The Crystal Coast, Salt water on my feet

The brotherhood and sisterhood of true Southerners

This post was originally written in August of 2009. 

Winter is a good time to read it.  It might even provide some warmth.

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While some might want to turn this group into a political organization, it is probably is inappropriate. I am not talking about a group hoping that the South will rise again.

The group that I honor today happens to be those Southerners who through pure stubbornness manage to mow their lawns in the heat and humidity of the South.

As much as  advise everyone including myself to mow early and avoid the heat of the day, sometimes circumstances corner you, and there is no choice but to mow when the heat is building to its peak.

That happened to me today here on North Carolina's coast.  It is summer in the South.  When you get up in the morning, you know there will be heat and humidity. In fact if it is late August, there will likely be more of both than some people can endure.

Except for early morning heat comes at you from all directions. The ground by August is warm.  Even the water comes to your home already warm.  You learn that if you want cold water, get it before you use up the chilled water from inside your walls.

Today would not have been bad to mow the yard if I had been able to start at 8:30 AM as is my normal custom this time year.  Attention to some real estate business kept me inside until after 11 AM with the result that I was in our front yard mowing when the sun was high in the sky.

I could feel the sun cooking me through my straw hat and the heat creeping up from my sneakers.  All this was happening as my internal body temperature was creeping up.  It was a perfect Southern storm of heat.  Fortunately, I have been mowing all summer so I am used to the heat and went out with a full load of fluids.

As the sweat started to bead up on my arms as it does when I get really hot, I knew that I was approaching my limit.  Only then did Mother Nature step in and send some cooling water breezes from tropical storm Danny.  Those great breezes gave me a second wind and allowed me to finish the yard without any difficulties.

As I sat down in my cooling chair which I keep in the back doorway of our garage where cool air is sucked through by the open larger door at the front, I knew that I had renewed my credentials as a true Southerner, someone who has looked heat in the face and stared it down.

It can be a deadly game, but if you listen to your body and stay hydrated, you can handle it.

Once again I have lived through a July and August of mowing.  I have seen really hot days this year, and I will likely see some more.  My trusty walk behind Toro mower and I have almost gotten through another season. On the coast the centipede grass will start to slow soon.  We will be done mowing by the first week in November at least a month before the bluegrass and fescue of Roanoke slows down.

There is pride in mowing your yard especially when you get over sixty.  I am just glad that I no longer deal with any of those Roanoke hills in this heat.

More shots of the house and yard where I spill all my sweat.

Winter Beach Time

It is the time of year for things to slow down over on the beaches.  While it has been warm enough for beach walks, most of us have been busy with the holidays.

Then there has been the wet weather.  We have had enough rain to float some good sized boats.  There are still some wet spots over on Emerald Isle.

I snapped the picture in the post over on Emerald Isle a few days ago at the Western Regional Access just off Islander Drive.

We usually avoid that beach access until winter, just because of the crowds.  I think the crowds are definitely gone.  With all the rain even the fishing has not been particularly good in the last couple of weeks.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cold (fifties) and rainy here on the coast.  That is much better than the western part of the state, the mountains of Virginia, and a broad area from Richmond to Philadelphia, all of which are supposed to get a few inches of snow.

Today is the earliest date ever when parts of Texas have received snow.  I hope we can leave all snow records alone this year.

We did get a little snow here last year for the first time in six years, but it was gone when the sunshine hit it the next morning.

I will admit that the beach was beautiful with a little snow on it, but I can do without snow or cold weather.

It is still a good time of the year to visit the beach.  Practically ever restaurant is still open and very happy to have customers.

Other than the odd day, the temperatures are still pleasant.  All the small towns have their Christmas decorations up, and there are lots of seasonal events happening.  Tomorrow is the flotilla from Morehead City to Beaufort.

The Octagon House in Cedar is decorated for the holidays and was open to the public. Saturday, Dec. 5.  Here are some pictures if you missed the opportunity.

I just did a season review on my SOBX website.  Drop by for my commentary on 2009.

