Weekend on the Water! July 4-6, 2014

Hurricane Arthur passed through Harkers Island, NC at 100 mph very early Friday morning.  My friends here rode out the storm!  Luckily everything was pretty much okay.  The power was out until about 6pm Friday evening, a few trees down on a side lot and a little screen repair is needed, but overall, very lucky!

I arrived about 12:30pm Friday.  It was a beautiful day after the storm!  Water was sparkly and I immediately took "the view from the house" photos:

Beautiful isn't it??

My hostess had two friends here, also...Kim and Dominique.  Very nice ladies!  We hung around catching up and getting acquainted, then off to historic Beaufort, NC for a great dinner at "Aqua". Very nice restaurant...excellent meal...excellent service!  A real treat after boondocking for two weeks!

On Saturday we all got up early and went for an 8-10 mile bike ride around the island.  Two other friends joined us.  It was another nice day and still cool-ish in the morning.  Great for a bike ride! My Schwinn Varsity was a pedaling breeeeeeze!

Around noon we went out in our hostess' boat for a wonderful day on the water!  Went over to Cape Lookout.  Cape Lookout National Seashore  is part of the U.S. Park Service.  The lighthouse is a 163-foot high lighthouse located on the Southern Outer Banks of North Carolina. It flashes every 15 seconds and is visible at least 12 miles out to sea and up to 19 miles. We dropped anchor at an opposing shore.

Don't these umbrellas just scream "summer on the beach"??

We relaxed on the boat...had a great packed lunch, got in the water, which was a pretty decent temperature and walked along the beach looking for the perfect shells.  We stayed all afternoon,got a little toasty and had a great time!

We decided we wanted some "real" Fourth of July food for dinner back at the house so we madeup some WHOPPER hamburgers for the grill with lots of "additions" to them, plus some corn on the cob. Yum, yum, yum! Mighty good! There was a beautiful sunset looming, so we grabbed our cameras and headed to one of the three decks on the house which face west. The sunset horizon is the same as the "view" photo above. We were NOT disappointed! It was a spectacular sunset..... yep....more sunset photos, everyone!

Around 9:00pm, there were fireworks going off in three different locations across our view. Unfortunately, too far away to get good photos, but fun to watch! After the light show, all of us were wiped out fromthe water and sun so we called it an early night.Sunday morning brought another beautiful day and a big breakfast! Around noon, the water was calling us and we went out on another boat cruise for a couple of hours. We decided to cruise over by Morehead City, NC and on the way back go through the Beaufort, NC channel.

Heading out....

Morehead City is a larger port, so seeing cargo ships, etc. wasn't unusual.

Morehead City shoreline

Sail boats...

Fishing boats...

Bridge into Morehead City

Beaufort, NC is an historic town.  Very quaint...established in 1709, it's the third oldest city in North Carolina.  Hopefully I can show you around town after I leave Harkers Island.  But, for now, here are views going through the channel.

 

Just as we were nearing our home dock, several small pods of dolphins appear!  Very cool!  They darted up and back under the water too quickly, tho', for any pictures.  But what fun to see them!  

Back on land, we say goodbye to Kim and Dominique.  They had to head back to Raleigh.  Our hostess also had to head back for the work week, but not before so graciously saying I could remain parked at their house for a few days...or more  We'll just see what happens with the time, but I will definitely be here at least a few more days.  Plan to bike around the island taking photos and checking out some cemeteries.  And, of course, just enjoying being "on the water"!  

A BIG THANK YOU to Laine, our hostess with the mostest, for opening her house to the girlfriend clan!  It was a great girls' weekend.  Great friends, great conversation, great food, great location!  

Next up...more of Harkers Island, then....who knows????