The Crystal Coast, Salt water on my feet

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.

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.

Defining your own fun at the beach

One of the neat things about coming to the beach along North Carolina's Crystal Coast is that you get to create your own definition of fun.

I love beaches and do not need much more than warm water on my toes and a fishing rod in my hand to make me happy.

Perhaps that I why I enjoyed so many trips to the Buxton area of Hatteras Island.

Beyond the beach, the light house, and a few restaurants, the area had not much to offer aside from wind surfing.

When you come to the Crystal Coast, the choice is a whole lot broader. In the twenty five miles from Beaufort to Swansboro, there are a lot of choices. You can stay in anything from a fancy bed and breakfast to basic hotel or a huge sand castle on the ocean. You can choose to paddle a kayak in the sound or charter a boat to go deep sea fishing.

You can even pick from beaches. Both Cape Lookout and Hammocks Beach are only accessible by boat or ferry.  Some beaches require some walking to enjoy and others have large paved parking lots.

When it comes to activities, there is everything from swimming and fishing on the beaches to visiting the Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores or the Maritime Museum in Beaufort.  While we are not a golf resort like Myrtle Beach, there are plenty of courses to play in the area.

Even the towns are different, Beaufort has many beautiful historic homes while Emerald Isle has great beach houses.  Swansboro still retains much of its heritage as a fishing village.

Your choice of places to dine could range from the reasonably price specials at Mike's in Emerald Isle or El's in Morehead City to a fancy meal in one of Beaufort's finest restaruants like Front Street at Stillwater, Spouters, or Blue Moon Bistro. You can find everything from local softshell crabs and grouper to fine steaks.  Morehead City has a long list of chain restuarants while the smaller towns specialize in great family owned restaurants wth wide ranging menus.

Some people come to the coast to relax and read books.  Others come to kayak or fish.  Then there are those who just want to cook on the beach.  Whatever your pleasure, the Crystal Coast can accomodate you.

Being by the water

This has been an unusual spring here on the Crystal Coast.  The winds have kept most of us off the water.  While wind in the spring is not unusual, continuous wind is.  As the waters have warmed so has the desire to be out on them.

The passion for enjoying the water is so great here that our hearts often believe that the water is actually calmer than our mind knows it to be.

I spent some time surf fishing over on the beach last week.  It was very pleasant standing in the surf flipping a lure into trough between the sandbar and the beach.

Actually it was so enjoyable that I convinced myself that it might be a good idea to go kayaking on the river.  After dinner I did just that.  The winds were quiet as I left the dock, but by the time I got to the river, I knew that I would not stay long.  The river was impressive with some nice waves.

It did not take me long to get home.  That was the third time that I have pushed my luck and believed my heart over my eyes.  We will get great days soon, but waiting for them is no longer fun.

Carteret County is over one half water.  People like me move here to enjoy the water.  We often enjoy it to the point of exhaustion in the summer and fall. Right now I am running on memories of good times.

I do a lot of slide shows on the Internet.  While in theory I do the sites with slides so that people thinking about visiting the area can have an idea of the scenery before they come, one reason behind the websites with area scenery is provide to me with an escape mechanism for those times when being on the water is impossible.

Sometimes like today, I have to visit my favorite private island in Bogue Inlet.  Other days require me to take a complete trip from our dock down the White Oak, buoy by buoy, and out in the ocean by the beaches.  I call that slide show Mackerel Morning.

I am hoping to be on the water by the weekend.  I probably will not venture out into Bogue Inlet since this weekend will bring the crowds of Memorial Day, but they will gone by Monday or Tuesday.

Then the waters will be ours once again.  Hope springs eternal that the winds will drop down as the snows in Canada stop.  AS spring comes to the North,  summer can safely come to the Crystal Coast.

It is time to be fishing the sounds and beaches.  I can hear the waters calling me.

Crystal Coast weather thoughts

A comment to my previous post, How to review the reviewer, prompted me to compose this post with some comments on the weather and the area. 

We have lived in a maritime climate both in Canada and here in North Carolina.  There are similarities.

I post a lot of blue sky pictures, but we do get some not so sunny weather. 

This cloudy day shot was snapped on April 14 going across the bridge to Emerald Isle.  This morning the skies have cleared by 10 AM.