While this might be the "In Between Season," it is still a great time to visit the Crystal Coast.

Beyond the beautiful horizons

Many people are faced with the choice of living where their chosen job is or living where they might not have a job that is their first choice.

When  you are lucky enough to get beyond having your job dictate where you live, the whole world opens up as a potential place to put down roots.

You do not get very far down the path to reviewing places when reality sets in.  A spot that is extraordinarily beautiful when you are visiting it, just might be a nightmare when you become a permanent resident.

The biggest challenge is trying to shed your vacation mindset when trying to evaluate a place to live.  One of my favorite spots on earth is the Northern Outer Banks of North Carolina.  I have spent many wonderful vacations there over the years.

When we started looking for a new place to put down roots, we briefly considered South Nags Head, Hatteras Island, and Ocracoke.  While all of those places have plenty of charm, they also have some drawbacks.

The latest nor'easter to come by North Carolina has highlighted some of those problems.  The biggest challenge for people living south of Nags Head along the banks is Highway 12.  It is the only road in and out.  When it is closed then there is only ferry service for most people.  This past week Highway 12 closed on November 12, and one lane reopened on November 17.  

We actually have a Hatteras Island native working in our office here on the Southern Outer Banks.  According to her, a Highway 12 closure during or after a nor'easter is a regular occurrence

The challenge of being connected to civilization was just one of the reasons we decided to pass on living on Hatteras Island.  Ocracoke while beautiful was more of the same and further isolated by the need to use ferries.

Perhaps our experience of living far from modern conveniences for fifteen years when we lived in Canada has made us cautious, but we set out looking for a place with great scenic beauty, lots of year round residents and  modern services along with strong connections to civilization.

We also wanted close proximity to medical services and shopping that was more than one general store.

Some of the places we looked at along the coast got down to one restaurant operating on a shortened winter schedule.  While we do not eat out a lot, we do like to have some choice.

We also are fond of modern grocery stores where we can get good fresh food including vegetables for a reasonable price.  I also like to buy my hardware from something other than a shelf in a grocery store.

Finding our spot on the coast took a lot of work and great patience from some Realtors®.

In the end we found a great spot that sandwiches us between the Croatan National Forest on one side and the Cape Lookout National Seashore on the other. Our other bookends are the White Oak River and the beaches of Emerald Isle.

We have access to multiple four lane roads to leave the area if required.  Those same roads put us at a mall in under twenty minutes.

Our access to water is better than anywhere we looked.  We can lower our boat into the water with our lift and be in the Intracoastal in ten minutes.  The ocean is only another ten minutes.  We can drive to the beaches in less than ten minutes.

Finally the area we picked near Swansboro, Cedar Point, Emerald Isle, and Cape Carteret is as close to a snippet of small town America as you can get.  The people in the area are from all areas and very open to new people moving to the area. Each year I am amazed at how many great festivals we get to enjoy as communities.

With modern services, good shopping, and friendly people, it was a treat to find out that Carteret County has the lowest property taxes in North Carolina and some of the best schools.  Low taxes and a great climate not far from the beach is a recipe that is hard to beat.

We also found reasonably priced waterfront property which is not exactly easy to find along the east coast.  The satisfaction we have found from living in this area certainly validates the efforts we made to find the right spot for us.

So when looking for a place to live, take the time to look beyond the beautiful scenery.  You might be surprised at what you find.

There are places that make a wonderful home and have great scenery.

Lots of pictures and information on the Crystal Coast, our home, are available at this site.

Sometimes diving in the pool is the only way to understand the water

We live in a time when it is very hard to figure out the right thing to do for yourself and your family.  Even when you have a small amount of financial freedom, you often risk that very freedom by making the wrong decision.

I will admit to being someone who has never feared important decisions.  I became a cattle farmer for ten years after graduating from Harvard.  That took me to what many would describe as a Canadian wilderness.

When we left the farm, I went to work for Apple Computer, first in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, then Columbia, Maryland, and eventually Roanoke, Virginia.  All those moves were challenging, but at some point in the process, we had weighted everything that we could and had to either move forward or stay put.

