Photo-of-the-Week #114 - Dinner at Duck . . . by Candlelight, Duck, North Carolina, September 2009

I don't know about you, but I always look forward to and thoroughly enjoy having dinner with a few good friends. It's especially nice when you can all go on a retreat to a place like the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week, enjoy beautiful surroundings, a comfortable place to stay and sharing the time and food you all enjoy.

This photo was on one such retreat with a group of my long-time single friends from Winchester, Virginia. I have a friend who owns a timeshare in a very nice beach house in Duck on the North Carolina Outer Banks or OBX, as it's abbreviated. From time to time he and his family have other commitments and can't use some of their allotted weeks at the beach house, so he makes it available to his friends. I've taken advantage of this opportunity on several occasions during different seasons of the year. This particular retreat was in early to mid September, a perfect time with beautiful weather, great temperatures and NO CROWDS!

This is the scene from the dining room of the beach house and, yes, that's the Atlantic Ocean in the background. There are usually five or six of us who go on these retreats and each of us is responsible for the dinner menu and preparation for one night. On the last night we eat all the leftovers and we'll plan one night go out to a local restaurant for fresh seafood. We share our time and our lives, our favorite foods, the wonderful location and we all sleep very well in this beautiful house. I am looking forward to the next time we'll all gather at Duck for Dinner.