Four years away from the coast

 

Emerald Isle Beach

It is hard to believe that when Janauary rolls around, we will have four years between us and the fifteen years we spent with our toes in the sand. As is often the case, there is a time and place for the different stages of life.  When we arrived on the coast, I was fifty-seven years old.  When we left, I had flipped over into the seventies. 

As my wife was fond of saying, you are too old to out in a two-mile wide river in a kayak. Before those words are even cold, she says you also do not need to offshore in the ocean in a twenty-foot skiff.

I hate to admit it, but she is probably right. Even a four mile beach walk might be a little taxing, The good news is that I have a lot of great photos like this one of sunset at the Cedar Access to the Croatan National Park.

The COVID19 Summer on the Crystal Coast

This has been an unusual summer in most places.  It is even stranger for those of us who live in vacation spots like the Crystal Coast.  We live in a place that others love to visit but this summer many of us are holding back from visiting places that we normally frequent because it might be dangerous. On top of that I sold our skiff. I have no regrets because of all the work a boat brings but being out on the water is also one of the few things that you can do with minimal risk.

While being on an uncrowded beach like this one at Third Street a few days ago is also one of the safer places to be, in summer we often make trips to Beaufort, the Maritime Museum, Fort Macon, and Hammocks Beach.  Now when we think twice going to a place, we usually end up not going. Since we live here, the thought is that we can visit later when most tourists have gone home and the danger to our health is less.

Our beaches are still the same beautiful places that they have always been, but the Coronavirus has made for an unusual Fourth of July.  We have had a hot dry summer with masks and on top of that Hurricane Isaias kept us on our toes for a while in early August.  My wife and I were not impressed that Isaias chose our anniversary to visit North Carolina's coast.  We were saddened by all the damage especially on Oak Island.

Unlike most Hurricanes, Isaias was stingy with the moisture.  We only got 1.5 inches of rain which is the same amount that we got the whole month of July.  This summer's lack moisture in July is the opposite of the summer of 2018 when we got twenty inches of rain from July 12 to August 4.  Our July dry streak shows no signs of disappearing this first week of August 2020.  August has brought plenty of storms but none have delivered the needed rain. It is too late for much of the county's suffering corn crop.

Still this has been a bountiful summer when it comes to gardens that could be watered.  Our spring garden gave us lettuce from the middle of March well into the last part of May.  We had homegrown tomatoes to go with with our beans from May 15 well into August. I attribute much of the success to my wife's careful attention to the garden and the rest to the compost that we make behind our home.

Ever summer brings it own set of delights and challenges. One of the delights of our summer has been four marsh kittens that we trapped back in the spring.  They have taken over our home as you can see from these pictures.  While my job has hot been impacted, I have taken some of my extra time and devoted it to cooking.  I think I have breakfast almost perfected.

If you need more information visit my Crystal Coast Life webpage.

Crystal Coast's Real Fall and A New Adventure

Emerald Isle's Third Street Beach, Fall 2019

To a certain extent, 2019 has been a year of recovery for Carteret County, the Crystal Coast and the adjoining counties still have scars from Hurricane Florence.  Even some of my favorite beaches like Third Street got some new sand pumped in to reinforce the dune line.

However, we are over a year away from Florence and many of the places have healed physically but it will be hard to forget Florence. We are in our fourteenth year on the Crystal Coast, and Florence was the first time we got a mandatory evacuation notice.  We did leave but returned before the floodwaters closed the roads in Kinston.  We returned to a loose piece of vinyl and evidence that water made it onto our driveway for the first time ever but we found that the butter in our fridge did not even melt.  My skiff, which I always secure on its lift during storms, was also undamaged.  All things considered, Carteret County faired much better than other areas.  Our schools were only out a couple of weeks compared to over six weeks in adjoining Onslow County.  Swansboro, as many people saw in the national news, got over 34 inches of rain and Front Street was completely flooded. There was plenty of destruction to remind us of the power of a major hurricane.

When you live in a coastal area like ours, you expect some risk and the closer to the ocean or the more ocean that surrounds you, the greater the risk as even our good neighbors in Ocracoke will tell you after Dorian devasted them this summer.

