Duck and Wine

We are on "Shore Leave" for a week, so I haven't been updating this blog every day.  Our original plan was to conclude our April trip with a week here in Duck, but Tuesday we had a serendipitous phone call from Twiddy, our rental company, informing us that there had been a last-minute cancellation and asking if we wanted to stay another week at a discounted rate.  We checked our calendars, made a couple of schedule adjustments, and decided it was too good an offer to refuse.  So we are here for an additional week, and we have been rewarded for our decision by good weather, sunny and warm, and some good running.

On Wednesday and Friday, I logged five-miles each day, feeling stronger and stronger each day.  I have read that elite marathon runners sometimes take a month or two off every year, just to let their bodies settle down and recover completely after hard running.  So I don't think that two weeks without running for this old guy had any deleterious effect (and if I had any sense at all I would do the same thing every Spring).

This morning I did not run the usual Saturday morning long run; instead, we attended the "Duck and Wine Festival," which we have enjoyed several times over the years.  Its success has become so great that this year we had to stay up until midnight (an effort for us!) to grab our tickets off the internet (they were gone by the next morning).  It is a great opportunity for local restaurants to demonstrate their culinary skills every April; each chef is provided a large quantity of duck, and they are charged with the responsibility of incorporating it into a dish.  In the past we have enjoyed such unusual fare as scallops wrapped in duck bacon (I didn't even know you could make bacon from a duck!) and duck tacos.  This year was equally extraordinary.

Spread out along the Waterfront Shops, walking distance away from where we are staying, we sampled duck sushi, duck Brunswick stew, and duck ham, on a cloudless day with hundreds of other duck-revelers.  It was one of the best D&W festivals we have ever attended.

We sat for a long time, sated with unusual duck appetizers, listening to "The Alley Cats.," a really good local band.  The lead guitarist (left) was exceptional, and the guitarist on the right has a day job at the Pine Knoll Shores fitness center where I work out when I am visiting here.  Alley is the drummer and she has a pretty good voice as well.

The music was so good that this non-dancing roadrunner was motivated to ask his wife for a dance, and so we danced to the rhythms of the Alley Cats on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, on Currituck Sound, enjoying good food.

That's me.  The clumsy one in the green shirt.  What got me to my feet, if I remember correctly, was a stirring rendition of "Mustang Sally."