the kids on the beach: a little bit of a ghost in that photo

ghost crab; web photo

I brought 2 of my nieces kids down for the weekend. I had promised them a long time a go that I would take them to the beach and let them look for ghost crabs but it did not look promising last night. On our way down from Norfolk I stopped at the “Grave Digger” monster truck “dungeon” to let them see the monster trucks. Right after we left it started to pour rain with a little lightning and thunder thrown in for good measure. It rained a good while and I thought we might not make it to the beach but as luck would have it things cleared enough for us to take an evening stroll on the beach. As we were leaving we saw a ghost crab scurry by we followed it with our flashlights. The kids were amazed at how big the crab was and when right in front of their eyes it disappeared into the sand unfortunately it happened too fast and there was no time to get a shot.

Things have really picked up here on the Outer Banks. The tourists have arrived in droves and the traffic is, for lack of a better word … bad. This past week my son was involved in his first auto accident. He was rear ended by a local. You see it can take a month or so for us who live on the Outer Banks year round to get use to the heavy traffic. We are accustomed to be-bopin along at the “speed limit” and making right on red turns this all changes when summer hits. Once the “visitor's” get here you are lucky if you can get to 50mph on the bypass and right on red turns are very dangerous. The folks at “Ron and Phils body shop” told me that work for them really backs up until around July 4^th then it levels back out. I think the point here is that when summer hits ya gotta slow down and take a little more time to get where you are going also remember if your late your late so don’t get your self hurt over it. Drive safe and stay off my bumper.

My mother and I walked over to the “farmers market” in down town Manteo today. It was a good walk for me, mom lives about a mile from town, and we got to walk down some of the quiet roads in town. The market did not have much to offer by way of local produce, I did find some local blueberries and cherry tomatoes yum, but I did know some of the vender's and they were local and that is what farmers market’s are about, local people selling fresh and when ever possible local products to the local community. Hopefully there will be more locally grown produce when the local growing season reaches its peak in mid July. I can’t wait for the fresh corn that will be available around July 4^th!

This is a shot of an actress that I think is portraying Queen Elizabeth. She is sitting on the old court house steps down town Manteo

Mom trying to figure out how to use her camera as we wait for coffee at the Coffeehouse in Manteo

Thanks to my new jeep and my neighbors I have been to the beach a lot this year. Each time I’m thrilled to see some type of cool wild life yesterday was no exception

Why are these people out of the water

photo of a bull shark thanks to a search on google

The life guards earned their money in my eyes when they blew the whistle letting us know about this shark. Seems this “little” guy had been moving up and down the coast all day. The guards think it was a bull shark and that it may have been between 12 and 14 feet long.

Sharks are an important part of the ecosystem. They are to be respected and as far as I'm concerned feared but this shark had every right to be where it was, the ocean after all is its home.

Just some folks enjoying the beach

Dolphin's and boats

Wet jeep

I went down with a few friends to Oregon Inlet yesterday and other than the fly’s it was a great beach day (the wind was out of the west and that always means biting fly’s) As you can see from the photos it’s a great place to bring the family. You can only get to this beach with 4 wheel drive and you need to take note of the tide. If you go out at low tide you have to watch out; you would not want your vehicle sinking in the sand when the tide comes back in. Anyway we were treated to pelicans, dolphins and boats so there was always something to watch.

When we got home I did not close up the jeep, big mistake, it stormed last night and even though I had put the roof up and closed the windows I had not put the side panels back on. The storm was so bad that the instrument panel and inside windshield were wet. I woke up at 03:33 this morning to the sound of very heavy rain and thought oh well it’s a jeep. I did not expect a ½ inch of rain water in the back foot wells, but no big deal, jeeps have a plug you can pull and let the water drain out. She is sitting out in the sun right now and by the time I have to go to work she should be dry.

Tropical storm Barry promises to bring much needed rain to the Outer Banks tomorrow but today is just another day at the beach. It’s warm this morning. It was 71 degrees at around 8:30 am today with calm seas and gentle winds those winds promise to stiffen up tomorrow which may improve the waves for the surfer boys & girls. Me I’m hoping for a good rain; my yard would love it. Say what you want about tropical systems most stay tropical storms and they bring much needed rain.