However, here in our piece of paradise, we are pleased to come through the summer of 2019 with lots of sunshine.  It was a very dry summer and we were in something of a drought until late summer, but that just made it tough on us gardeners and great for beachgoers.

Now, the first taste of real fall is on the horizon. Today, October 30, we once again got up to 80F but this weekend our highs are forecast to be more seasonable and in the sixties.  Our lows in the forties will be a temporary shock to the system.  It is too early for temperatures like that to take root on the Crystal Coast.  Still, we are looking forward to somewhat cooler temperatures since the cooler air will keep our lettuce in the garden from getting bitter as we begin to eat it. 

If you hang around here long enough, you will end up agreeing with me that nature's peace will flow into you.  Even beyond the beaches, the beauty of the area  can take your breath away.  That scenic beauty and the peace that permeates the area are two of the many reasons that we have enjoyed living here since 2006.  Unfortunately, life is never simple.  We are now working towards our next adventure which will hopefully be grounded a lot closer to our grandchildren.  The people and places that have shaped us as we lived in two Canadian provinces and three states have made us better and more tolerant people so we go forward hopefully but we truly do hate to leave our spot on the Crystal Coast.

My wife laughs at me because I often choose to drive across the bridge to the Publix in Emerald Isle for groceries. While I can truthfully say that with the new roundabout on Emerald Isle it is just as quick to Publix as it is to the closer Lowe's Grocery which has a few stoplights, the real reason is that I enjoy driving across the bridge and getting a glimpse of Bogue Sound's beauty. It is even more beautiful as the light starts to fade but it is much harder to capture.  That is the seductive part of the Crystal Coast, the area's scenic beauty is addictive and hard to leave.

Summer of 2018 Dancing Between Clouds

The summer of 2018 has been a study of contrasts. For most of the early summer until July 12, there was very little rain. From July 13 onwards, it was easy to get caught in a shower or have multiple soakings but it was also quite possible to have an almost perfect week at the beach.  It just depended on where you happened to be.  We went to visit friends on the South Carolina coast for a couple of days and stayed very wet.

Along the coast in the summertime, it is not unusual for showers to form along the boundary between the coastal Seabreeze and the inland air mass. Often that means areas right on the beach are drier than areas inland. Who gets wet does depend on where the moisture is coming from and how it moves around.  In general, it has been a wet year in North Carolina and coastal South Carolina with lots of Gulf moisture impacting even the mountains and the Piedmont region of North Carolina.

However, during the first two weeks of August, we had two friends staying in Emerald Isle and while they saw a couple of showers, our location just three miles inland had showers almost ever day during their two weeks here.  For some historical perspective on this summer's weather, read my August post, Elusive Good Weather, about the summer and fall of 2015 when things were really wet here on the coast.

For a few weeks in mid-summer, the beaches were plagued with dangerous rip currents but that situation cleared by late July and with our weather pattern changing, it looks like we might be setting up for a nice fall season at the beach.

My WordPress blog has some possibly insurmountable technical difficulties so my new content can be found at this location.  My website homepage has more links and has been updated to improve its speed by using Amazon technology.

Our guide for Emerald Isle, A Week at the Beach - The Emerald Isle Travel Guide, was updated and released in June 2018.  There is also a less expensive black and white paperback and a very inexpensive Kindle version which will work on almost any electronic platform.

A good place to look at all our books is my Amazon author page.  If you need to contact me, you may use this form.  There is a link on this page to sign up for the Crystal Coast newsletter which we send out a few times a year.

Summer 2017 Hangs On

We are well into October 2017 and the warm, summer-like weather continues to keep our heat pumps humming.  We had a blissful week of fall-like weather before Hurricane Nate dragged a tropical air mass up the east coast.

It has been a wonderful summer here on the Crystal Coast. If you would like to a more detailed update, trying visiting my Southern Outer Banks site. You will even find some details about how the fishing season is progressing.

Fortunately fall is our best season of the year so if you have not had time to visit yet, there is still plenty of warm water to sample and lots of uncrowded beach to wander.

