A Day At The Beach

Sunrise Photos

9:27

It's 6:50 and I have been down on the beach, taking photos of the sunrise, walking some but now I am in the living room, writing the blog, and only Drew is up.  The girls should be up shortly as they have a virtual class at 7:30. At 7:40, I took off to Surf City, to explore and stop at Surf City Coffee and finish up the blog.  It's a neat place, the only coffee shop that I could find, busy with mostly locals, tanned and white-haired like me.  It does not have wifi so I am online using my phone as a hot spot.  Not much is open at this hour obviously so it's a quiet morning at Surf City.  

Surf City Coffee

I ended up talking with a guy from Dayton, who spends a couple of months here building decks, then going home to Dayton to build homes.  When I returned home, the girls were up, sitting on the beds, in virtual school while Jill and Evie slept and Drew went out for a walk.  I just started listening to Buffalo's NPR and the irony that it will probably be warmer today at the lake than here at Topsail is not lost on me.  

Beach Bums

Chi Omega Girl

Yesterday began with clouds and we were worried it would be cloudy all day but it soon cleared up and we had a partly cloudy day which we liked, not too hot nor cold.  As usual, the gals did not get up and down to the beach until late morning and by that time, I had taken a couple of walks, wrote the blog, and had breakfast on the front porch with Drew.  Evie and Jill were up by 9:00 but the girls slept in till late morning.  After breakfast, cleaning the kitchen, and deciding on dinner, we went down to the beach.  It was pleasant, a light wind, a partly cloudy sky, perfect for reading, taking a walk, and sunbathing. 

Cleaning Red Snapper Filets

The beach was not as crowded as Sunday but there were still lots of vacationers like us out enjoying the day on the beach. By 12:30, I had enough and went up, had some leftover chicken tetrazzini for lunch, then decided to read some and nap.  After my nap, Drew and I were tasked with driving to Surf City and picking up dinner, three pounds of red snapper, some rice, and salad.  We stopped at a couple of surf shops and browsed and I picked up a pair of swim trunks, just what I don't need but liked.  One of the tee-shirt shops had what looked like a storage room converted into a bar so we had to have a beer with two other locals in perhaps the shabbiest looking place called a bar. We then stopped at the fish market watched the guy clean our red snapper and were home by 3:30.  The gals were still on the beach so we joined them and I attempted some surfing with a boogie board with little success.  

Nap Time

Napping On The Beach

We came up around 4:30 to prep some of our dinner, relaxed, and then about 6:00, we went back down to the beach to enjoy our beers or wine as the beach emptied and quieted.  It's always great to enjoy a sundowner, as the South Africans call our happy hour, on the beach.  

Kitchen Girls

Around 7;00, Jill and Evie got busy sauteing the snapper, making curry sauce for it to cook in for 15 minutes.  We served it over rice and we were happy, the sauce nice and spicy, the fish tender.  After dinner, six of us played another rousing game of Telefunky while I watched and kibbutz.  We were surprisingly tired by 9:30 so most of us went to bed, the girls I'm not sure.

Virtual Learning At 7:30