Seasonality...

Surf City, NC not what it looks like right now

If that is a word, I'm using it. 

Growing up my family and I took 2 vacations a year. One camping in the Adirondacks, the other in Cape May, New Jersey. I dreamed of moving to Cape May in all it's Victorian glory where I would work at Zoe's sandwich shop right off the beach serving well deserved vacationers an Italian Combo.

I now realize living in a beach town in North Carolina, not nearly the Victorian paradise I had in mind, takes some getting used to.

1. Big business does not come to the beach. They call them little beach towns for a reason. Because things are little there. The grocery stores, the restaurants, the houses, and the jobs.

2. You HATE and LOVE the tourists all at the same time. They come in droves. They turn a 5 minute drive on a 2 lane road into a 45 minute wait on a sweltering hot day. And yet, they fuel the economy down here. As a part time waitress I bank on these people being drunk from both the sun and the wine I serve them. They overcrowd my little grocery store and at the same time it begins to stay opens 24/7 to accommodate the masses. There's no winning this one, you just deal and take a deep breath at the end of tourist season.

3. Patience. Not only is it the winter... but it's the Winter in the South,  everything is slower in the South and even slower in the Southern Winter. Time seems to stand still. The beach seems to be a ghost town and to my dismay that means my tips stand still too. So as the Winter wanes I stand by patiently for the tourists to crawl on in.

4. Last but not least... Perseverance. If you don't have the gut to wait it out down here and scrape pennies on the off season you should probably move.