Opening

We Live Here

A Bigger Splash

Sure, lakes and swimming holes offer refreshing fun — but how many have a diving board? A new generation falls in love with the nostalgic charms of the neighborhood pool.

Eats

What a Catch!

In North Carolina, there are plenty of fish in the sea — and lakes, rivers, and streams. You don’t need a rod and reel; just visit your local fishmonger and get cookin’.

Annual Coastal Issue: Island Time

Island Time

What a gift, those great shifting sandbars — a 325-mile-long string of them, clustered up and down the Carolina coast, looming so large in the history of our state and in our lives. The bridges and ferries, the wild dunes and crashing waves, the beach houses and fish dinners. Year after year, we return to the islands.

A Guide to Ocracoke

Where in the world is Ocracoke? For many mainlanders, the island accessible only by ferry, boat, or plane remains a mystery. For those who live there, it is home to past and present, change and stasis, a tight-knit village and wild woods filled with centuries of secrets.

Keepers of the Light

There are no bridges to Cape Lookout, no roads along the 56 miles of islands. In the seven years that Ron and Joan Preloger have come here to watch over its iconic lighthouse, they’ve survived raging storms and swarms of stinkbugs. They wouldn’t have it any other way.

Shaped By Sand & Sea

A summer camp, a beach resort, and a community retreat: Hammocks Beach State Park in Onslow County — and its epic, sugar-sand beach — inspired generations of teachers and their students. Now, it awaits rediscovery.

Follow That Fish

Finding local seafood at a coastal restaurant isn’t always easy. Two fishermen (and one unlucky flounder) explain why eating hook-to-fork is harder than it looks.

Beneath Still Waters

Pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, began her writing career on a 2,300-acre network of islands a short paddle south of Beaufort. At the reserve that now bears her name, marine scientists follow in her wake.

The Lure of the Fly

A bottom fisherman will fish with anything — even a yardstick. But a fly fisherman requires more precision from his equipment, especially when casting from a kayak off Masonboro Island. Either way, a successful trip isn’t measured by what you catch.

Treasured Hunter

When a beachgoer on the Crystal Coast loses a beloved bauble to the sea — say, a class ring or an heirloom necklace — one local comes to the rescue.

Features

Closing