. I adore the fact that I can walk to two grocery stores (one of them a Whole Foods Market in the center of downtown), performing arts centers, museums, a major library, several theaters, a 20-plex cinema, a dozen or more banks, and art galleries galore. It delights me that Sarasota’s downtown has a tremendous variety of restaurants, many of which offer street-side dining that allows me to enjoy a leisurely meal while I watch the endless stream of pedestrians passing my table. I am enchanted by the funkiness Read the rest of this entry »

When most people think of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, what comes to mind are the lighthouses, the first flight of the Wright Brothers in Kitty Hawk, and the miles of beaches. These popular tourist attractions are worth a visit, but there is so much more to the Outer Banks that the average person does not see. Having lived here for more than ten years, I have been privileged to capture in photos the hidden jewels than most tourists don’t even know exist, much less bother to visit.

The Outer Banks is comprised of three ecozones: the beach, where very little vegetation grows in the salt-saturated air; the dunes, which are vegetated by salt-tolerant plants; and the area behind the dunes, which form a natural barrier from the salt-laden ocean winds, allowing a lush maritime forest to grow. Much of this maritime forest has been preserved by the Nature Conservancy, which has been quietly buying up tracts in what residents refer to as Nags Head Woods. A short walk along the trails of the Nature Conservancy gives a spectacular glimpse of the great diversity of this barrier island maritime forest. Nags Head Woods is home to more than 300 species of plants, more than 100 species of birds, six species of freshwater fish, and 65 species of land vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, and mammals). Among the more notable are this friendly red-bellied water snake: Read the rest of this entry »

Back in the late-80′s, just as the cold war was coming to an end, my Rotary Club participated in a program called “Soviets Meet Middle America,” sponsored by the Center for US-USSR Initiatives and the Soviet Peace Committee. The mission of the program was to bring American and Soviet citizens together “around the kitchen table” to discover that they weren’t enemies. The belief was that if we got to know one another as real human beings, we would be less inclined to want to kill one another. Various members of our club welcomed eight Soviet citizens into their personal homes. They came from all walks of life: teachers, engineers, students, and even one man who I am still convinced was KGB. It was a remarkable two weeks of tours and getting to know one another that will forever remain etched in my memory. This event may well have planted the initial seed of my liberal, love-of-all-mankind mentality that to this day suffuses my psyche. Unfortunately, Soviets Meet Middle America lasted only two years.

Today, however, I learned about Pangea Day, an event that was held this past May 10th and is described on their website as follows: “In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others “through the power of film.” The event featured 24 short films Read the rest of this entry »

Since this may be the very last time I ever come to the Outer Banks, I have taken a little time off from my business obligations to visit some of the more well-known tourist sites over the past two weeks. My original intention was to provide a photo tour of the Outer Banks on this post, and I started searching through all my old shots from the years I lived here, hoping to add to the recent photos I have taken. I came coming across this photo of the Bodie (pronounced ‘body’) Island Lighthouse that I shot on a gray and foggy winter afternoon some years ago. Although it is a pleasant enough study in mostly black and white tones, I started fiddling with the various filters in Photoshop to see if I could make it more interesting. The effects Read the rest of this entry »