What we have learned about living along the coast is that maritime climates are very complex. How far you are from the coast, what kind of water you are on,  how sheltered you are, and what direction your home faces are all critical elements that often get ignored.  We were sort of oblivious to them when we picked our current home, but somehow we lucked out.

My first maritime experience was in St. Croix Cove, Nova Scotia on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. Nova Scotia is one of the foggier places on earth.  A summer ago there were places in Nova Scotia that had 85 days of fog.  That's a lot of fog.

However, there were also places that had very little fog.  When we were living on the shores of the Bay of Fundy, we often found that we could not start haying because we were covered with a fog bank.  Two miles inland, it would be hot and sunny.  We learned our lesson, and we went on to farm in central New Brunswick which actually had better weather because it had less of a maritime influence.

Things are a little different here on the Carolina coast, but our friend from Beaufort who sparked this post had this to say about the weather in Beaufort.

Yes, it doesn't have ice and snow,, well , at least not much ice. But, it doesn't break out of the 40s until past noon much of Jan. through March Then there is the issue of rain and wind. Beaufort gets more rain than most places on earth , with the exception of a rain forest.. Seriously, Beaufort is one of the wettest areas in the US.

i have to smile on reading this and some of his other comments.  We have a much different view of the area's climate, and yet we live only twenty five miles from Beaufort.  While we live on the water, we are almost surrounded by land.  Beaufort is pretty well surrounded by water.  I actually did not think a lot about all this before we chose where we are.  It was more luck than good planning that we ended up in a spot that is warmer much of the year and has more reliable cooling breezes in August and September.  The real reason for our location is that we got a lot more for our dollars where we are.

By some strange quirk, we also seem to miss some of the worst rain storms which cruise up the coast.  Cedar Point and Cape Carteret can be swamped, and we are high and dry.  It is surprising since we are only a couple of miles inland and the river where we are is two miles wide.  A couple of years ago Beaufort got hit with 11 inches of rain in relatively short period.  We had .75 inch.  Over the long term it will average out, but right now we stay dry a fair amount of the time.

Having said that, this winter was a colder than normal winter down here.  It is was by far the coldest that we have experienced.  In January of 2007 we only had nineteen hours below freezing for the whole month.  That same winter I had tomatoes ripening until late December.  We also had eleven days in January when the high temperatures got above 70F. 

We did see less than one half of inch of snow on our grass this winter.  There was no snow on our driveway or on the roads here.  What snow we saw this year is the first snow that we have seen in three winters. People tell us that it was the first seen in the area in six years.  Other areas got more snow.  We do not qualify as a snow belt.

Since our home is south facing with lots of windows, we do not use a lot of heat even in a winter like this past one.  There is an area just behind our home which is sheltered and often is warmed by the sun into the seventies even when it much cooler outside.

On moving here, I quickly learned that life and weather over by the ocean is much different.  By road we are about six or seven miles to the beach. It would be a little more than half of that if you could fly.  In spite of the short distance, it is not unusual to see the temperature drop 10-15 degrees by the time you get to the beach during the day in winter and spring.  I have recorded a number of funny moments when I felt comfortable wearing shorts near our home but ended up freezing when I got out of the car over on the beach.

While the beach gets almost continuous wind, we seem to get more nice breezes and miss some of the worst winds because we have walls of trees that slow the wind from some directions.  Of course those winds still make our life less enjoyable because taking our Sundance skiff out in heavy winds is not something I want to do or which is fun.

Weather is weather, if it is too cold, wait a while, and it will soon be too warm. I have enjoyed living in places where 20F in January felt like a heat wave.  Now when the temperature gets below sixty we act like we are going to freeze.

Going back and forth to the mountains in Virginia helps us keep a little perspective.  The mountains are definitely colder in the winter, spring, and fall.  In the summer the Va. mountains are warmer than we are on the coast.

Our perspective on the weather is helped by our not being in a town or having houses close around us. It is almost if the shape of the cleared area where our subdivision is and its position relative to the river enhances summer breezes.  When the construction crew was doing our home, I can remember being told more than once that they were pleasantly surprised with how cool it stayed in the heat.

