Abandoned

Mary, her Uncle Ted and Kathy have abandoned me today. I don't blamed them its sunny and in the mid 70s. They went sightseeing; I guess I'll go play golf. Wish y'all (for you northerners its you all) were here.

Needing Essential Provisions

It is MLK weekend at the beach and we need some essential provisions.....Jim's new shades and Ted needed shorts! Got to be ready for all this 70 degree sunny weather!

Ted and Cathy Arrive

Ted and Cathy arrived from Maryland just in time to kick off their shoes and take a barefoot walk on the beach. They left Maryland this morning with temps below freezing to arrive at Emerald Isle with sweltering temps in the 70's. They are here for the weekend and the weather is only suppose to get better.

Another One

Another great morning. Sunny its about 60, (the projected high is 70) clear blue sky, and its only 9:30 AM. The Marines Camp Lejeune and Cherry Hill Airbase bases are providing us with an airshow and a concert of canon fire. Down here they call this the" Sounds of Freedom". The only problem is that sometimes the "Sounds of Freedom" interferes with the golf, you got to blame the bad shots on something. Such a small price to pay. Speaking of golf, shot 41, 5 pars, 3 bogeys, and a double. Holed a 50 yard chip shot for bogey, and made a 25 footer for double. Another great day, wish you were here.

Entering Emerald Isle

When we arrived on Emerald Isle almost two weeks ago, the sun was setting and the view from the bridge was incredible. I finally got a chance to photograph the sunset from the bridge. This photo really doesn't do it justice.

Besides shooting the sunset, I looked for shells while Jim played some golf. Maybe he'll blog a little later tonight about his golf game. I found some very cool miniture shells and photographed them below with a dime to show just how small they are.

Vibe vs Vette

Today we took the Vibe in for service, the check engine light had came on, and we thought it might be a good idea to have it look at. We dropped the car off at a GM dealership, and while we were there we looked around the show room, and guess what.... "Mary" fell in love with this brand new 2005 Corvette!!! I think with a little more encouragement from me, she might be willing to trade in the Vibe. Speaking of the Vibe its still in the shop, this might be a sign from above, (read trade in). Hopefully (not) the Vibe will be ready tomorrow. We enjoyed breakfast with our friend John who was good enough not only to buy breakfast, but then loaned us his truck. Later Mary and I went to the "Golfin Dolfin" to use the driving range, do some shopping, and look at some real-estate. Later Tasha and I took our daily walk on the beach, while Mary hunted sea shells. Life just does not get any better than this, wish you all were here!

Just Another Day at the Beach

According to the weather reports, winter is coming tomorrow. The high will only be in the 50's! So Mary spent the day trying to solve the sea shell mystery.

Our first day here, New Year's Eve, we walked the beach and collected awesome shells. Ever since then, the best we've found is chips and pieces of shells. According to the locals, the best time to look for shells is after a big storm and we had big storms all night last night. So Mary was out wading in the ocean both in low tide and high tide but didn't find any new sea shells for the collection. She did, however, photograph the seagulls who were the only other creatures crazy enough to be on the beach with 8 and 10 foot waves.

Joe & Kitty

Joe and Kitty Christodoulou spent the day with us today. They recently moved to Wilmington, NC from Conesus, NY. Kitty's due date is January 23 and so we took "belly photos" on the beach. It was a beautiful day, about 70 degrees. About the only thing wrong with the day is that the NY Giants and the NY Jets both lost.

Sunrises and Sunsets

This morning was a sunrise worth waking up for. There was a tornado watch last night (but no tornadoes) and the ocean was wild and woolly this morning. It made for a beautiful sunrise.

We are located at a unique location in that we can see both sunrises and sunsets over the Atlantic Ocean. If you look at the map below, you can see that Emerald Isle is one of the southern most islands of the Outer Banks and it actually runs east and west. We are a little over three hours from Raleigh.

And this photo illustrates just why I prefer to have a camera in front of my face. (Jim was complaining that almost all the photos were of him) If you see Dave Soldi, don't mention the bad hair day.

Learning to Blog

Ok... just to let everyone know you can teach an old dog new tricks. I think (I know) I'm wearing on Mary's patience. Today we went to Morehead City and Beafort. These are neat old fishing towns on the outer banks of N.C. Hopefully I'm playing golf Saturday...enough of this site seeing stuff, its time to have some fun.

Tasha

We had Tasha Drama today. She seemed to be adjusting to beach life just fine. This morning when we went for our walk, she went right down to the water and even sat and posed to have her picture taken. This afternoon, when we rested in rocking chairs on the porch, she rocked along with us. But for some crazy reason, this evening she chewed up an ant bait that we had put out to poison those pesky critters. Scared us half to death and so we whisked her off to the nearest veterinarian hospital. The vet was more worried about any plastic she ingested than poison but she seems to be doing okay. Thank goodness!

New Years Day at Fort Macon

We went exploring today and found Fort Macon, approximately 10 miles north of where we are staying. It was built in 1826 and was similar design as Ft. McHenry in Baltimore.

The weather today wasn't so wonderful. The wind howled and the ocean had eight foot waves. As a front passed over us, it rained for a while, pretty hard, and then the sky cleared. And even thought it was windy and rainy, the temperature stayed in the 70's. Unbelivable.

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We decided against New Year's Resolutions this year. Instead, we're going to try new month resolutuions. That way, we can start over again in 30 days or so if we fail. Our resolution for January is to walk 100 miles. So far, we've walked 5. Only 95 to go.