Sunny Saturday

Today we were greeted by Carolina blue skys and temps into the low 60's. A morning walk on the beach, feeding the sea gulls, and enjoyed the sunny weather was a great way to start the day. Later, while Mary worked on her photography, I sat on the porch overlooking the ocean and read a book while waiting for the Time Warner cable guy. The cable issue is a whole other story. Anyways I played golf today, and hope tommorrow is just as great of a day as today. Wish you all were here.

Emerald Isle 28, Rochester 30

When we woke up this morning, we were surprised to learn that it was 2 degrees colder at Emerald Isle, NC than in Rochester, NY. The two big differences were that it was snowing in Rochester and it reached 60 degrees by noon in Emerald Isle. Sunday we are suppose to see 70 degrees.

Today, we walked the Cedar Point Tidewater Trail at Croatian National Forest. We were trying to sneak up on a Snowy Egret and almost walked right into two Green Herons perched on the bridge that we didn't see. The birds were so close that I couldn't get them both in the same photo. The park is beautiful and is suppose to be a great spot to catch sunsets.

Did George and Kim Arrive at Emerald Isle Early?

We thought they were here two weeks early when we saw the above license tag in the parking lot but later decided that they must only be the #2 Fan of the Yankees.

Another Beautiful Sunset

Notice that there is no snow in the photo! We do, however, have to put up with a lot of sand!

Today was spent unpacking, grocery shopping and napping.

Vacation 2009 Has Begun

We arrived at Emerald Isle safe and sound this afternoon to enjoy sunny skies and 60 degree temps. Learning that Rochester, NY was being blasted by another snow storm made the 60 degrees all that more enjoyable. It is suppose to cool off tomorrow but there is no snow in the forecast for here.

Happy New Year All! It will be a quiet one here except the pounding surf. For some reason, 8 hours in the car doing absolutely nothing is very exhausting and I doubt either of us will see the new year pour in. Check back often and hopefully there will be a more interesting post.

P.S.

We made it home safe and sound, but are not particularly happy about the 15 inches of snow on the ground. In typical Rochester-fashion, it has snowed at least a trace on 21 of the last 22 days. Yuck!

On a more pleasant note, we got an e-mail from Joe and Kitty (see Jan 7 post) and little Griffin Lee Christodoulou was born January 26. He weighed 6 lbs, 2 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Boo Hoo

We are packing up and hitting the road this morning. Not easy. It's been the best vacation ever.

The high today will be in the 60's and there is a gentle ocean breeze.....okay, it's not so gentle, maybe 20 to 30 mph, but it is a warm breeze. There is a gentle breeze in Rochester, NY as well but it is only 25 degrees and that gentle breeze is called wind chill.

Thanks for following our vacation blog and all the comments and e-mails. We'll see everyone soon back in the Snowbelt!

Love, Jim and Mary

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