Mostly Southport

After spending a few hours at Wrightsville Beach, and sharing a chocolate custard, we went to Southport where we spent most of the next couple of days.  We did venture out to Oak Island on Saturday afternoon for some biking, reading, and walking.

Here is a picture from a parking lot on the sound side. Several people were fishing, and a couple of younger boys were playing in the water.  It was maybe 78 degrees that day.

There is something about Southport's smallness that makes you talk to perfect strangers.  Even for me - the introverted, don't-really-love-small-talk person.  I end up talking to people especially on piers.  I remember last year after Christmas talking to a young man from Connecticut. His parents were out looking at houses with a realtor while he fished.



This year we were swinging by the river around eight at night.  We had just watched the sunset from the pier about an hour before, and

I was actually emailing my family while enjoying the pretty surroundings when a man with his wife and two stepchildren stopped to talk to us.  They are from upstate New York.  Apparently his wife is a huge Nicholas Sparks fan so they came down in January for their honeymoon.  Upon leaving, his wife cried all the way to the NC border because she wanted to stay. He is a nurse so he got his NC license, bought a house online, and they moved here three months ago. (How do people change their lives that fast?!)  Earlier in the day we met two other couples from NY who live here now.  They had been here a couple of years. We met them on a smaller pier down towards the old house-hospital.


The next day we were out walking and enjoying the sun shining on the river.

and sights like this:

We walked to the city's dock where a couple just came in by boat.  They were tying up their boat, when the lady said hello to Andrew.  Maybe she saw the longing in his eyes or just was a super-friendly type, but Loree asked if we'd ever been on a boat like theirs (no), and if we wanted to tour it (sure).

 Bill and Loree are originally from northern New Jersey, but sold everything and now sail and live in their boat (which they bought from a British man who lived in Venezuela, but was moving to Argentina because of Venezuela's terrible economy.)

They invited us to look in their boat so we did.  We ended up talking in their boat for awhile and later Andrew drove Bill to get new propane tanks while I walked for about forty minutes with Loree. That saved them having to carry or bike the couple of miles to get the tanks refilled.

Here is another view of the Sea Wolf.

Here is the small inn where we stayed.  It was a half mile walk to waterfront park.

While watching the sunset on evening two, we saw some dolphins, and, of course, lots of boats.

Here is a view of sunset that second night.

And a view from our Sunday morning walk.

We hung around Southport until 1:30 or so.  Then we decided to head for home.

By car.

Southport Observations & Oddities

On Friday, October 16, Andrew and I left home for a couple of days in the Southport, North Carolina, region.  We booked a room at a family-owned inn the day before, and were excited about our adventure.  First off we stopped at Wrightsville Beach since we were in the vicinity.

The water was beautiful, and when we arrived around 10:45, the beach was fairly empty.  We walked together for about forty minutes, and then Andrew biked while I read a book in my chair, and walked along the edge of the water.  It was around eighty degrees so some people were swimming and playing in the water.


After staying for over three hours at Wrightsville Beach, we headed to Southport.   Besides the usual beautiful views of the lovely oak trees, the waterfront, the sunsets and sunrises, and boats, here are a few oddities or other things that took our attention from our visit.

We saw at least three weddings within the two evenings we were there.  This was from the first night.  They had the cannon to fire off twice during their festivities.  The one at dusk was especially neat as we saw the flame as the blank was shot.

 I took a picture of Andrew the next morning beside the cannon.

We noticed this small pond on our way to the marina. Unfortunately, fishing wasn't permitted.

I saw this fellow a few times. 

The Carolinas had had a lot of rain earlier in October.  Apparently the rivers upstream had flowed into the Cape Fear with muddy water because it looked tea/coffee-colored as it washed ashore.  By the way, do you see that fish?

Here's a closer view.

We were enjoying the sunshine from a bench on a short pier when we noticed Ukulele Man (or that's what we named him)!  He even sang a few songs.

 He sat after the first song.

We had a lot of fun around the area! 

August Events

Here are some pictures and events from August.  Hope you are having a great September! 