We always moved forward, and I do not think we have any regrets in spite of having to face many unknowns in our new areas.

It really is impossible to know what the future will bring.  I try to invent as much of it as possible myself, but that is about as far as you can go.

My family and I have enjoyed a broad experience of living in places as diverse as a farm in rural Canada and in the planned community of Columbia, Maryland.

A little over four years ago, I decided that I had one really important dream left.  I wanted to live on the North Carolina coast.  Even after finding the right area, the challenge of finding a home that matched our needs and budget was great. On top of that I had to build a new career in the collapsing field of real estate.

None of this has been easy, but we have managed to do it, and our lives are richer for having done it.  Twenty five years ago, we could have easily stayed on our two hundred acres of farmland north of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

I seriously doubt that my children would have had the opportunities that they have seen if we had done that.  I know I would have missed some wonderful experiences along the way.

So when considering whether to move or stay, do not forget to factor in what might go right.  If you look just at the downside, it is certainly hard to see the positive.

Also do not forget, not everything can be measured.  Sometimes the only way to figure out the water is to jump into the pool.

What is so special about the Crystal Coast

Looking up and down the east coast, there many nice areas for retirement. 

I have visited as far north as Newfoundland, lived in Nova Scotia, and considered living as far north as Assateague on Virginia's eastern shore. 

When it comes to the south, I visited as far south as Charleston, and thought about living as far south as Oak Island in North Carolina. 

To the west, we lived in Roanoke, VA on the side of Twelve O'Clock Knob mountain for twenty years.

That is a tremendous amount of territory with which to be familiar.  Also for many years, the only place I would vacation happened to be North Carolina's Northern Outer Banks.  I stayed in places ranging from Corolla to Ocracoke.

When we went to pick a place to live, western Carteret County won hands down.

So what exactly did I see in Southern Outer Banks that I could not find in any of the other places?

Actually it was not just a single thing that persuaded us to put down some roots along the Crystal Coast.  A combination of things attracted us to Carteret County, and eventually reality in what we could afford caught up with us and brought us to the western side of the county.

First I found a rather unique mix of people living along that strand of sand that runs from Beaufort to Swansboro.  There were a good number of outsiders and still some people living in the area who were natives.  Surprisingly they seemed to get along well.

Second the area reminded me of the small town in North Carolina where I grew up in the fifties. There were still some areas where you could walk to things.

Third in spite of being an area of small towns, there seemed to be an increasing number of modern services.  The modern services seemed to be coming to the area to take advantage of the summer visitors.  That they stay open all winter provides a level of service that you could only dream about in many areas.

Years of living in Nova Scotia, taught me the "fun" of driving all morning to get a certain size bolt or what I have come to regard as a basic service.

The fourth reason the area appealed to me has to be water access. Here along the Crystal Coast you are not limited to ocean, sound, or river.  You have them all, and even multiple examples of each.  Also the water here is not what I would consider dangerous water.  There is plenty of easy boating and kayaking available.

The fifth reason we liked the area is that the people living here seem to be active.  From walking the trails of Croatan National Forest to the short trail in Emerald Woods, there  juare an abundance of hikers.  Not only do people hike but they turn out in droves for local festivals which really add a lot to the local color. 

Sixth on our list was the education system.  We have always found that a quality school system contributes a lot to making an area a better place to live.  Carteret County schools have a reputation for quality.  We often run into people who move here because of the school system.

The seventh thing to sway us was the reasonable cost of living.  While home and car insurance have turned out to be more expensive, the huge savings in property taxes and lower utility costs from the temperate climate have been a reason to get excited.  We find it 30-40% cheaper to live here than in Roanoke, VA.

Number eight on the list would the climate itself.  We have practically no snow.  The falls are long and mild.  The winters are brief and hardly require a coat at least in the mind of an ex-Canadian.  Spring is long and sometimes windy, but I still manage to get my first ripe tomatoes around the first of June.  It is a great place to live if you love being out of doors, the Crystal Coast is a great spot to enjoy the outside worldk.