For complete vacation info try our guide book for the Emerald Isle area. The 2017-18 Kindle version of A Week at the Beach - The Emerald Isle Travel Guide is available for $3.99 and Amazon has the new full color print version at $19.99 and the B&W version for $7.95.  Both are prime eligible. Locally, Emerald Isle Town Office is carrying the 2017-18 color print books and has them available for $20. The Emerald Isle Book and Toys at Emerald Plantation is carrying the B&W version for $8.

If you cannot find a copy use this contact form and we will help you get a copy of the book. 

Fall Is Slipping Through Our Fingers

It has been another exceptional fall here on North Carolina's Crystal Coast.  The weather is has been nearly perfect and the fishing exceptional.  Even the gardens are still growing and the winds and water from Mathew's brush with the coast are just memories here while others are still dealing with the impacts of serve flooding.  It will not be long before the annual seasonal reversal when the beach areas go from being the cooler part of the area to being the warmer part.

Soon a special kind of peace will descend on the salt marshes and we will be ready for the quiet that comes with the holidays on the coast.

Summer has embraced the Crystal Coast

After a cool spring, summer's warmth has found the Crystal Coast.  Visitors have been quick to find our beautiful beaches.  We had some great crowds on Memorial Day weekend and my beach walk have shown me that people are having fun here on Emerald Isle's beaches.  I just did a couple of walks up at one of Emerald Isle's lesser know beaches.  Read about it in the 2016 version of our book, The Emerald Isle Travel Guide - A Week at the Beach, or get a taste of it and the Atlantic Ocean in my blog post, Last Parking Place at Third Street.  You can also enjoy these shots of the waves and beach at this online album.

The calendar says that it is winter,  but Mother Nature seems a little confused.

It is New Year's Eve and for a couple of weeks, our low temperatures have been around 64F.  Our high temperatures have mostly been in the mid-seventies but we have reached 80F a couple of times.

You can read about this year's Crystal Coast fall at this post,  A Wet Early Fall 2015.

Fall brings some great memories, but because of the warm weather it has been a challenge to get in a fall mode, much less bundled up for winter.  One thing is for sure this past November's weather was memorable.

The water temperature in the river is close to 70F and that has prompted some holiday boat rides.

We will be on the lookout for winter, but from the forecasts that I am seeing the cherry tomatoes that I am picking beside our house are going to be safe into early January 2016.

It is unlikely we will see Raymond's Gut frozen over in January like it did last year but it is hard to predict weather.

It is Summer at the Beach!

If there was any doubt that summer is here, it has been erased the weather during the third week of June 2015.  Afternoon temperatures have been in the nineties even along the beaches.

The first afternoon thunderstorms showed up on Wednesday afternoon so it has been nearly perfect beach weather if you can handle the heat.  It has been so hot that I started mowing my yard at 7:30 AM this morning and quit after less than half an hour of mowing.  I will start again tomorrow but I will be out there even earlier.

Of course if you are standing in water like I was a couple weekends ago, the air temperature is not nearly as important.  If you would like to read more about summer at the beach, try a visit to my Coastal Paradise website or if you would like to cut to the chase and learn about my favorite beach, read this article, A Beach That Touches Everyone.

We also publish both a Kindle travel guide for $3.99 and a paperback travel guide for a little over $20 for Emerald Isle and the Crystal Coast.  We also have a free online travel guide to Emerald Isle.

Head on down as soon as you can this unbelievable weather likely will not last.  We will soon be back to afternoon thunderstorms.  This is a great area to visit and an even better place to live.

The Spring Tonic of Blue Waters and Blue Skies

The Crystal Coast is warming quickly.  It is March 10,  2015,  72F before noon and the odds are that we will see fresh local strawberries within the next four to five weeks.

While I never stop boating here on the Crystal Coast, I always look forward to those days when it is easy to spend time on the water.  I took my skiff for a quick ride down the White Oak River this past early March weekend.

The water temperature was around 50F out in the river and almost 55F back in the marshes but that is still a little chilly for serious boating and certainly too cool for the first kayaking trip of the season.

