Back to Southport

It was another wonderful day in Paradise and so we decided to do a return trip to Southport. It is such a quaint, little town that we wanted to share it with Geoff and Mary.

And we got back to the beach just in time for another beautiful sunset.

Dinner Party

John invited us all over for dinner last night and give us a quick cooking lesson on how to make his seafood salad. It was delectable and a good time was had by all!

Shore Birds

The result of spending way too much time on the beach.

Fritters

We introduced Geoff and Mary to fritters this morning for breakfast. Fritters are pieces of fruit dipped in pan cake batter and deep fried. The are served with powder sugar and whipped cream. We figure that since they have fresh fruit, the must be good for us.

One of the Many Things We Will Miss About North Carolina

My Good Luck Charm!

Geoff and Mary Williams arrived from Rochester today. Geoff and Jim ran off to the golf course and Mary and I walked the beach. I guess Mary was a good luck charm because I found the very best sea shells of the trip today!

Rainy Day

One of the joys of being down here for a full month is to experience the many moods of the ocean. When we first got here, there were a couple of stormy days, complete with a tornado watch, and the the sea was explosive. We've also had many calm days where the ocean was like a huge pond, except for a little ripple wave at the shore line. During the calm weather, you can lay in bed at night and count the waves, one....................two....................three. Yesterday was stormy but there was no wind. There was no counting the waves because the crashing surf was constant. And we saw our first surfers. They were in wet suits (high temp was only 50) but were surfing all afternoon.

It rained on and off yesterday so we spent a quiet day going through the hundreds of photos taken since we left NY and we put together this slide show. Hope you enjoy it.

Another Unbelievable Sunset

We got home from Southport just in time to witness another unbelievable sunset! Even Tasha couldn't take her eyes off it.

Southport

We went south today, way south, to a tiny town called Southport that is located between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach. It was worth the drive! It is located on the mouth of the Cape Fear River and is protected by barrier islands. From the town you can see a lighthouse on the island but we didn't have time to go explore there.

The town has lots of 100+ year old Victorian homes and much older live Oak trees. The Live Oak in the photo is estimated to be 800 years old.

We had a great lunch, did a little shopping and drove back to Emerald Isle.

New Bern

In the morning, we went to New Bern, a pretty little town about an hour away. New Bern was originally the capital of North Carolina and sits where the Trent and Neuse Rivers meet. More importantly (to Jim) its the birthplace of Pepsi (although when we had lunch, they only served Coke. YEA!) Supposedly, the first Pepsi was served at a corner drug store with soda fountain.



We left New Bern in time for Jim to go play golf and Tasha and I walked the beach. She is getting use to beach life. Today she walked at least 5 miles, and while she was tired, she kept pace and really seemed to enjoy it.

Blogging From the Bathroom

Got a very, very nasty stomach bug and spent more than my fair share of time in the bathroom. In fact, the last entry was really from Jim but he didn't want to bother me for a refresher course in how to log in.

I'm a lot better now and we've been out and about doing some cool stuff. I'll update the blog later, but for now just leave you with a dolphin photo. (okay, okay....you really have to squint to see them, but they looked very cool in person)

Chilly

We awoke to a sunny and warm, in the 60's, Tuesday morning. Got our morning walk on the beach in early because the weather forecast was for winter to return to N.C. The storm that has gripped most of the nation with freezing rains was heading our way. About noon the sky darken and the winds picked up temperature began to fall. I needed to check and see if we were still playing golf at 2:30. Well to make a long store short, we don't play if its windy and below 50. No golf today.