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.  read more »

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 »

After a really nice March 2012 when each day either the beach or the water seemed to be calling me even when the wind was blowing, the weather on Friday, April 6, does seem like a break from spring.

While it is too early to tell for certain, initial signs are that unlike March when only three days saw below normal high temperatures.  April might give us temperatures closer to the average with only nine days instead of twenty-eight days above normal.  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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If you are living in the South and not taking advantage of the great gardening weather, you are missing a big part of what makes life here so special.

Just a little gardening can make you feel like a native Southerner.

There are few things that I enjoy more than a tomato sandwich made with one of my own homegrown tomatoes. 

I grew up with my mother growing unbelievably tasty tomatoes around our house near Lewisville, North Carolina.  Mother was still growing tomatoes well into her eighties when she lived on Pine Street in Mount Airy, NC.

I have faced some really challenging tomato climates in my life.  The north shore of Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley barely had enough heat to produce tomatoes by September.  read more »

While some areas of the country have to endure cold dreary days during winter, at least here on the Southern Outer Banks, we often have clear blue skies with our cool temperatures.  Sunshine makes a huge difference.

Even more important is that we can count on the sun really warming us as we near the end of February.  In general this has been a nice winter with few shots of really cold weather. Our daily temperatures don't have to rebound nearly as much to escape winter as they did last year.

With few exceptions, Alaska being one, winter has not been nearly the fierce beast in North American that it was last year when the media declared it the coldest winter in 100 years on the Carolina Coast.  It was a serious winter, and I am glad we did not get another one like it this year.
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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 »