tales from the beach

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!


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:

roof


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!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh4uk67Xkmc]


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!

dusk

last light

found hearts

This week’s Superhero Journal photo challenge:

Assignment #3: Photograph a heart that appears on your path

I went out into my yard, thinking I might find a heart-shaped flower petal.

No such luck. I did, however, find what I was looking for in a patch of weeds!

a heart among the weeds

Oddly enough, on my way upstairs to the computer to post this, another one jumped out at me. It’s a little stretch … but it’s there!

a heart tangled by the entertainment center

the beach house

This year’s house was one of the smaller places we’ve stayed at, but since it’s just my husband and me, that was just fine.

We planned late, and our choices were limited, but we did manage to get an affordable canal-front property. Last year, though, we were on the sound instead and got a better view … but it was still a great, relaxing week.

sunset
One of last week’s sunsets

The decor of this three bedroom, one bath home was standard beach house: faded poster of the world’s most dangerous sharks, old map of Cape Hatteras, photos and drawings of ships at sea.

And this:

unusual beach house decor

Another oddity? Instead of the usual sign displaying the house name, we had a mascot:

carving

Oh, it did have the cottage name really small at the top, but still, unusual. And a little creepy!

We spent the week reading, lounging at the house or beach, eating seafood and soaking in the hot tub.

How am I supposed to go back to work?

up close

Hello, I’m back!

And I definitely plan to post lots of pictures and beach stories … but, I feel like I’m late on my homework assignment from this week.

Assignment #2: Photograph something so close, it’s hard to decipher what it is

(From Superhero Journal, of course!)

My first attempt was done at the beach, but, even if I crop the full-resolution version, it’s still obvious what it is. But, I like it anyway!

sand

(Click on photos to see larger versions. Flickr’s ‘medium’ size is too wide and I can’t stand my columns running together!)

I made a couple attempts tonight, but it wasn’t working well with my limitations (point and shoot camera*). But then my cat Joey practically insisted to be included in this week’s project. (Uh, yeah, you can still tell it’s a cat. Oh well!)

kittynose

Of course, we couldn’t leave out Jeter cat as well. (Posey, however, was hiding since she hates Joey).

kittyfeet
kittynose2

Update: Posey decided to model for me. I couldn’t leave out my little girl!

kitty face
kitty face

*I do have a real camera, but it pre-dates digital by several decades and currently, the shutter is jammed. One time we tried to get it fixed, and the people at the shop laughed because nobody there would know what to do with such an antique. It’s a Konica, probably from the 1970s.

but they had plenty of hot dogs

Around lunchtime today, I remembered there’s a Pizza Hut Express in the Target by my office.

I needed to pick up some supplies before we head out on vacation (mainly, cat litter and cat treats … gotta make sure our little buddies are all set for their cat sitter!), and figured I’d save time by grabbing lunch at the same place.

Me: I’d like a cheese personal pan pizza.

Salesgirl: Oh, we don’t have pizza today.

Me: (Glancing at sign above and menu board to confirm that this is, indeed, still a Pizza Hut Express) Um, OK. Good-bye!