1 -- spent a few hours with Sophie

after a bath

2 -- Andrew and I visited Pilot Mountain State Park

see the climber?

5 -- swimming with Michael, Stephanie, and Zach

6 -- saw deer in the yard; Zach and I saw Superheroes at the library

We saw these deer in our neighbors' yard

Zach loved this bulletin board at the library

18 -- started working on the book about Zach that he got for his birthday from Stephanie



20 -- outside with Sophie

notice the spider?

 21 -- trip to City Park with Zach (also went on the 13th for the first time)

going through the tunnel

Zach made a friend, Ace

22 -- day trip to Boone

Rough Ridge Overlook

Beacon Heights, Blue Ridge Parkway

Boone Fork Trail

August 23 -- sprayground for the last time this year; Andrew went with us

August 27 -- Zach left for the mountains, and then a trip to Disney World with his grandparents. We drew Mickey and Zach with chalk the morning before he left. 

Sunshine too bright

August 28-- Myrtle Beach: we had so much fun!

A favorite spot on the Boardwalk

August 30 -- stopped by Southport for a few hours before heading home

Selfie with the pelican

June Trips & Stats

When time and weather permit, we enjoy taking a one-or-two-night trip to somewhere in the beach or mountain areas.  Sometimes I long to live in either one of those areas, but then I figure living about in the middle of the state, we are roughly half-way to the beach and mountains which is pretty good. 

If I remember correctly, the first official 90° day of 2015 hit my area when we were in the North Carolina mountains. Specifically we went to Roan Mountain along the NC/Tennessee border...and we had our sweatshirts on first thing in the morning.  (Click to enlarge photos.)

It was cool enough for a sweatshirt when we started

Part of the Appalachian Trail (AT) runs through Roan Mountain so we walked a bit of it.  Instead of it mostly being a trail within woods (it was a little; see above picture), this part of the AT opened up to some grassy areas or balds. We enjoyed the pretty views.  Also, it was peak time for the rhododendrons - and flame azaleas, apparently - so we picked a great weekend to visit.

First the rhododendrons. I didn't realize they were so tall!

That's me in the middle of them!

The bee is enjoying it, too!

And now some flame azaleas.

Beautiful, right?  Here is the trail we walked on. You can see patches of flame azaleas along the left side.

The AT heading south towards Georgia

We also visited Todd where Andrew likes to ride his bicycle along the road where the train used to run.  Todd is not far from Boone. We pass a community called Meat Camp and a store called Goober Peas when we go there.

The road along the South Fork of the New River

Andrew rode his bike on the Blue Ridge Parkway here, but I took this picture before he arrived. 

The Linn Cove Viaduct

Since it was still so hot, we decided to head to Myrtle Beach the following weekend.  Wilmington, Oak Island, and Southport are great, but they don't offer the number of hotels on the beach - which was important to us since it was nearly 100°, and we wanted to be near the ocean!  We found a place at Dunes Village in North Myrtle Beach, and we only left it once after we checked in.  (And that was to buy some food.)

This was the view from our room.  Andrew rode his boogie board in the ocean while I just enjoyed how refreshing it felt as the waves hit me, and as I walked in the water.  We walked along the beach, swam in the pool, sat on those blue-and-white striped chairs (I read some there), enjoyed the swing, played a round of mini-golf...that sort of thing.  There was a nice sea breeze so it never felt hot like it would just a few miles inland. 

We left Monday morning, and on a whim decided to ride into Southport just to see what things were like there. It was hot so we stayed a bit under two hours. But we did walk around and saw this pretty flower.

Someone told me it was a flame lily

And it felt nice out on the pier because of the breeze blowing off the Cape Fear River. 

June Stats: 
From the local meteorologists, Tim and Grant:


"It was a really warm June. 6th warmest on record in the Triad.

Our heat wave in the middle of the month was the longest 90° stretch in June on record."

and

"The avg. high temp in the Triad for June was 88.7° (+3.9)."

I counted 15 days with high temps over 90!