The "Nights in Rodanthe" House

The opening scene in the movie, "Nights in Rodanthe," lingers on a lone house precariously sitting on a long stretch of sand with nothing but seawater and space surrounding it. There is something appealing and nostalgic about the weathered cedar boards of that regal lady rising above the encroaching waves. You just want to go there.

And go there we did.

The weekend before the movie opened, the adults in my husband Larry’s family gathered in the Outer Banks for our annual fall get together. Our group consisted of Larry’s Mom (who was celebrating her 84th birthday that weekend), his sister Pat and husband Rusty, and his brother Mark and wife Trisha.

Trisha, a movie buff and Nicholas Sparks fan, said she was going to drive down to Rodanthe to see "the house." If anyone wanted to join her, they were welcome.

All seven of us piled into Mark’s big Suburban and drove 30 miles across the windblown coast to see what proves to be one of the main stars of the movie, "Nights in Rodanthe."

After crossing the Oregon Inlet Bridge, there are no houses for nearly 15 miles. There is nothing but sand, sea oats and water and a lone campground) on this narrow stretch of barrier island. All we see through occasional breaks in the sand dunes are glimpses of the pounding surf of the Atlantic Ocean.

Finally, in the distance, through mist thrown up by wind and water, we see the first house in Rodanthe standing off to itself just a bit. The house is recognizable from the film’s previews. Another clue is several other vehicles with picture-taking movie fans parked along the sandy highway.

The house looks a bit underdressed since its movie debut. Gone are the blue shutters, the staircases and part of the porch and deck that look across the ocean. In fact, gone also are the house’s septic tank and power. Unfortunately, a recent storm caused damage and the house is, at present, unlivable. The movie was filmed at that location in May 2007. The sea can do a ton of damage in a year and a half.

Regardless of her appearance, we were excited to be able to dodge the swirling surf and get up close and personal with a real movie star. Trisha wanted a picture of herself in front of the cross-beams under the porch. As she posed beside the house, a wave shot up from the sea and soaked her from the waist down. I’ll bet Diane Ladd and Richard Gere were soaked by the sea a few times during filming themselves, so at least she is in good company.

One couple was walking around the house taking pictures of the rough ocean (there had been a Nor’easter that boils up the ocean that weekend). I asked if they’d like me to take a picture of them with the house in the background. The woman looked at me strangely and said, "No."

Later, Trisha asked them, "How did you find the house?"

The fellow looked at her with a puzzled expression and said, "We just thought this was a good spot to take pictures of the ocean."

Trisha said, "So, you didn’t know this was the house in the movie?"

At that point, the young woman’s face lit up and she said, "You mean this is THE house?"

That’s when they stopped taking pictures of the ocean and began taking pictures of the house.

As we trudged through the sand, snapping pictures, we knew we were walking across the same sandy surface that Richard Gere and Diane Ladd had trodden. Our footprints were washed away by wind and water, just as theirs had been. While our footprints have all been erased, evidence of our visits still remain on film. I have a dozen digital photos to chronicle my visit – they have a full-length movie that opened this weekend in a movie theater near you.