However, it will not be very long before I am regularly enjoying the zig and zag of the ride down the White Oak.

We have a lot of special places that you can easily visit here on the Crystal Coast.  If the winter blahs have you down, we have some special medicine to make you feel better as you are riding that roller coaster of spring weather.

The blues, greens, and golds are still here

It is late fall enhanced with a taste of warm December weather in Carteret County.  The greens, blues, and golds are what we are accustomed to this time of year.

Fall has been great as usual with the only caveat being that the middle of November was not so great.  Now that the weather is improving, being back on the beach is a reality.

The good news is that while it feels like fall is coming to an end,  this is the Crystal Coast and we can still have some shorts weather in December and some beach days in January.

Come visit before we get to our frozen months and have to spend our time dreaming of warm waters.

Yet Another Amazing Crystal Coast Fall

Looking Across Sound to Bogue Inlet & Bear Island

Fall is an amazing season here on the Crystal Coast.  If you ask residents, you would fine them in near unanimous agreement that fall is the best time of year.

My post, Fall Belongs to the Southern Coast, shows that I am in complete agreement.  The picture at the top of the post was taken October 1, 2014 from the dock at Hammocks Beach State Park.  The area from the dock to Bear Island on the right on the horizon is one of the most beautiful areas in the world.  It is one of my favorite places in the fall.

I have been writing about nice fall weather on the North Carolina coast is for a long time.  One of my earliest posts, That Fall Feeling, was written in 2008.  The next year I wrote, Savoring a Southern Fall.  A year later came Fall Pleasures on the Carolina Coast which was published on Saturday, October 09, 2010.   The next year on Saturday, November 12, 2011, I wrote Fall on the Crystal Coast.  We were gone to Canada in early fall of 2012, but I did manage to write, Quiet Waters in November of that year.   Sometimes it is hard to write about fall when summer is still hanging around like it did 2013.  Eventually I did manage a post entitled Fall On The Coast Hits Its Stride.

Fall is a great time of year at the coast, do not miss it.  A visit to the Crystal Coast in the fall can make the winter seem a lot shorter and show you that fall does not end when the leaves are gone from the trees.

Summer Is Already Slipping Away

White Oak River, July 2014

Just as we are getting used to summer, another July Fourth slipped by us, and I noticed that we are already past the middle of July.  Summer is already half over and we are on the down slope to fall.  It will only be another three or four weeks before the majority of our summer visitors start to disappear.

Schools and jobs will call everyone back to home, but as many know, the beach gets even better as the season slips into the fall.

It has already been a great early start to summer.  We had almost as much perfect clear and dry weather as our yards and gardens could stand. Now we seem to be getting more than our fair share of rain.  Still there will be lots more perfect beach days for everyone to enjoy our great beaches.  Some people who visit will find a special beach to love and end up having a great beach vacation that they will remember for years.

The Crystal Coast got off easy with Hurricane Arthur and probably had a record weekend just a couple of days afterwards.  For me it has been a summer with beautiful waves on the beach and some unbelievably scenic times kayaking out on the river.  There are always plenty of other fun things to do while at the beach.

The summer weather has brought us  plenty of humidity and heat, but we have also had the surf to cure both.  Those warm humid evenings have made for some wonderful beach evenings.  Whether I have been on the oyster rocks catching drum or standing on the beach flinging metal into the surf, I have had a great time.  I have also enjoyed some great cruises into the Swansboro marshes in our skiff.

I hope summer does not disappear too quickly.  Like many folks I am just getting warmed up. Today looks like a wonderful day for a hike along the beach in our world without walls.

Spring Is Sliding Fast, Beach Season Next

We had a cold spring and one stormy late April weekend, but the great weather has finally found us.

Blue skies and beautiful blue waters to match rescued us from the grip of some northern weather that had lost its way.

Finally, a week late, the first local strawberries arrived on April 24 and I am not far from picking my first ripe cherry tomato of the season.  The gardens are moving along faster than the fishing.

