My premonition was correct.  The Swansboro Market turned out to be a small crafts fair.  I saw one cucumber on display. That was it for vegetables.

There were some nice things there, but it was August hot and even that close to the water there was no breeze, so I did not last long.  Even my wife was ready to head back the car after a quick stroll through the Market.

The only person who had the right idea was the lady who was weaving baskets while sitting with her feet in a pail of water.  She looked the coolest of the group.

I am not a big crafts person even in the winter,  so a craft market when the mercury is above 90 is not going to hold my attention long..  At least I could flee across the street to some of Swansboro's air conditioned shops.
 read more »

I think we will feel the heat today.  Yesterday we had enough storms in the middle of the day to keep the temperatures down.

As we grabbed lunch with Brian, one of my fishing buddies, rain was already rolling across the White Oak and the big island was obscured in mist.

The shore birds did not seem to mind the rain since it ended as quickly as it came.

When we left and turned towards Swansboro, there were some ominous clouds over the town.  However, as the afternoon progressed the skies cleared, and we had a beautiful evening.

I dropped the boat in the water and took it for a very quick spin, but I did not have time to go out on the river and catch the evening sunset.  Perhaps that is in the cards today.
 read more »

After Virginia for a couple of weeks, I had a lot of outside work that needing doing, and we had to pick up our mail at the Swansboro Post Office

On the way back home, I suggested that we stop at Nicky's of Swansboro which is located between the bridges on the way to Cedar Point on Highway 24.

After all my hard work, I was ready for a treat, and an appetizer of hand breaded clams strips from Nicky's qualifies as a great fried seafood treat.  I love their homemade sauce which is served with the clams.

After splitting the clam appetizer with my wife,  I ordered a veggie wrap.  I thought perhaps that might come close to balancing the clams.  At least it is a lot closer than ordering one of their eight ounce cheese burgers.  The veggie wrap was very good, as was my wife's chicken Caesar salad.
 read more »

There are sights that renew the soul.  One of them for me is driving back from Emerald Isle just after I get on the bridge.  It is hard to say which direction is my favorite since both east (shown above) and west views are almost hard to describe with words.

Actually the colors in the picture attached to the post remind me most of my first visit to Nova Scotia where the whole world is blue and green.  The biggest difference between the waters along the Southern Outer Banks and the waters around Nova Scotia is that you will not turn blue in our waters this time of year.  You cannot say the same for Nova Scotia.

We lived in Nova Scotia for a few years, and it is one of the most beautiful places on earth, but the waters are not exactly warm enough to qualify as swimming waters.  My wife always seem to have a slightly blue kid on her lap when we were near the water in the summer.  read more »

While I no longer grow a huge garden like I did when we lived in Canada, I still love fresh produce.  I am a regular at Winberry's Produce in Cedar Point.  From the first strawberries to new potatoes, corn, and watermelon, I have enjoyed all of summer's treats this 2010.

The one thing that I still grow is tomatoes.  In fact I have a contest with some friends each year to see who has the first ripe tomato.  We had a little controversy this year, but I was dethroned as tomato king by my fishing buddy Dean.  I was visiting with Dean and his wife. Gail, the other day, and he said that being king was not all it was cracked up to be.

In fact, he said that he suspected that I had put a curse on his tomatoes when he defeated me. Apparently his tomatoes are not producing well.  I didn't say a lot since you don't want to kick a man when his tomatoes are having a hard time, but sometimes you lose a battle and win the war.  read more »

Yesterday I drove up to the Eastern Regional Beach Access on Emerald Isle. I purposefully left around 4 PM so I would get caught in traffic on the Emerald Isle bridge.

It is just one of the things that I do to get pictures like this one which is taken from near the middle of the bridge looking East.  I also captured this one looking west across the marshes.

I think that I missed the peak of the traffic because it only really stopped twice on the bridge.  It did take almost eight or nine minutes to get through Emerald Isle.  That gets a moderately congested rating from me.  read more »

We are at the mid-point of summer, and it is time to get one of those delicious Bogue Sound watermelons.

Here along the Southern Outer Banks, eating one of those delicious melons is one of the special treats of summer.

On a hot summer evening while you are spending a week at the beach, eating a Bogue Sound watermelon is just one of the things you do while visiting Emerald Isle.

Yesterday I stopped by Winberry's produce stand and picked up a couple of the smaller melons.  As you can see from the picture, the melon I cut was picture perfect.

I talked to Sara, the owner, while I was paying for my produce.  She told me they have been growing watermelons for over 55 years.  She said that at this time of the year almost everything in their stand comes from right from their fields.
 read more »