Today went by in a flash.  I was out with clients all day.  My wife joined me for the last showing of the day at around 5 PM and once my last client was on the road, we headed home. It was then we both decided that some fried flounder would taste mighty good and be a fitting ending for such a nice day.

Our experiences with the T&W Oyster House have been particularly great since Earl has come back.   T&W is also practically on our doorstep so once the decision was made to go flounder hunting, we headed up Highway 58 to T&W.  We got there just a few minutes after 5 PM.  They were already busy.  We were very surprised by the large early crowd.

Fortunately T&Ws is a huge place so we did not have to wait for a table.  We did end up in the last of the great dining rooms which have cedar posts supporting their ceilings. 

That we ended in the last room was a testament to the rapidly filling dining rooms.  We placed our orders not long after getting our iced tea.  My wife got a senior flounder fillet.  I got a combo of flounders and fried oysters which I shared with her.
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Last night we visited Las fincas, the Mexican restaurant that just opened on Highway 24 across from Sanders Ford.

We were dining with coupons,  and in order to take advantage of the coupon we both ended up eating fajitas.

I had a huge sizzling platter of fajitas, shrimp, chicken, and beef, to go along with their handmade flour tortillas.  My wife, Glenda, had just chicken fajitas which was also a very big serving.

They came with the traditional beans, rice, guacamole, and sour cream.  We also got to enjoy some chips and salsa before the meal.  They were good chips.

I was very impressed with the meal.  The restaurant is very well done inside, it is certainly the nicest restaurant on the inside in Swansboro.

There is no a lot of parking out front but apparently there is more in the rear.  I have talked to at least one other person who brought a family, and everyone enjoyed their food.
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Yesterday was an extraordinary October day.  For one thing, the official temperature was in the mid eighties.  Our porch thermometer read in the nineties.  It was a summer day in Oct.  I will bet it was hot at the Mullet Festival.

When we crossed the bridge to Emerald Isle, there were probably forty to fifty boats fishing for spots in the Intracoastal.  It was an impressive site.  When we came back, the boats had all moved.

When we got to St. Francis by the Sea for lunch, there coolers upon coolers of lobsters.  I think they told me that they ordered 980 lobsters from Maine.  It was such a nice day, I heard someone say they could have sold 1,200.

We enjoyed our lobsters, and that will hold us until year.  We like to eat lobsters once in a while since I cooked lobsters for my wife on our first date.

It is amazing, that after 36 years of marriage, I still have to get the lobster meat out of the shell for her.  Well at least she did not steal a claw this year.

This morning instead of waking up to 77 degrees and blue skies, our temperature is at 64 degrees and we are overcast.
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Twenty-four area restaurants to try  read more »

The restaurant/bar called Boondocks seems to have had a soft opening this afternoon at 5PM.  Their sign said they were offering wings.

No other details are known.  Boondocks is located on Highway 58 at location that previously housed The Dive.

Today marked the peak of the local produce season.  All wwe are waiting for.

We bought and cut our first Bogue Sound watermelon of the year.  As usual it was delicious.

With just two of us, we have a hard time eating one of the large watermelons.  We did find a nice small seedless one for $4.99 at Guthrie's just east of Cape Carteret on HIghway 24.

There is plenty of other great produce around.
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When I was growing up in North Carolina back in the sixties, many towns had restaurants open from Thursday through the weekend that served fresh NC fish.  They were often on the outskirts of town and in simple, unpretentious buildings.

The buildings did not matter because people went for the fresh fish.  Often the owners went to the coast on their own weekly to get their fish.

The fish houses made Carolina fried seafood famous.   Fresh fried seafood with a potato, hush puppies and slaw became a treat for people living miles from the ocean.

Here on the coast, the fish houses often built their trade around local specialties.  We have all heard of Calabash shrimp.  Here on the shores of the White Oak River, T&Ws built their reputation on oysters both steamed and fried.

Many of the fish houses of my youth are long gone.  T&Ws Oyster Bar has returned to its glory days.  The fried fish and seafood brings back memories of those long gone fish houses.

Last night we had a great fried oyster and flounder dinner with baked potato, coleslaw, and hush puppies.
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