Reason number nine for living here is that we found the type of home we wanted in a desirable area with the features we needed, and it was a reasonable price.  Carteret County has a tremendous variety of homes available in a multitude of settings.  We wanted a new home on the water where we could have a lift and easily go boating.  We also wanted some neighbors so we would not be isolated. We found the right home, in the right setting, in Bluewater Cove. Actually we found more than we were looking for since the area is also great for biking and walking.  I also do not mind being across the cul de sac from the swimming pool and the action of the boat ramp.

Finally the tenth reason we put down roots on the shores of the White Oak River is that this feels like home.  People are friendly.  They look you in the eye.  They talk to you, and they remember you.  We love the area.  While no area, this one included, is perfect for everyone, western Carteret County is one of the nicest spots I have ever found.

It is a great place to live and a wonderful place to host guests.  From the history and charm of Beaufort to the wide sandy beaches of Emerald Isle, I have not found a house or place that I would rather live.  When I slide my kayak into the waters behind our home, I am mindful that I have stumbled upon a personal paradise.

There is not much that I would add to the area that is not on its way.  The list of area additions since we moved here is long but includes Best Buy, Panera Bread, TJ Maxx, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond.  We are getting a new radiology clinic next year in Cedar Point.  Apparently we will also have a Walmart.  Of course I would rather have a Target, I suspect we will see one of those in Morehead City in the not too distant future.

Life is good on the Crystal Coat.  Come visit.

The reason it is called the Crystal Coast

This post was originally written in late 2006.

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Fall is pretty glorious on the east coast.  Recently we were enjoying some great  late fall weather in North Carolina's Crystal Coast area.  We had a very enjoyable breakfast at Yana's Ye Olde Drugstore Restaurant on Front Street in Swansboro.

We ran a few errands and decided to go over to Emerald Isle for a walk on the beach since the weather was so warm.  We were surprised to find a fair number of cars in our usual parking lot, but there turned out to be very few people on the beach.

We headed off down the beach for a leisurely walk on the firmer than normal beach surface.

It pretty hard to describe how nice it was on the beach.  The pictures can actually do a better job than my words.  The water had just enough coolness to provide a pleasant contrast to the warm sand.  The surf was pretty quiet and there was just a slight breeze.

We kept watching the schools of small minnows swimming in the surf.  It was amazing how many we could see.  It was about then that I started wondering if I had stumbled on the reason the Crystal Coast is called the Crystal Coast.

The clarity of the water was pretty hard to believe.  I spent a few minutes trying to capture an image that would adequately show what I was seeing.  I finally got the right small wave and snapped the shot below and to the right.

The picture doesn't do the water justice, but I'm just excited that there is still water around this clear and so full of marine life.

I hope that we can preserve the wonderful waters of the Crystal Coast for the next generation.  If my guess is wrong about the "Crystal," in Crystal Coast, I would be interested in hearing the real story.

I have more area fall pictures at this website. These are some of my favorite beach pictures. Of course sunsets and sunrises are worthy of their own album.

Find out about area events at this Crystal Coast website.

Making it across the bridge

I like to think of a move being like crossing a bridge.  It is a good metaphor

When I think about crossing bridges, the one that comes to mind is the Cameron Langston Bridge from the mainland at Cedar Point and Cape Carteret to Emerald Isle.

It is about two miles from the stop light on the mainland at the intersection of Highway 24 and 58 to the stoplight on Emerald Isle at Highway 58 and Coast Guard Road.  Some days it can be a long ride if you happen to be on the bridge during one of those handful of days when we have lots of people checking into rental homes.

I love crossing the bridge because it renews my spirit.  I was excited today when we were briefly caught in stop and go traffic.  The stop meant that I could stick my camera out the window and take pictures of Bogue Inlet from the bridge.

Crossing the bridge is one of the high lights of my day.  I tend to forget everyday concerns when I am on the bridge.

So far I have not forgotten that I am driving like people often do when they cross the bridge the first time.

