The funny little crosshatch pattern in the post picture is not a special effect.  It is actually the screen in the open window of my upstairs office.

We have enjoyed two nights, July 15 & 16, when we were able to have the windows open.  It looks like July 17 might follow suit and make it three nights in a row.

Being able to open windows at night is something of a treat here on the Crystal Coast in mid-July 2011.  It has been a hotter than normal July here.

We have had some serious heat in the first part of July, and for a while it was combined with humidity and smoke.

That changed radically on Friday, July 15.  An east wind seemed to bring us cooler air.  Heat at night is the real enemy.  If we can cool off at night, the water temperature stays more moderate.  The east wind seemed to cool off the evenings.

Without some nighttime cooling, we start the day well behind the eight ball.  You always know you are in trouble when the morning temperature is 80F or greater.  read more »

You know when you wake up in the morning and moisture is running down the outsides of your windows that the day is going to be a humid one.

After a first cup of coffee, I decide to check the temperature on our front deck which is in the shadows most of the morning. I find the window thermometer already registering 80F at 6:50 AM.

When I walk outside twenty minutes later, the warm air surrounds me.  There is no breeze, skipping my morning walk around the docks doesn't take a lot of thought.

The change from July 12 when we sat outside in the driveway just as dusk found is striking.  That night the eighty degrees with a nice sea breeze and less humidity felt like a great beach night.

This morning I am glad that I mowed the yard earlier in the week and soaked all the plants yesterday morning.  My wife comes in from taking a couple of letters to the mailbox at 10:30 and pronounces her trip outside like a trip to a sauna.
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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 »

Living on one of North Carolina's coastal rivers is a true pleasure, and I have written about it before including this post, How to Enjoy a Coastal River.

I am reminded of how wonderful the river is each morning when I look out towards it from our dock behind our home. Part of my morning routine is to check the tide level on one of the dock pilings and survey the water surface.

Then I try to gauge the winds out on the river.  If it is really windy out on the river, it is pretty easy to catch from the visible whitecaps.  However, it can be very calm in our inlet, look calm on the river and still  be pretty windy on the river once you are out there.  About the only way to really know how windy it is on the river is to get in the boat and head out to the river.

There are mornings when the air, wind, and tides just seem to tell me to get in the boat and ride down the river.  It is one of the urges in life that I don't try to resist at all.
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When I wrote the post, "Even at the coast, some rain must fall," on May 7, 2011, I had no idea that the rain I was describing would be the last significant rain we would see for almost six weeks.

That turned out to be the case. After the one quarter of inch of rain that we got on May 7, we did not see any measurable rain until early the morning of June 20 when we got at least six tenths of an inch of precipitation.

Fortunately we have been able to water our yards and gardens.  Farmers in the area haven't been that lucky.  Unless we get additional rain in the next few days, I suspect the area's field corn crop will be a complete loss.  It may already be damaged beyond repair at this point.

Some of our local vegetables are from irrigated fields so we are lucky in that respect.  However, there are a lot of area produce fields that are not irrigated so we need more rain if those fields are to bear fruit this year.
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A valid question might be, "If you live less than ten minutes from miles of beach, why would you want to get in the car and drive three hours to just look at another beach?"

Well even paradise gets hard to appreciate unless you venture out to the rest of the world once in a while.

With that in mind and the added incentive that a friend we hadn't seen since the early eighties was vacationing in Corolla, we decided to make a day trip to Nags Head and meet our friend for lunch at Sam and Omie's Restaurant.

Sam and Omie's has a litte extra significance in our household since a couple of my favorite but aging tee-shirts were bought there on vacations we took in the area during the late nineties.  My favorite old tee-shirt from there says on the back, "Everyone has to believe in something, I believe I will go fishing."

While I actually would rather have eaten at the Lone Cedar and enjoyed some of their famous crab cakes, unfortunately they were only open for dinner so I had to settle for Sam and Omie's along with a couple of softshell crabs.
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We are having absolutely great weather as long as you aren't a farmer trying to grow crops or a homeowner trying to keep a yard alive.

There is no place more stunning and enjoyable than the Crystal Coast when the skies are blue, the water warm, and the sea breezes light.

Sunday morning as I walked around the boardwalk, the only noise came from birds hiding in the pine trees.  They were concealed as I got no chances for pictures of significance.

The birds were there, but their backs seemed to be turned to me.  Eventually as I reached the center of the boardwalk in Bluewater Cove,  my thoughts turned to Friday of the first week of June.

Early Friday morning, a friend and I headed off on a fishing trip.  We typically manage to fish together about once a year, but we missed last year.  His memories of the two nice redfish we caught on our last trip together were still fresh even though it was early in the summer of 2009.
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