He was 36 when he told his wife, mother to his three young girls, that he wanted something bigger. The American dream was playing in everyone’s mind, including his. The Korean War had ended just twenty years before and Korea was not yet a first world nation. Despite his astute mind his family could not afford him a college education and without a college education opportunities were small and the social climb was impossible. America gave him hope and the promise of fulfilling a different destiny. My mom sold her wedding band to buy the plane tickets and with all their belongings packed into bags they left all they knew for possibility. We quickly moved from low-income housing to an apartment to our very own home, my parents both working blue-collar jobs until the day they retired. If you were to ask my 36 year dad if his American dream was to work as a welder for thirty years I’m sure his arrogance and ambition would shrug that thought away as an impossibility. But if you ask my 84 year old father if his American dream came true I’d imagine he’d say look at what my four children have borne, my dreams were replaced by theirs and each of their successes is mine and each of my eleven grandchildren’s successes are mine. If that isn’t a dream come true I don’t know what is.
Tagged: Duck, family photography, North Carolina, Outerbanks, travel
Centered around the plaza, the town of Sayulita stretches roughly five blocks in each direction. Local artisan store next to hipster boutique next to the most amazing authentic Mexican food next to brick-oven pizza, each establishment unassuming and welcoming. What impressed me the most was the number of musicians that stroll the streets in search of an audience. Their music inoffensively lingering and picking up where another left off. 
Sayulita is a surf town. Surfers and surf boards dot the coastline and the beach. There is a vibrant, contagious energy; the thrill of the surfers and wanna-be surfers waiting to catch a wave. But for swimming, for relaxing on the beach, this is not the place to be. Head a bit further south and you’ll find Playa de los Muertos, a little nook of a cove tucked behind Punta Sayulita, creating a calm, swimmable beach.
The unexpected is profound. No comparisons, no build-up, no presuppositions, it can simply be. And in that simplicity is the impact. We can truly experience all the details for what they are; ordinary. We arrived in Sayulita at noon and by late afternoon made our first steps into town and onto the main beach. I heard the din of dispersed and disparate conversations, a tuba and drums accompanied by other brass instruments play something that belonged in a parade but made so much sense to be on the beach, I saw umbrella after umbrella, tourists and locals intermixed, I felt the energy; enthused but orderly, I smelled delicious flavor after delicious flavor and I experienced the complexity and layers of this culture in this simple setting of a day at the beach. In this moment I wasn’t overwhelmed, I was captivated, instantly falling in love with this town. This feeling would further deepen with each day we spent in Sayulita; the friendly locals, the respectful tourists, the fresh food, the rustic and the chic, a sleepy surf town turned Mexican tourist destination struggling to hold onto its identity while accommodating the eager throngs. I recognize this place is far past discovery but to us it was all new.