Bogue Sound and its blue waters symbolize the infinite possibilities that we face.  It is hard to tell what the waters hold just as it is hard to tell what life has in store for us.

However, I have to believe in myself and my abilities to make the decisions that will guide my life or on another level my skiff when I am out riding on Bogue Sound.

It might be easy to fear crossing the bridge, but I have been crossing them all my life from the time I left home at the age of fourteen to go to military school in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  When I went away to college, I packed my car and headed off to Boston with no fear.  At the end of college, I ended up buying a farm and moving to Canada to raise purebred cattle. It was a huge journey into the unknown for a history major.

I have crossed a lot of bridges.  While I might have made some different decisions along the way, I would cross all the bridges again without hesitation.  I have learned something with every journey.  My life and my family's life is richer for having living in such a diverse batch of places.

When making a decision to move, you eventually get to the point where no amount of making lists or calculations is going to solve the issue of whether to go forward or stay where you are.

It takes a leap of faith to make that first step.

Maybe some of us are just wired to take that step onto the bridge and soar high above the water where we can see the possibilities.  Others are happier with fewer unknowns and staying where life is comfortable.

There is something exciting about moving to a new place, making new friends, and seeing new horizons.  Maybe it can give you a knot in your stomach if you let it, but it can also free you from the ties that bind you to a routine that might not let you or your family reach its full potential.

I hope that age does not take that lack of hesitation away from me.  It has served me well.  I might be richer if I had been more cautious, but my soul would have been far poorer if I had feared to cross the bridges of my life.

I know the decision to move is hard, but few good things in life comes without some sacrifice.  I would rather see what life holds around the next bend than watch reruns.

If nothing else it is something that makes you stronger in the longer run.

The pleasure of early tomatoes on the Crystal Coast

Our annual tomato contest ended on June 5 this year when I decided to pick my first two tomatoes. Over the next few days, the two challengers to my throne eventually admitted defeat.

Victory came a little later than last year's June 1 tomato, but after all the years of barely getting tomatoes in Canada in August, June 5 looks pretty good.

I first wrote about our tomato gardening in the spring of 2005 in a post called, The Spring Tomato Ritual.

Growing tomatoes is often thought of as something done mostly by aging southern women.  I suspect that idea is kept alive by the media.

There are southern women who do grow tomatoes, but in my opinion most of the tomatoes are grown by the men of the South.  That is the way it has been for as long as I can remember.  The ladies might grow a few plants, but the men would often put in rows of tomatoes.  My mother was a great gardener.  Tomatoes were one of her favorite crops, and she would always plant four or five plants each year.  My wife's father, however, planted row upon row of tomato plants.  He often had them growing up the side of his house.

My mother continued growing wonderful tomatoes into her nineties, but I picked up most of my tomato skills trying to convince tomatoes to grow in the cool Nova Scotia and New Brunswick climates.

While I am now limited by space to four or five plants, they produce so many tomatoes that we are often searching for people who want tomatoes by early July. Our tomatoes do make a significant impact on our summer food budget.  The return on investment on a few tomato plants is huge.

During the summer, a tomato sandwich is often lunch at our house.  Sometimes it becomes a BLT, and often it ends up in salad.  It is amazing how little work it takes to grow such a large number of tomatoes.

Now that our contest to see who got the first tomato is over.  I can relax and enjoy the tomatoes, and plan my next year's victory.  The next thing is to see if we can beat last year's giant tomato which weighed 1.33 pounds.

Fall lobsters hopefully in sight

This post was originally written in October 2008.  I figured that re-posting this might remind the folks who organize the lobster dinners, that there are people who count on this happening each year.  I am looking forward to the first advertisements of this year's festivals.

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There are foods that come with special association in your life.  Lobster has particular meaning to me.

My first meeting with a lobster took place in the fall of 1967 when I went off to college in Boston.  I remain convinced that my first lobster was eaten in Union Oyster House near Faneuil Hall.

I went on to eat several more lobsters during college.  Some of the best were ones we cooked ourselves along the shores Maine.  We would eat them almost like cavemen, needing only the handle of a Buck knife to crack the shells and something to hold the melted butter.