Of course that is all relative.  It you are living in air conditioning turned down to 68F, and you expect our summer breezes to feel cool, you will feel disappointed.  We even keep our air conditioning on 78F most of the time. 

You also get used to the climate if you spent plenty of time out in it.   I grew up in NC around Winston-Salem, NC.  We did not even have an air conditioner until I was eight or nine years old.  You live with what you have, and perhaps the weather always looks nicer some place else, but as I child I can only remember one or two nights of retreating to our air conditioned living room for a night's sleep.

Anytime you write about the weather and come close to bragging, you are likely to be humbled quickly. The day after I wrote the fog post, we had one of the three foggy days that we have seen since we moved here nearly three years ago.  Not long after I proclaimed we rarely get snow, we saw our 1/2 inch of snow.  Perhaps we will get whacked by a rainstorm of historic proportions this weekend.  In which case I will not have to water the yard that is close to needing it right now. 

I have been over in Beaufort for a couple of those August days when the heat and humidity are so bad that a three block walk looks impossible without the help of an air conditioned car.  I have seen Swansboro that way once. There was no sea breeze.

Still I will take our area to any that I have seen.  No area is perfect.  Most places are what you make of them.  Lots of people love living in the Seattle area.  There not much sunshine up there.  A standard present for attending a convention in Seattle is an umbrella.

We enjoyed living in New Brunswick for eleven years, but it was nice when we moved to Halifax, NS and the black fly bites on the kids necks could finally heal.  There are different challenges here.  The waters are shallow and take some skill to navigate, but the diversity of marine life is hard to beat in an area with at least three seasons.  I am not a fan of California style weather where things stay much the same. California appeals to lots of folks but I would not want to be in San Jose tomorrow when the temperature hits 98. 

Yet you cannot appreciate the heat without some cold.  I could not feel the benefits of living where I do if I had not lived and worked in cities.  We looked very hard at the Beaufort area, and I still enjoy visiting it.  The reality was that we could not afford to live on the water in Beaufort. It turned out to a positive switch for us.

For far less than what it would have cost in Beaufort, we got a brand new home on water that is three feet deep and under ten minutes by boat from the Intracoastal.  We can fish Bogue Inlet and up and down the beaches with little trouble once the spring winds die down.

Other times I fish in sheltered areas in my kayak or wander the beaches with a surf rod. Time has shown that our place in western Carteret is a better spot for us.  Others will have different experiences.

There is a lot about buying a place that you never know until you have bought it and lived in it for a few years.

I am looking forward to the heat of the summer, but it can strain your body.  I solve the heat problem in three ways.  My first choice is a quick dip in the pool that it just across the cul de sac from our home.  If I can make time, getting out on the water with my kayak or the skiff ends up being a cooling experience that also lets me relax.

However, there are some weeks when the waters in the river and swimming pool warm to the point that they are no longer cool.  Then the only solution is jumping in the ocean and letting the cool ocean water hit the middle of my back.  That never fails to cool me down. It is the magic spot on my body for releasing hit.  Fortunately we are never more than ten minutes away from the beach so I do not suffer a lot from the few weeks of hot weather.

In the end weather is more about what you make of it than how hot, cold or wet it can be.  It you are going to be on the east coast, Carteret County is not a bad place to be.  You can find some great places on the water for reasonable prices.  Those prices just might not be as reasonable in certain parts of Beaufort, but Beaufort has its charm.

I will venture that Beaufort has no lock on friendly people. I have found lots of those almost everywhere.

Eight weeks until the great tomato race

This post was written April 3, 2008.  I offer it up as a reminder that warmer times are on the way.

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Tomatoes take on an uncharacteristic importance in the South.

If you add a little bacon and lettuce for variety, some folks, myself included, can come close to living on tomatoes when they are in season.

Just any tomato will not do, they have to be home grown ones picked fresh off the vines that have been carefully tended.

For many years I was a second class tomato gardener because I had to convince them to grow on Canada's east coast.

We often had some very nice tomatoes late in August if were lucky.  My mother and my wife's father were both extraordinary tomato gardeners.  Of course growing tomatoes near Mount Airy, NC is a little different than growing them along the Bay of Fundy where 70 degrees is a warm summer day.

