My Dare Devil's Pizza T-Shirt

The Columbus Dispatch

March 7, 2013

“What are you doing?  You can’t wear it!”  I said very quickly.  Lisa’s face did not hide her feelings – it was clearly just a shirt to her.  With a puzzled frown, she took it off.  I gently returned it to its place.  The shirt in question was not just any shirt though.  It was the first shirt I ever bought at Dare Devil’s Pizzeria in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.  The peach-colored t-shirt had been my favorite since the moment I bought it twenty years ago.  The graphics were great, and I could feel the summer sun on my back whenever I wore it.

We were on our first trip to the Outer Banks in 1992.  One evening Lisa’s parents agreed to watch the kids while we went out.  We walked to Dare Devil’s Pizzeria.  The name is derived from

Outer Banks Vacation Photo Tips

Here are four simple tips for taking better beach vacation photos.

Get up early. The Outer Banks summer sun rises very early. You must too. Be in position to capture the scene before the sun breaks the horizon. To capture the sunrise over Currituck Beach Lighthouse, you must be out of bed by 5 a.m. To memorialize a flock of pelicans skimming the surf at Hatteras, you must be out of bed by 5 a.m. To record the human flotsam and jetsam of a midnight clambake on Ocracoke, well you get the picture.

Use the setting sun. The midday sun is an unflattering light source. Landscapes appear flat. The lack of shadows eliminates detail. Portraits are worse, unless you like wrinkles and squinty eyes. Though the early morning sun can be effective for lighting outdoor portraits, the evening sun is warmer and lends a nice glow to the human face. Plus, if your family is like mine, you do not see the teenage faces until lunchtime anyway, so plan on an early evening beach portrait session.

Take a chance. I took one of my favorite vacation photos at the end of a marathon three lighthouse daytrip. We began our trek at noon, making a brief stop at Hatteras Lighthouse on our way to the Ocracoke ferry.

The Kite And The Brown Pelican

I held the 500 foot reel of string while my nine-year-old son Matthew restrained the tugging kite. At my signal, Matthew released the kite and it leapt out of his hands. Matthew and I took turns letting the kite fly higher and higher until almost no string was left on the reel.


I bought the kite on my family’s first visit to North Carolina’s Outer Banks in the early 1990s, and I have flown it on each return trip. This was a perfect day to fly a kite. The wind coming in off the ocean was steady; there were a few high clouds. The air was warm and the sand was not yet hot.

Scanning the skyline I saw that the pelicans were flying parallel to the shoreline, as usual. Unusually though,