I can remember having some in fancier surroundings like Anthony's Pier IV where I remember taking a few dates during my college years.

Of course in New England lobster was not just a meal available in fancy restaurants.  There were plenty of less expensive spots to get one of the tasty creatures of the deep.  I can remember stopping at the reasonably priced Valle's Steak Houses for inexpensively priced lobster dinners.

Then there is also Legal Seafood which started out as a humble restaurant, and I remember enjoying lobsters in their spot near Cambridge.

After college, I moved to Nova Scotia, and lobsters were even cheaper during certain times of the year.  When the lobstermen had filled their quotas for the year, you could get lobsters for a couple of dollars a piece.

While this might sound like I ate lobsters at every meal, that certainly wasn't the case.  However, in those early years of the seventies, I probably had a lobster at least every three months.  I even got very good at cooking them.  I can remember the simple recipe, cook lobsters for 16.5 minutes after coming back to a boil.

Probably the most memorable lobsters were the ones I cooked for my wife on our first date in 1973.  I was visiting Mount Airy, NC where my mom lived.  In an attempt to keep me home for another few days, my mother arranged a blind date for me.  Having just come from a college roommate's wedding, I was in an accommodating mood and said yes.

I ended up driving 70 miles round trip to get the lobsters.  I had a great time instructing my date on how to eat lobsters, and 35 years later I am still cracking the claws for her and making sure she gets her lobster properly eaten.

The picture in the post came from a Lobster fest that we attended in Salter Path, NC Saturday, October 25, 2008.  It's an annual event.  The lobster was as good as any I have had recently.  I am down to two or three lobsters per year now.

That Saturday, my lunch date, which was my wife of course, and I had another memorable lobster meal.

Last year I wrote more about the Saint Francis by the Sea Lobster Fest.

How things have changed at the beach

My things have changed at the beach.  In the late sixties and early seventies, I spent a lot of time on Ocracoke Island.  Mostly I camped at the National Park, but I can still remembering checking into the only motel on Ocracoke to have a television so I could watch Neil Armstrong step on the moon.

In the nineties we used to frequent Buxton down on Hatteras Island.  The place we stayed did not even have phones in the rooms.  Of course cell phone service was almost non-existent.  The idea of Internet service in your hotel on the Outer Banks was only a gleam in someone's eye.

Fast forward to today.  Many beach homes here on the Crystal Coast come with computers, and if not, wireless computing is available to those who do not carry iPhones or Blackberries.

The one thing that has not changed besides the beautiful waters is that most area businesses are not on the Internet.  Even if they are there, they mostly have a static presence.  Some are trying to supplement their static website with a Facebook presence.

Unfortunately most people do not look at Facebook when they want to find out something about an area.  People typically Google for information.

Yesterday, I spent much of the day handing out fliers at the Bluewater Rentals Check-in.  My goal was not to sell any real estate but to build awareness for CrystalCoastNorthCarolina.us as a source of local information.

We have many people who want to know about our area, and it helps to have a central place to point them for information especially for events and business information.

I suspect that there will always be a place at the beach for strategically place hand lettered sheets advertising events, but I hope that we can get more businesses interested in the Internet.  It is a powerful tool.

One thing that has already changed for the better is the rental check-in process.  Even some of the visitors commented about how well it worked to have two drive through lanes to pick up keys.  The girls handing out keys also had a wirelessly networked laptop that let them check to see if the cleaning crew had finished or if repairs were still ongoing.

Over three hundred people were scheduled to check in yesterday at our location. It ended up being a very smooth process with minimal waiting.

The minimal waiting was a good thing since people were spending a lot of time on the bridge getting to Emerald Isle.  On the grand scale of things fifteen minutes to get through town is not much, but after a long ride of up to ten or twelve hours, any delay is tough to take.

I hope that the weather hold this week.  The last two weeks have been nearly perfect beach weather.  It is always helps when creating great memories to have great weather.

While we might have Internet in the houses and beautiful waters, we still have not figured out how to manage the weather.