A few years ago, after moving to Roanoke, VA, I decided to record on my blog how I grow tomatoes in case my kids ever got the fever.  My first post on tomatoes was The Spring Tomato Ritual.

The next year I started with The great tomato race is on!.  My annual attempt to produce a fourth of July tomato had turned into a race with my good friend Mike who still lives in Lewisville, NC where he and I used to roam the woods as kids while our parents grew tomatoes.

Now I have well over fifty posts on tomatoes including The world's ugliest tomatoes, Tomato Hunter's Paradise, and last year's concession.

Last year was my first year gardening on the coast.  A year's experience is going to help, and I have gone with three varieties this year.  One is a 55 day variety so we will see how things stack up this year when the first tomatoes are sliced.

My plants went into the ground on April 3 this year.  That is a little over a month earlier than last year's May 5 planting date.

Still for all I know, Mike has heat lamps beside his already.  He will not be defeated easily, and I also have picked up a local challenger. 

Another friend, Dean, has had his tomato plants in the ground for a while.  He is from above the Mason Dixon line so he will have to be watched closely to gauge whether he will be serious competition or not.

We should have a lot of fun, and I will post updates, maybe even photos of the other gardens.

Other gardeners are not the only competition, I also have to battle the tomato horn worms and the fiddler crabs who developed a real taste for tomatoes last year.

That first sandwich in late June (I hope) will be well worth all the effort especially if the vines last into December like they did last year.

This year we ate our last home grown tomato in late January.

Good news on the Crystal Coast

I am about ready to stop listening to the national news.  The news seems uniformly bad and seems to color perspectives on a local economy that is showing both some new life and some resilience.

A new Harris Teeter grocery store is set to open on February 11 in Morehead City.  This comes on top of the Panera, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Bed Bath and Beyond opening in the last year.

On top of that we have seen more activity in the real estate market in the last few weeks than we have in a while.  I heard that our company already has fifteen closings scheduled this month. One of the best signs that I have noticed is that lot prices are finally coming down.

Home prices have been declining for a couple of years, but in general lot prices had stayed steady.  Few lots had sold and the challenges of financing lots have gotten greater over the last several months.  Now it is very hard to buy a lot for an investment.  However, if you are looking for a lot to perhaps build a second home or a retirement home, there is money for that as long as you have good credit.

From what I am hearing from builders, now is actually a very good time to build.  Material costs have come down, and there is certainly no challenge in finding a hungry builder.

New home starts nationwide continue to fall, but as is always the case, we will eventually work through the inventory of new homes.  It will happen at different times in different places.  Some places are much more overbuilt than others.  In areas with a really excessive number of new homes, it is likely that foreclosures are driving the prices.

All of this means that this is a good time to be an area that did not fly so high in the real estate bubble. Here on the Crystal Coast, the number of foreclosures are very small.  There are no large plants to lay off thousands of workers, but of course here finding jobs was a challenge even in good times.

Still as the economy rights itself and homes become easier to sell, a number of people will be looking for areas which make a good home for retirees or people trying to escape the cities.

While no place is perfect, North Carolina's Crystal Coast still has plenty going for it.  It still remains relatively undiscovered which means it is not overcrowded even in the summer.

The access to the area from the west is generally by high quality four lane roads.  The schools are excellent with our local high school, Croatan, recently winning an award as one of the top six hundred high schools in the US.

We have a very unique combination of beaches, sounds, and coastal rivers which work together to make the area a wonderful playground for boaters, fishermen, kayakers, and people who just love the ocean.

The area continues to grow slowly and attract modern services.  While some areas have new shopping centers sitting idle, we have a very nice centrally located modern retail center developing on the western side of Morehead City.  It is easily accessible from either the western or eastern areas in the county.

On top of the national stores coming into the area, we continue to have a very healthy market for locally owned businesses especially small restaurants which seem to do well at surviving the seasonal nature of our market.

As the warmth of the February sun starts to be felt, rental statistics are only showing a 5% drop in booking so far this summer.  If that trend continues, we will have a good summer, especially compared to those areas which are already seeing a 30-35% drop in summer reservations.

