CityView Magazine

travel Four Generations: Edna Harper (front) L to R (back) Susan Harper Hornaday, Brooks Hornaday Reynolds with Thomas Reynolds, and Jenny Hornaday MacKethan S A local family uses Wrightsville Beach for gatherings and reunions BY JASON TYSON Susan has enjoyed treks down to Wrightsville and her home on South Harbour Island for more than 30 years. Sometimes the vacations are just her and her husband John, but other times the house can be crowded, including her mother Edna Harper, one or both of her daughters, their husbands and possibly a dog here or there. On special occasions, four gen- erations of the Harper/Hornaday family might be present in the house at one time. "So many things stand out in my mind," Susan said. "From usan Hornaday and her family call Fayette- ville home, but some of the best memories they have together were made at Wrightsville Beach. Along with many other Fayetteville residents, crabbing, shrimping and sailing in the summer to Thanks- giving and holidays, there's just no other place like it." Susan and John raised their three children; Brooks, Harper and Jenny, both in Fayetteville and at their house at Wrights- ville. The family owns a custom residential building business, Hornaday Homes, in Fayetteville, When Brooks Hornaday (now Reynolds) got married and ton, so her trip to the beach is not quite as far. "I love it down here. It's a great neighborhood to grow up in and it's safe. I love to come back to a place where I have lots of great memories," she said. Perhaps the most memorable of the Hornaday's beach ex- periences was when they leſt the beach, sailing off and liv- ing from 1995 to 1996 on their sailboat, Sweet Surrender. The family of five visited the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Gren- adines, Turks and Caicos and Trinidad and Tobago, where they lived on land for a few weeks. They have also dressed up their sailboat for the annual moved to Lake Placid, New York, a few years ago, it made it harder to get the entire family down to the beach. But that has not stopped Brooks from coming down as oſten as she can. Jenny Hornaday MacKethan has also since married, but has stayed in Fayetteville to help run the family business for the past several years aſter she graduated from UNC-Wilming- 40 | July/August • 2012 ily to experience Wrightsville Beach. "I've seen this place now being used by the third generation and their kids. I don't see us ever leaving Wrightsville," Susan Hornaday said. "We love to get together with our Fayetteville friends and come togeth- er here as a family. I hope that never changes." With a view of the intracoastal waterway and sound, and the ability to sit, relax and watch the boats go by, all the mem- bers of the family realize how important gathering together during the summer is to help strengthen their family bonds. "We are some of the most fortunate families around to be able to gather at this place," Susan Hornaday said. "For every- body, this is their universal favorite spot." CV Wrightsville Beach Flotilla, which occurs every year aſter Thanksgiving. Brooks' son Thomas is now the newest member of the fam-

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