My two April kayak trips have resulted in nary a nibble, but conditions were windy so I did not stay out on the river long. I have heard of some fish being caught from the surf recently.

Our last weekend in April was a wonderful one with plenty of possibilities.  Our choice for the last April Sunday afternoon was a quick visit to Beaufort, one of our favorite places to visit.

We had a great time but walking by the water just made me want that much more to answer the call of the river or get back to one of our irresistible beaches.

I am hoping for a long beach hike on Friday, May 2.  I expect to get my feet wet since the water has warmed so much since by mid-April beach hike.

If you what an overview of the information that I provide about the Crystal Coast, visit my Life Along The Crystal Coast Page.

Many locals will tell you that there is no better way to see the area than through my eyes and their extensions, the lenses of my cameras. If you would like to see some of those pictures of the spectacular scenery in our area, check out our recently published $2.99 Kindle book, 100 Pictures, 1000 Words, A Crystal Coast Year. It is worth clicking on the link just to see the free sample of seven pictures. I picked the best 100 pictures from the over 40,000 that I took last year. Kindle reader software works on just about every platform including iPads and iPhones.

If you would like to subscribe to my monthly Crystal Coast newsletter, just scroll to the bottom of any 2014 post on my Crystal Coast Life blog and register.

We will be releasing a new printed version of our Emerald Isle Travel Guide before the middle of May.  Watch this space for more details.

Winter Found the Crystal Coast

I guess a wandering polar vortex could not be counted on to stay far enough to the north to leave us alone.

We did get iced over in late January here along the North Carolina coast.  Some people complained about everything shutting down in anticipation of our icing event but the reality is that we ended up in a lot less pain than folks farther south who ignored the snow and ice warnings.

We have thawed out from our icy adventure.  Fortunately we only have to endure significant snow or ice about once every three or four years. A taste of winter will not do us in but we are eagerly anticipating the better weather of spring and the activities that come with it.

It is normal to still be on a roller coaster as far as weather goes since this is February. However, we know things will get better and it will soon be time to think about enjoying the beach.

To get in the mood for better times on the coast, try our new $2.99 Kindle picture book, 100 Pictures, 1000 Words, A Crystal Coast Year.  It is the best of the 40,000 images that I took last year.  The book includes a link to a website where you can buy higher resolution versions of the images for only 99 cents.

You can get experiment with some similar images that I am letting people download for free as long as they do not use them commercially.  One of the images is the icy one of Raymond's Gut used in this post.

Almost Winter On The Coast

Winter Marsh in Raymond's Gut near Swansboro, NC

As much as I want to complain about our almost winter weather, I just cannot do it.  My friends in Tay Creek, New Brunswick got a big shot of snow this past weekend which is normal for them in the middle of December.

However, we got rain.  For much of the weekend our temperature stayed around 64F.  They are also scheduled for more snow.  During the same time we are looking forward to temperatures in the sixties with a few days in the seventies.

It was nice enough on this past Saturday morning that I took my skiff out on the river for a few minutes.  It was not cold enough for gloves when I took the boat out.  It is hard to call it winter if you can zoom down the river at 30 MPH and still not need gloves.

We are also still enjoying our gardens along the Southern Outer Banks.  We are getting some of our winter marsh visitors but they are not hanging around all day like they often do in our coldest months January and February.

Winter will come when it comes and until then we will enjoy the weather that we have.  If you want to compare the colors of the winter marsh to a fall marsh, click on this link and you will get to see a picture of the same area taken in the fall.

Fall Is Finally Here

Great Egret Along Raymond's Gut

After an extended return visit, summer has appears to be in hiding.  Our favorite season, fall, seems to be here to stay.

The crowds, heat, and humidity are gone.  The water is still warm and inviting.  Fall and winter vegetables have been planted, and the fish are starting to visit the beaches, inlets, sounds, and rivers.

It is a great time to visit some of my favorite spots along the Crystal Coast portion of the Southern Outer Banks.

Check out any of my other blogs featured here for more information even details about a nice new restaurant that recently opened in the area.

If you are ready to start planning your next vacation, you can now buy our Emerald Isle travel guide in paperback as well as Kindle version.

