Four nights

Sarah talked us into it. She said we needed it. The beach house of a friend of hers had a 4-night vacancy. It was too tempting.

After an easy 4 1/2 hour drive on Sunday June 7 we arrived, settled in and enjoyed.

Of course we had to take a walk. It's a wonderful beach with fine sand and very clean. The water actually felt already quite warm. The weather was nice with a warm breeze.

In the evening clouds moved in and it even rained. But we didn't mind at all. There was a patio with a roof over it and we had brought plenty of food and drink. Social distancing! And of course we had brought our card game and even the dice.

Monday morning. We had a good night's sleep but woke up surprisingly early. There are 2 apartments in this house. We have the lower one. All very convenient. 

We looked forward again to a walk on the beach. At 9:30 am not many people were out. Everybody is very friendly and people greet each other and have some friendly words.

I enjoy watching the pelicans.

Yup, everything very convenient. 

We only have three full days and I hoped to have at least one seafood meal. We looked into the apartment information book and Michael's Seafood Restaurant was recommended. It has outdoor seating and we decided to go for lunch. 

I got my seafood, am happy and we can check this off now. And of course more walking along the beach. Heavenly.

Tuesday 

We had read in the ring book of information on the coffee table in the apartment that the thing to do is visit Fort Fisher,  an important fort from the Civil War. The center was closed as are a lot of things these days and there would have been one tour at noon but you could just go on a self-guided tour. It was very nice with lots of these information tablets.

Of course it was all about the civil war as a lot of places in the south. It was a Confederate Fort. It was quite interesting though ... what ordinary people had to endure. The soldiers diet was not very good so veggie gardens popped up inside the fort.

Seems that the fort was not made with buildings but huge mountains of sand and dirt. It's on the tip of Pleasure Island between the ocean and the Cape Fear River. 

The landscape was so nice and we enjoyed just walking around.

Some of the trees looked very weather worn. See the bird on the stump of the dead one? It was so lovely. 

It is a large area and we went with the car a little further. There were overlooks with some parking.

In this one I was intrigued by the "green mound" in the middle. Right away we had to think of our grandsons because they would have loved to investigate it. There were little openings into it and you were in something of a mixture between a cave and a mini forest with a canopy. 

We drove to the very tip of the island and walked around there. Lots to watch. People were putting in boats. There were anglers. Loved the pelicans sitting there patiently. 

We went up the little hill where we had a lovely view.

We had a late lunch at home with our provisions. In the afternoon James decided it was time to have a swim. There was a lot of undercurrent and he felt like he was tossed around like a sneaker in a washing machine. It was more fun to watch the teenagers to be tossed around than doing it yourself.

Wednesday

I can't believe that I have only three photos for this day. It was an overcast day but still very nice. The walk with the lovely warm breeze was very enjoyable. Our place was supposed to be within 10 minutes of the boardwalk. I wanted to see what that was. Without social distancing it is probably a very lively place. And it was still very early in the morning here.

We decided that we should splurge. Plenty of restaurants with outdoor seating. More seafood!

We decided to just have two appetizers to share. Good decision. Oysters Rockefeller and Calamari. Splendid. My sangria was somewhat watery and James told me it was silly to order it outside of Spain. 

On the way back we popped into the Veggie Wagon (market) across the street to find something else delectable. Couldn't find anything really exciting but finally decided on ice cream. Coffee and coconut sounded good but it was weird. It was coffee grounds (?) and the coconut not so detectable. I am a bit ashamed to report that we managed to make it all gone anyway. 

We had been so lucky with the weather. It was perfect. At daytime we turned off the A/C and had the doors open. There were no screens which I thought was very odd. I was worried but no mosquitos or unpleasant creatures like that. 

Thursday

Time to say good-bye. James was awake very early and went for a walk. I felt too lazy to make myself go. But at 8 am we were ready to pack things into our car. Check-out time was 10 am but hanging around is not my thing.

We had taken the Telluride which I drive mostly. The side windows and rear mirrors seemed to be fogged up and we tried every button we could think of because we knew that the car had the feature to clear fogged up windows. Nothing worked. We even stopped somewhere to get the user's guide out. No luck. After more miles I stopped again because I had an idea. I jumped out with a water bottle and a paper towel and it was quickly taken care of. It was not fogged up. It was a layer of salt from the ocean. In no time at all we could see again. Amazing!

We had expected (weather forecast) to drive most of the way in the rain but that was not so. We were home for a late lunch from our freezer. Later it rained just a little and we decided that we probably should water the flower planters after all. Ha-ha, as soon as that was done ... a downpour. Best photos I could manage.

Glad that we did this little mini-vacation. It had been so nice and relaxing. If we only didn't have to think of that virus so much. Can't let your guard down. And decision making follows you to wherever you are. I am on the church council and the bishop just gave new guidelines. Now we have to discuss when and how to start in-person services and "real" parish life again. Oh how we need prayers.