Travel tip: Try the beach in winter
Plenty of people surf and fish in winter. I admire them for that, but I prefer to go to the beach with no expectations or agenda beyond watching the changes in ocean and clouds.
By winter beach, I do not mean Aruba or Key West during resortwear season. That’s too easy. I mean chilly, probably wet, mostly gray Mid-Atlantic beaches, like those along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a thin 189-mile strip of barrier islands where my family spent two socially distanced weeks in December and January.
A winter beach around these parts is quiet. The rain and cold pretty much