We had a wonderful event this evening at the Cape Carteret Presbyterian Church.

There were tables groaning with home cooked foods and desserts.   Lot of visitors joined church members in trying to make a dent in the food provided by the ladies of the church.

The food won and lots of it went home, but no one went home hungry. 

We also had a great music program featuring Southern Grace with Dewey Wells as lead vocalist and guitarist.  Elaine Russell was the harmony vocalist.  Stuart Wilmoth was violinist, and Polly Page was bassist.

Ann Popjes sang "He Touched Me" with the help of Polly Page on the chorus.

It was a wonderful event.

I filmed a sample of Southern Grace's music from August 30 with my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1 pocket camera.  I was pleased with the results considering I was sitting in a pew at the back of the church.

If you have a Windows computer and have never heard of Quicktime, you can catch the video on my Ocracokewaves YouTube channel.  read more »

Today has dawned with lots of blue skies and light breezes.  There were white herons all around Bluewater Cove this morning.  The water was also mirror image quiet.

I am hoping to perhaps get out on the water today after church.

Real estate has keep me hopping most of this week, but I think I should be able to do some fun stuff this afternoon.

After today the weather is supposed to cool.

One of Canadian friends told me that there were some frost warnings in New Brunswick.

It is that time of year again.  Fortunately here on the coast we are just heading into our best season of the year.

Here are some pictures of our neighborhood white herons.

All week we have had our standard blue skies and white puffy clouds in the morning followed by more ominous clouds in the afternoon.

Today we lost our blue skies, but not before I cooked myself by mowing the yard at noon in full Southern heat.  I know better to mow in the midday heat, but sometimes you run out of options.

It did get partly cloudy this morning and by later in the afternoon, we had full cloud cover courtesy of Tropical Storm Danny.

I was working hard this morning and early afternoon to get a contract on a property.  So instead of starting to mow, I was waiting by the telephone.  I took advantage of the time and responded to someone considering moving to the Carolina coast.

Finally with the phone not ringing and noon approaching, I left my wife in charge of the phone, donned my straw hat, and let the heat wrap its arms around me.
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Late yesterday evening I was up the White Oak near Stella showing a home.  After the clients had left we pulled into the community boat ramp area and watched the sun start going down.

River Oaks is one my favorite communities on the White Oak.  You feel very close to the water there.  It also seems like a friendly community.  There is usually someone out walking.  In contrast to many communities the homes at River Oaks are spread out and come in a wide variety of styles.

Some riverfront communities are so wooded that you do not feel like you are on the water. Other that some beautiful Live Oaks, River Oaks has just the right amount of trees.   

River Oaks is also a boating community.  People use their boats, and I take some comfort from that.

I have seen riverfront communities advertised with a boat ramp only to find the boat ramp a little questionable when I investigated.  That would be a faux boating community.  read more »

There will be covered dish dinner and musical presentation at Cape Carteret Presbyterian Church Sunday, Aug. 30, beginning at 5:30. Please bring your friends, neighbors, relatives and your covered dish.

For more information on the program visit the Church website.

Today we had a little more free time so we headed back to the Point on Emerald Isle to get a better view of the damage from Hurricane Bob.

You can get a very good idea of what the Point looked prior to Bill by checking these photos on the access repair done in December 2008.  I also have these photos which I took on June 5 which show what a huge expanse of sand was at the Point most of the summer.  read more »

Just when we thought that Hurricane Bill might not have changed much in the area, we heard some reports the sand over at the Point on Emerald Isle had been remodeled.

We made a quick trip over early this afternoon to check it out.  It has definitely changed.  This area shown by one of my photos in Panoramio is mostly under water now.  read more »

St. Peter's by the Sea Lobster Fest will be from 11am til 5pm on Sept. 26 at the church in Swansboro. Dinners are $22. Live 1 1/2 pound lobsters are $18; cooked, $20. Other activities will be available as well. Call 910-326-4757.

Emerald Isle Day4Kids will be held at the Emerald Isle Parks and Recreation Center from 10am to 2pm with games, activities, music and more. Call 252-354-6350 for more information.

