I’ve been saving a few stories that I couldn’t post during vacation due to really slow dial-up!

A floating cliché
My husband and I were reading on the deck, when a college-aged guy floats by in a yellow kayak, hollering to his friends for help.

We looked up to see this guy was in the middle of the canal, without a paddle.

Apparently his friends were messing with him!

I wish I had a picture, but even if I did run into the house to grab my camera, the lens would have fogged up from the humidity!

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Dog days
I was indoors applying sunscreen, but my husband witnessed this one.

He was on the deck when he heard neighbors from across the canal hollering:

“Hey! Your dog’s on the roof!”

He looked up, and indeed, our across-the-canal neighbors’ black dog was up on the roof, while all of the members from that house were swimming / kayaking further down the canal. They had an upper deck adjacent to the roof, so it was easy for him to get up there!

Again, I’m sorry I don’t have a picture. I’m also sorry I didn’t witness it first-hand!

But, here’s a picture of the neighbors on the roof:

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People watching
We were out to dinner one night at the Dolphin Den … and I couldn’t help staring at a woman, probably in her upper-forties/early fifties, I’m guessing. She was wearing a pastel paisley sundress that fell mid-calf.

There was only about an inch of flesh visible between the hem of her dress … and the top of her black ankle boots. Her black, suede, ankle boots. With fringe.

Not only does that stick out so much my husband even noticed the fashion disaster, it was 95 degrees out and humid!

Otherwise, she did pay attention to detail with coordinating necklace and earrings.

The Dolphin Den is what my husband calls an ‘old folks’ restaurant (yes, they have an early bird special). I think of them more of a family-style place.

Still, not the hippest joint … but suede boots in the summer?

They have good food … but we’re also partial to them from their local commercial. Specifically, the last 12 seconds of the ad!

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Close call
On our last night there, in the evening, a neighbor told us there was a tornado warning.

I turned on the weather channel to find there were strong thunderstorms moving through the Outer Banks, in the three towns just north of us.

Seeing how we were staying in a house on stilts (thus, no safe basement), it was a bit concerning, but, the weather seemed OK where we were. We were hopeful that we wouldn’t have to cram into the bathtub and hope for the best!

My husband moved the plastic deck furniture into the screened-in porch, and since it was dinnertime, decided to shower while I kept watching the weather ticker.

There were no updates. The same blurb kept going across both the weather channel, and the closest ‘local’ news channel. That between 6:05 and 6:11, the tornado was expected in the towns about a twenty-minute drive north of us. (Note: I don’t even think there actually was a tornado)
They said the tornado warning would end at 6:30, and would you guess that at 6:30 on the nose, the storm ticker went away. The threat was gone!

Since it had gotten cloudy and was sprinkling a little, we figured there wasn’t going to be a sunset to watch / photograph so we went to dinner rather than wait.

As we left the restaurant, we saw the sky was pink. That’s when we came home to the neighbors on the roof.

We don’t know if the sun was visible as it went down since usually, the sun was centered at our canal, not way to the right. I still took pictures as it got dark.

It kept getting more vibrant … until it clouded over and started to rain!