wii Friends

Ted and Cathy arrived from Maryland this evening.  After a nice walk on the beach and a great dinner out, we introduced them to wii bowling and wii tennis.  However, I think I'm going to hide the controlers, since Ted beat the crap out of me!

A Little Sight Seeing

We went to Wilmington, NC to do a little sight seeing.  The city has a beautiful river walk but this chilly day we were the only walkers.  We also walked through the city's mansion district and finished the day with a tour of the USS North Carolina.

Bird Brain

We have had a few cloudy days lately and so instead of photographing sunrises and sunsets, I've been practicing my bird photography. This seagull was actually laughing at me after I got splashed by a wave.

While all the locals were preparing for our big snow storm (1 inch) earlier this week, it seems the birds had some preparation as well. This photo was taken just outside our door just a few hours before the flakes started falling! There were thousands and thousands of birds in a feeding frenzy that lasted about two hours.

I've also been spending way too much time on the phone and computer but it's paid off with two real estate sales since I arrived. That's much better than I did in November and December so maybe we should just stay down here for a few more months!

Enjoy my bird photos!

Football Season is Over for This Giant Fan

First off, a public apology! With all the quality time that Jim and I are spending together while on vacation, you would think we'd be communicating better. Not the case!

We got a very nice package from Carolyn and Karen in Baltimore. It included a 1/2 price Giants cap for Jim and a full price Ravens cap for Mary. (It was received before the Raven's loss last week!) Well, I thought Jim had e-mailed them a nice thank you note and, of course, he thought I had taken care of it. So we are telling the entire world that we screwed the pooch on this one.

Jim looks better in his Giant's cap than I look in the Raven hat so that the only photo we'll put here. Wish you all were here!

Snowy Morning

The sand was frozen and there was a coating of snow on the beach but the sunrise was as beautiful as ever. With no hat or gloves, it will take me a few hours to thaw out but it was worth it.

No Golf Today

It snowed here today! While we got less than an inch of snow today, everything, schools, government, Camp Lejeune, were shut down. It's weird, but not to worry...Thursday will be in the 50's, and Friday in the 60's and its back to the golf course.

Breaking News! Special Alert! Story of the Year!!!

The place is freaking out! There is snow in the forecast for tomorrow and the news showed footage from 2004 when the last snow storm blew through and left enough snow to almost cover the grass. Several school districts have already closed school for tomorrow and the rest have delayed opening by at least 2 hours. Of course, it is 49 degrees as I write this and and while it is very cloudy, we've not seen even a rain drop much less a snow flake.

Fortunately, it's suppose to be 60 by Friday.

By the way, thanks for all the recent comments left on the blog. It is so good to know that we've been missed but not forgotten.

I Stand Corrected!

It was chilly today and so we went to the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores with Joel and Kerry. It's a super aquarium and I learned a few important things. For example, I've been telling the world about my collection of miniature conch shells. I've literally crawled on the beach looking for new specimens. Guess what? They are welch shells, not conch shells. You have to go to Florida to find conch shells.

Oh yea, the star fish we found yesterday? It's not a star fish, it's a sea star. Since it is not actually a fish, you can't call the a star fish anymore. So I stand corrected.

It was a great day that ended with a long walk on the beach.

Fort Macon State Park

Kerry and Joel arrived at Emerald Isle last night and we spent the majority of the day at Ft. Macon State Park.  After touring the fort, we spent several hours walking one of the most beautiful beaches on the east coast.  We also had a very successful treasure hunt, finding one sand dollar and one star fish as well as hundreds of sea shells.

Enjoy the photos.  There are more in the slideshow in the sidebar.  If you click on the slideshow, you can hit the "Play Slideshow" button to see the photos in a larger format.

Busy,busy, busy.

Well Mary said that I'm not living up to my part of the blog, so...

Today while Mary was off taking sunrise photos I vacuumed the 1st floor of the beach house, took out the recyclables, and showered. When she got back from her photo shoot, we took a walk on the beach. While this might sound like good exercise, its not. WE have to stop every few feet and look for shells. Anyways after our beach "walk", I went to the driving range for about an hour. After that exhusting hour I returned to the beach house and sat on the porch overlooking the ocean and did my sudoku puzzles. Then I needed a break so...I read my book. And somewhere in between all of that I went to the post office. This not a typical day, sometimes, I play golf instead of going to the range. Now you can plainly see how busy I am, and why I don't have time to blog! Oh yeah, I opened a Facebook thing. It just goes to show if you want something done just give it to a busy person. Wish you were here, Jim

Thanks John & Gloria

The fist few days we were here, I'd pop up well before the crack of dawn and gather my tripod and camera bag and set up on the beach waiting to photograph a beautiful sunrise. All three times, the sky was overcast and the sunrises were ho-hum. I quickly learned to pop out of bed and look out for stars. If I'd see them, well, maybe there would be a great sunrise. This morning I saw stars!

John and Gloria are our landlords for the month of January and they invited me to use their dock at Cedar Point to catch some sunrise photos. I took them up on that opportunity this morning and hopefully that wasn't their dog making a bunch of racket this morning trying to scare me off the dock. If so, I'm so sorry.

Anyway, the view was spectacular and I hope you enjoy the photos.

My Shutter Finger is Rested

I actually took a whole day not shooting photos but made up for it today.  While Jim played golf this afternoon, I headed back to Cedar Point Tidewater Trail.  The entire 1.3 mile trail is simply lovely.  It was my second nature hike of the day and since tomorrow is a rain day, I will probably rest up.