Of course it is a long time to summer, but we are getting ready to move into the festival season.  Now that the sun will soon be bringing some serious warmth, we can hope that in the next few months people, fish, and the economy will once again be stirring.

Next weekend is the Chocolate Festival in Morehead City, and coming in the middle of March is the Swansboro Oyster Roast which is a favorite event of mine.

You can keep up with Crystal Coast events by visiting the Crystal Coast Web Village.  This is a map of the area and this is an index of posts done about the area where we live in a subdivision called Bluewater Cove.  Finally this is a link to my blog on the area which I try to update frequently.

There are still seats in the sun available here on the coast.

Winter comes after us

Just when I thought we were heading in the right direction in temperatures, someone took down the border fence with Canada.

What this scene along the Intracoastal Waterway looks beautiful, the temperature was pretty close to thirty-two Fahrenheit.

Last week we even managed some snow here on the beach.  The snow did not last long.  It was an ephemeral brush with snow.

That was mainly due to the snow being less than one inch in total.  It also did not stick to the roads or driveways in most cases.

Given that it was not life a real snow, and certainly did not meet Canadian standards for a serious snow.

I was a little irritated at first but I managed to get over it and enjoy our snow day.

Based on talking to residents this is a very rare occurrence down here on the coast.  One neighbor told me that he had been living here for six years, and this was his first snow.

One of the ladies at the tourist bureau told me that this was the coldest winter that she has seen in twenty years.

I think she might be right.  Some Canadian friends have told us that this is the coldest winter since 1982 when we lived on a farm north of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

In spite of the colder than normal weather, we have been pretty lucky.  Areas to the the west, north, and east of us got much more snow.  Even the northern Outer Banks got three inches compared to our one half inch.

I am actually more concerned about all the cloudy weather that seems to have descended upon us.  This lack of blue sky is really abnormal.  However, I try to look at it positively.  Areas to the north of us are going to get whacked with ice and snow.

The rest of the week we are supposed to be in the fifties except for Wednesday when we have a chance to get into the upper sixties.

Given this is one of the coldest winters that people can remember, I guess that is okay.

Most of the time the weather is a huge subject here on the coast.  With the economy deteriorating all over the country, the weather, even when it is bad, is taking a back seat.

I think we are hoping for better weather soon and some good economic news.  My efforts in real estate continue to make progress.  Given the state of the economy, I can only pleased to be going forward.

When get deprived of blue sky and good news, I end up looking at pictures.  I created a short presentation of Crystal Coast scenery and posted it online at this website.

This is a little bit of an experiment so you might have to center it on your screen.  Once it has loaded, it will advance one slide with each click of the mouse.

There are a couple of beach scenes in there to help anyone get through the winter months.  If you do not have Quicktime installed on your computer, you will have to install it to view the pictures.

You can find the free download for Windows here on Apple's site.

I hope before it gets time to do another post, that our weather is back to normal.

Someone wrote me and said how neat it was to have snow at the beach.  That would only be true for folks who did not live in Canada for fifteen years.

Fortunately the minus forty temperatures stay well north of the Mason-Dixon line.

A good winter scorecard

Winter weather is always a topic of conversation.  This year our friends to the north have had a rough go of it in early winter. 

Today a blizzard hit the Canadian Maritimes.  I think the northwest part of the United States is also getting hit with a storm.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here on the coast. Today has not been as nice with cool temperatures keeping most of us inside.

I snapped the picture with the post yesterday at Third Street Beach when it was 61F.  That is not bad for December 31.

Later we drove over the Point at Emerald Isle where sand was drifting over four wheel drive access ramp. It is something of a relief to be dealing with drifting sand instead of drifting snow.

The wind was not strong enough for the sand blasting that you can sometimes get at the beach, but it was enough to make people search out more sheltered areas of the beach for their walks.

Being on the beach at all on December 31 is something of a victory as far as I am concerned.  We are in the depths of winter, so each day we can steal on the beach makes winter one day shorter.

The long range forecast for the east coast is a toss-up for the rest of the winter.  I know that I will be rooting for a short, warm winter.

Based on the number of New York and New Jersey cars in the parking lot at the Emerald Isle grocery store, I would venture to say a number of northern residents have already voted with some travel dollars to escape some of winter's harshness.