Budget Travel is running a contest about America's Coolest Small Towns in 2012.  If you live in eastern North Carolina and are on any social network, there has been plenty of encouragement for people to vote for Beaufort in the contest which ends January 31, 2012.

While most of us along North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks and particularly the Crystal Coast portion of it are well aware of why Beaufort is such a great place to visit, there are people who know little about the town and why we would like to see Beaufort win the contest.

I have a number of reasons that I would like to see Beaufort win the contest, but mostly I am rooting for Beaufort because it really is a great place to visit.  read more »

Saturday January 21, 2012 was a damp, gloomy day with fortunately not a lot of winter attached to it.

However, it was just rainy and windy enough to keep me from my afternoon exercise of walking around the marshes here in Bluewater Cove.

My walk isn't a very long one.  Unless I do a lot of doubling back and a few laps on the road which isn't visible in the old Google aerial photo, it is hard to even get in two miles of walking.

Still a few minutes out in the fresh air under what is usually a brilliant blue sky is a great antidote for the winter blues.

Keeping winter out of my head gets more difficult when I miss a few days of walking.  This Thursday I was busy catching up on some correspondence, and Friday we went to Morehead City and Beaufort.  The highlight of the trip was a barbecue lunch at Smithfield's and seeing some Mergansers in the Beaufort Harbor.
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One of the amazing things about the Crystal Coast of North Carolina is that we have enough space and water to have some really big feathered friends living nearby.

Our home which borders Raymond's Gut is just off the White Oak River.  It is a very sheltered spot, and I often measure the nastiness of storms by the number of egrets or herons seeking shelter.  We had a great egret stake out some ground not far from our kitchen window during Hurricane Irene.

When it is really cold, the competition for the fishing grounds behind our home can become fierce with blue herons and great egrets vying for positions in the nooks and crannies of the marshes.

Most mornings I will go for a walk along the boardwalk which surrounds our neighborhood's clubhouse.  It is a great vantage point for watching our big birds.  Tuesday morning, January 10, a great blue surprised me by flying from one of the pine trees along the dock.
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