Come visit, you might start a new tradition of fall vacations.

Summer Is Here On The Crystal Coast

Beautiful Surf at Hammocks Beach State Park

The tomatoes are ripe, the humidity is here, the heat pumps are running, and we are all headed for the water.

That pretty well defines summer here on the Crystal Coast and June has already been a great time to enjoy the beaches here along the Southern Outer Banks.

The over seven inches of rain that we have received in June has managed to wash away any thoughts of a dry early summer.

Fortunately the rain has not been of the day long variety so it has still been possible to enjoy the area's beaches.

We even took the ferry from Cedar Island over to Ocracoke Island and then worked our way up to Nags Head.

I managed to stay in the same hotel that I checked into to watch the first step on the moon. As a college student, I spent a fair amount of time camping on Ocracoke in the summer of 1969.

Visiting beaches which seem like old friends is a great way to start the summer.

If you haven't planned your beach vacation yet, there is still plenty of time and you can get the absolute best information in our $3.99 Kindle book, A Week at the Beach, The 2013 Emerald Isle Travel Guide.  The book is also available in paperback.

We are ready for summer

I am ready for summer but I cannot say that it is because of our winter.  Considering that we did not see any snow this year like our last real winter in 2011, it is hard to complain very much about our weather.

However, we have had our share of cold days and our spring has been somewhat cooler than last year.  Still when you live in an area where warmth is the expected norm, you can get a little impatient when the last two weeks of April only have five days above 70F instead of nine days like April 2012.

Whatever the reason, spring is well underway and summer appears to be lurking just over the horizon.  Those of us who are avid fisherman are ready for the new season.

I finished two books this spring so I am ready for a little play time.  Living in North Carolina is always a treat and that is especially the case when you live along the Crystal Coast.

Once a quarter or so I will do a simple post here, but I keep this site alive mainly because it makes a nice landing spot for people who want to see what I have been writing recently.

Most of my posts show up here in a day or so, and there is a large archive of older posts here that still have useful information.  If you are curious about me, you can find a little information on the about me section of my Crystal Coast Life blog where I normally post at least three times a month.

During most of the year I do a summary post at my Coastal Paradise site at least once a quarter and during the warmer months, once a month.  Posts on that site generally have links to my other articles spread back through them.

There is a simple explanation of most of my sites at this page.  If you need to get in touch with me, visit my contact me page.

If you are looking for information about vacationing on the North Carolina coast, please give our 2013 Emerald Isle Travel Guide - A Week at the Beach a try.

Greetings from the Crystal Coast

Most of my blogging is done at my CrystalCoastLife.com blog and my Typepad blog, View from the Mountain.  Once a quarter or so I will do a post here, but I have kept the blog alive mainly because it makes a nice landing spot for people who want to see what I have been writing recently.

We're now past the middle of February 2013 on the Crystal Coast.  This month brought a little brush with winter which set me to dreaming about warm summer waters.  We live close to nature here on the Southern Outer Banks as the larger area is often called.  Changes in the weather are a big part of life on the coast and this year like most years we have had plenty of changeable weather.

Most of my posts show up here in a day or so, and there is a large archive of older posts here that still have useful information.  I am now also writing for ReadWrite web.  You can find a list of those articles at this link.

During most of the year I do a summary post at my Coastal Paradise site at least once a quarter and during the warmer months, once a month.  That post generally has links to my other sites spread back through it.

There is a simple explanation of most of my sites at this page.  You can find quick travel information for the Emerald Isle area at my Welcome to the Beach site.  If you want more information about the beach, the best solution is to buy our $4.99 Kindle Book, A Week at the Beach, An Emerald Isle Travel Guide.

If you want to find out more about me, visit my homepage or my LinkedIn public profile.  If you want some detailed history on me, buy our book The Pomme Company.  I've recently written an article, A Piedmont Awakening, on the Feathered Flounder.  There is some information in the article about my early life.

If you want to send me a message, visit my contact page.  If you have comments or need more information on the area, send me a note, I try to be responsive and a good ambassador for the area.