Going out on the river is always a treat, but there is always special about coming home to our inlet.
 
One of the things that I have learned well from living the White Oak River is how to enjoy a big coastal river  whether in a skiff with a 90 HP Yamaha behind me or in a kayak under my own power.

While very different, both are fun ways to see the river. I rarely have to force myself to choose between the two ways of seeing the river since usually my mood determines my mode of transportation.

My reasons for getting in the skiff can be varied. I might just want to go out and check the river in preparation for future fishing trip. I could just be feeling a little landlocked and need a ride into the marshes to enjoy the spectacular beauty of the grasses and water as it stretches to the horizon.
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There are a lot of reasons that I choose to slide my kayak in the water behind our house and paddle out to the middle of the White Oak River.  The view out our inlet just after I leave my dock is worth the paddle itself.

On the surface paddling out into the river is good exercise, but I get more out of the journey mentally than I do physically. 

There is no other trip besides the quiet paddle to the middle of the river where I can lose myself to the elements so quickly and do it without burning any gasoline.

On my recent trip out our inlet to the river, I surprised an Osprey who took off with his catch of the day jumping mullet.  I could also hear the scolding of the Kingfisher who is convinced that he is mayor of our inlet.  read more »

No matter where I have lived, I have always had a special place or two where I could visit and find some peace and renewal.  Here on the Crystal Coast we are especially fortunate because there seems to a special place around every turn.

When we lived in Nova Scotia during the early seventies, there was a place high on the hill behind our two hundred year old farm house.  It was quite a hike, but the view of St. Croix Cove was worth it. 

Though we owned a lot of land there, this particular spot was not part of it at first.  I eventually traded some pasture land for this piece of wild land.  The view and the acres surrounding it meant a lot more to me than a few acres of pasture.
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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 »

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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It took less than a month, but the sand that I reported lost in the post, "A Bite Out of Third St. Beach," seems to have been replaced by waves that are likely cousins to ones who took it away.

My wife and I went for a walk up at Third Street on Wednesday November 9 and discovered that plenty of sand has returned to the beach.  I am pretty sure that there is now more sand on the beach than I saw at any time during the summer of 2011.

Never knowing what you will find is one of the neat things about walking on a beach.  It is rarely the same place twice.  The beach can even change as you are walking on it.

Lots of times, as the sun starts going down, the light on the beach will change.  What looked like a perfectly normal beach just a few minutes earlier will turn into a very different spot.
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I could have easily used a picture of Emerald Isle Bridge traffic from the afternoon of July 1 as the picture for this post, but anyone headed this direction is going to see plenty of traffic and doesn't need to be reminded of it with another picture.

It is best if people focus on what they are going to see once they make it to the coast.  That is why my picture is of the ocean water just west of Third Street Beach.  If everyone just remembers that the beach will be here no matter when they arrive, then just maybe, everyone can make it to their destinations safely.

My trip on Friday, July 1, over to Emerald Isle allowed me to gauge the afternoon beach traffic. It was also a look at the parking situation so I could guess what kind of holiday crowd will make it to Emerld Isle this 2011 Fourth of July week.   read more »