Hurricane Bill has been in the news a lot.  We watched some swells building earlier in the week.  Last night we went over to the beach for a walk.

We wanted to see if the high water and potentially heavy surf from Bill had made any changes to the beach.

Of course the beach changes even with regular surf so I guess you could say that we were just checking on the state of the beach.

There were very few people at the Eastern Regional Access as we continued up the beach.  My favorite beach is the nearly invisible Third Street Beach. 
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Most people come to the coast to enjoy perfect beach days.  If they are lucky they find out that the reason we stay in paradise is that there is more to it than just beach.

I am planning a couple of nice sit on the beach days next week so I love the beach as much as anyone.  However, I also find a lot to like about the rest of the area.  At least a couple of times a week we will check out the Croatan Tidelands Trails Park just off VFW road.
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The NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores is located 5 miles west of Atlantic Beach. The aquarium is open 9am to 5pm daily. Special programs and exhibits are also available. Admission is $8 for ages 18-61, $7 for ages 62 and up, $6 for ages 6-17, no charge for children 5 and under and NC Aquarium Society members. For more information call 252-247-4003.

The NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores offers "Fishing Fanatics" surf fishing classes every Tuesday through Sept.1. They also offer pier fishing classes every Thursday evening and surf fishing classes every Friday morning throughout the fall as well as a variety of other fishing programs year round. Visit the web site at www.ncaquariums.com or call 252-247-4003 for more information.

The Emerald Isle Parks and Recreation will end its 4 vs. 4 Beach Volleyball series on Saturday, Sept. 9 beginning at 9am and will last until the last game is over. It will be held at the Western Ocean Regional Access on Islander Drive in Emerald Isle (between Queen's Court Condos and Islander Motor Inn). Registration is $55 per team and pre-registration is required. Deadline is the Friday before at 5pm. Registration and roster forms may be downloaded from the web at www.emeraldisle-nc.org/eiprd or may be picked up at the Emerald Isle Community Center, 7500 Emerald Drive.  read more »

The NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores will hold a sportfishing clinic on Saturday with local fishing expert "Dr. Bogus" heading up the program. He will focus on using baits made from metal, plastic and wood to catch trout, red drum and flounder from the surf. The clinic is free with admission or membership to the aquarium and advance registration is not required. For more information call aquarium educator Todd Spangler at 252-247-4003, ext. 288.

When I got up this morning, I was pleased to see the house windows not as fogged as they were the last couple of mornings.  A quick temperature check showed that at a few minutes before 7 AM we were a couple of degrees under 80F.  read more »

It felt great to stick my toes in the salt water once again this afternoon.  It was almost a week since the last time, and that is far too long in my book.
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It has been a few days since I crossed the Cameron Langston Bridge to Emerald Isle.  I am looking forward to getting back on it.

It is one of my favorite spots on the Southern Outer Banks.  The view from the top is beautiful and dangerous.  Many tourists get caught up in the view and end up running into the car in front of them.
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Unless you have been hiding under a giant oyster shell, you have probably heard about Cannonsgate, the large subdivision on the shores of Bogue Sound between Morehead City and Cape Carteret.

Cannonsgate has been in the news because of some foreclosures and some unhappy owners.  While the newspapers can try to make a story out of it, there really is not much to tell.  read more »

Our great beach weather ended yesterday with a deluge.  Just before noon I was over on Emerald Isle picking up keys to check out a listing.  As I came back across the bridge I saw very dark clouds north up Highway 58 towards Peletier.

I finished my errands without any rain in Cedar Point, Cape Carteret, or Bogue.  However as I drove up 58 towards Bluewater Cove, I rain into rain at the new Boonedocks (old Dive).  That was about twenty minutes after one.
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Sometimes you just cannot take the time to sit in front of a computer and write.  The weather is too perfect.  This past week was just such a week.

While we saw some hot temperatures, those toasty temperatures made the ocean water feel just about right.  We were certainly not the only people who figured this out.

Some of the beach parking areas were as full as they have been all summer.

Yesterday we sneaked in one last trip to the beach before the weather change.  read more »