At The Beach

Outer Banks 2021

Our annual trip to the North Carolina shore was a week later than last year. Traffic was incredibly heavy on Route 12 as we neared our rented house. It took 50 minutes to cover the final 2.5 miles! Cars, frozen in place, stretched as far as we could see. Some enterprising kids were selling frozen ice pops and handing them through car windows as traffic crawled by. 

Eventually, we did leave the traffic backup and arrived at our house pictured below. A flag flies from the crow's nest.

The house was newer than one we had rented previously. It was pleasantly bright and cheery as we entered and had this view of the living room area. 

Bedrooms were bright and clean.

The indoor sun porch looked inviting.There was also a screened porch with comfortable chairs and a nice swing. This was a great place for reading in the swing chair, napping, eating breakfast, or hearing wind brushing through pine branches outside.

The small back yard pool had warmer water than the cold ocean.Sophie couldn't wait to jump in.

When tired of the beach E and K could hang out with drinks and watch the kids.

Annabelle isn't fond of beach sand or waves. She's much happier floating around in the pool for hours with help from her special yellow buoyant device which wraps around her neck and keeps her head above water. She drifts from side to side, grabs pool ladders, and seems to have a great time!The pool was nice, but much more time was spent at the beach.Paddle boarding was difficult this year because windy conditions made rough water. After a day packed with activities in the sun youngsters sometimes needed a break inside. 

Over the years I've discovered nice neighborhood roads for bike rides. When riding near sunrise there are very few cars, and residential streets transform into wide bike trails. On one morning ride a fox trotted across the road directly in front of me. I stopped to fish my phone out for a picture, but the fox was too nervous to keep still for a portrait. Not long after the fox encounter I came upon three bucks browsing along a driveway. I saw many more male deer than female on my rides. You may have to click on the next picture to enlarge it in order to see the antlers more clearly.

I hadn't spent extended time alone with my daughter for more than a year. It was nice to bike together and talk over breakfast one morning. I discovered a way to pedal from our house to a bagel place. Ellen rode her massive electric bike and I had my mountain bike.

Another traditional father/daughter beach activity is completing a jigsaw puzzle. This year the 1,000-piece puzzle was called, Merlin's Laboratory. Honestly, I probably did the majority of puzzle work on this one. The final result was very nice. Four crystal spheres were interesting features in the puzzle because they formed small distorted images of their surroundings.

Each year we go to the Duck boardwalk to see the sun set. Annabelle is uncomfortable around all the people on the boardwalk, so I happily volunteered to slowly push Annabelle in her wheeled chair round and round on unoccupied shady walking trails while everyone else strolled the boardwalk toward Donuts on a Stick for ice cream. Annabelle seemed to enjoy the relative quiet. She took the opportunity to touch trees, leaves, and flowers along the way. Sunset viewing was successful!

A nice person offered to take this family picture in the golden light. 

Speaking of sunsets - we observed a few from the crow's nest atop our house. This is a panorama of the scene we viewed as the sun set below the northwestern horizon.One evening there was a display of crepuscular and anticrepuscular rays. The first picture shows crepuscular rays looking northwest. The second picture, a few seconds later, shows anticrepuscular rays converging on the antisolar point exactly 180 degrees to the southeast. 

It was pleasantly breezy up in the crow's nest when these family pictures were taken.

One day C told me to check out the colorful iridescent cloud floating among others in the fair sky. Sometimes called a rainbow cloud, the effect is caused by light scattered by small ice crystals.

We had magnificent weather for our entire stay. It was much breezier than other years, but the breeze was welcome on hot days. The wind helped discourage annoying evening insects. Rain held off until our drive home to Williamsburg.