In my last post, I wrote that April might be the cruelest month.  It turns out that I was a little hasty and harsh with my judgment. A day or two after I declared my displeasure with April, things turned around completely.

April 8, I had an absolutely stellar hike along the beach. I even got some saltwater on my feet. I got so warm that to cool off I waded into the ocean water which is still probably hovering around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  It actually felt great.

While April 9 wasn't as nice a day, it certainly wasn't anything to complain about considering the weather most people are seeing. Pulaski, Virginia got the first strong tornadoes in their history which shows you just how fast life can change. Our nasty weather consisted of a few rolls of thunder just before bed and about .25 inches of rain which we needed.

Then there was Sunday, April 10. True to the forecast, we got up to cloudy skies, but I knew from the start that it was going to be a warm day.  We went through our normal Sunday morning rush so that we could go to church. When we walked out of church after the service, you could feel the warmth and see the blue skies.

We had simple lunch with one special treat. I pulled some lettuce from our garden, and we used it on our sandwiches.  When I was getting the lettuce, I noticed that we were actually having a high tide that even looked like a high tide. Also there was just a light breeze.  It didn't take me long to make the decision to go for a quick boat ride down to Swansboro after lunch.

We have been bedeviled by low water and too much wind, so finding decent water with almost no wind was like a gold-plated invitation to go boating.

Getting underway was only delayed by fooling around with my GPS which I couldn't get working.  I suspect a switch or the connector on the end of the wiring, but that is project for later in the week.

I decided to go out even without the GPS since the last time I was down the river all the buoys were in place. It was also high tide so with my boat up on plane, it doesn't take a lot of water anyway.

The best part of the trip is that I got to wear shorts and a tee shirt, and I was plenty warm even up over 30 MPH.  I absolutely love being on the river when the blue of the water and the blue of the sky are like looking at a blue color wheel..  Today was one of those times.

I wasn't gone very long since I had an appointment with the wild onions in our front yard.  The trip out on the water did me a world of good.  I carried my light trout rod just in case something told me that I needed to fish, but I passed on the fishing and just enjoyed my time on the river.  There will be plenty of time for fishing as the waters warm.

My onion pulling session only lasted an hour so we still had time to go for a short walk over at the beach.  The newly paved Highway 58 over to the Island is great.  It looks like they have one short stretch left to do. It is just to the east of the Coast Guard Road stoplight.  We will all be glad when they are done.

This is the Picasa web album with more pictures of today's quick boat trip down the White Oak to Swansboro.  This is a Google map showing the trip on an aerial photo of the river.

Here are a few photos of our walk down to the beach at James St. on Emerald Isle.  It was too late to go for one my long hikes, but April 11 is looking a good day for a long hike along the beach.