Topsail Beach #4

Yesterday was a curious day here at the beach. We were pretty much held prisoner by various types of winged insects. The biting flies were still bad on the beach with the North wind; the gnats were bad on the main deck of the villa, leaving only the small deck that had enough wind and sun to run all the little varmints off. We were finally able to go down to the pool in the afternoon for a while. Vickie braved the beach while wearing 300% Deet and collected some more shark’s teeth. We did have some enjoyable time since the shrimp boats were very close inshore, and we were able to watch the antics of the sea birds behind them and see some porpoises frolicking around. The rest of the day I read a book, surfed the net, worked on my writing, and made a run to CVS for mom. (oh and napped a little) We noticed a large group gathering at the pool that all seemed to know each other. Turn s out it looks like there is going to be a wedding here Saturday.

Last night we had an early dinner of leftovers, and Vickie and I set off for the fishing pier. It was cool, so we got out the jeans, socks, long sleeve shirts, etc. We rounded up everything we needed and took off for the Seaview Pier, which is about 2 miles from here. Earlier in the evening, we had made a preliminary reconnaissance to make sure the pier was not infested with flies. The crabby old man at the pier didn’t want to let us walk out and check (for free) but Vickie prevailed. We talked to several patrons and they assured us the biting flies were not a problem. We promised Crabby we’d be back. (little knowing he was secretly plotting his revenge). Later, shortly after Thursday evening dinner, we arrived at the pier with all our gear, and expected the $7.00 ea charge it said on the Internet. Well it turned out to be $8 and it wasn’t even good for 24 hrs—only till 6 am Fri day. So admission plus the little bag of (recommended) bloodworms came to something like $26.36. What Crabby failed to mention was that if we came to fish after 9pm the admission was good until 6am Saturday. (we probably got there about 8:30 and they grinned the whole time they fleeced us-Crabby’s Revenge)

We trouped out onto the pier—acting like we had a clue what we were doing. We picked a spot, and I rigged up our poles and cut up some worms for bait. (Vickie wasn’t real happy about this process). We started fishing, and pretty soon Vickie caught a fish. It was a little Spot, and we threw it back. Pretty soon Vickie got into the spirit of the whole thing and even started baiting her own hooks. (she drew the line at cutting up live worms, however) Soon the moon rose and was the biggest roundest orangest moon we had ever seen. Vickie called the Moms to make sure they saw it.

We continued fishing, and caught several more small fish, Spots, Whiting, and a Croaker. But, the wind kept blowing harder and harder, and it kept getting colder. After I managed to break the line on my fishing pole (and didn’t know how to tie the necessary knots to repair it) Vickie set off to get my pole repaired and get some warmer clothes. I continued fishing (well mostly feeding worms to little fish) and shivering. One thing that happened while she was gone—a fellow showed up to fish looking very experienced. He set up all his gear, baited his hooks, and relaxed into a reclining position on one of those old tri-fold lounge chairs. He was all laid back with a little cheroot in his mouth when he got a bite on his line. He jerked the big fishing pole he had, lost his balance, the old chair collapsed under him, and he wound up laying in the middle of the pier, pole and cheroot in hand. All including him had a good laugh at the antics.

As it turns out, Vickie didn’t have the key to get into the villa, so by the time she got back an hour later, I was too cold to fish (Wally, my bass fishing brother-in-law, will tell you there is no such thing as too cold to fish), and she hadn’t brought any more clothes, so we called it a night. I figure it cost us around $20 an hour to fish, but we found out that Vickie and I can fish well together. Money well spent.

We went home to bed (warm bed), and after a good night’s sleep this morning we are watching the wedding preparations on the beach.

More later,

Wes

Topsail Beach #3

Yesterday I was introduced to the sport of shark tooth finding. Early in the day the flies disappeared, and the beach was perfect for me. (cool and cloudy) I went down and tried my hand at finding some shark’s teeth in the surf. It is pretty much fun and I caught on, inventing my own method that involved a child’s sand strainer and an adult beverage. Vickie soon joined me and we passed some idealic hours with just the surf, beach, and breeze. This time of the year when it isn’t burning hot but the water is still warm is so great.

After several hours of shark’s teeth hunting, I remembered that I wanted to go and find where the shrimp boats dock that we see every day in front of our villa. Everyone was interested so we packed up and headed out. Vickie had gotten some info from a long time resident about a special seafood place right on the water so we headed in that general direction. Rt. 172 when it leaves Sneads Ferry says Military Traffic only. That really isn’t true but it does terminate at the gate to Camp Lejune. But along the way the local’s directions told us to turn at the old Exxon. Well we turned at a new Exxon cause that’s where all the signs were pointing to water front restaurants and stuff. We followed the road back in the direction of the water, and came upon several waterfront restaurants, and venturing further we found the homeport of the shrimp boats. At one boat dock the deck hands had cables stretched out all over the parking lot so we turned around to avoid running over their cables.

We saw some more shrimp boats over the trees so we rode over there. Vickie got out and went over to talk to the fishermen. She came back carrying this huge shrimp with feelers about 6 inches long. (he was sort of a big smiling shrimp) She said they were for sale for $6.00 per lb. so we decided to get some. The man said they had been caught just in front of Topsail Island, so these were the shrimp boats we watched out our window in the morning. We got a big bag and Vickie’s Mom got the guy to de-head them for us. We scoped out the other fishing/restaurants in the area, and at one we found this very pretty blonde girl in short red Abercrombie shorts and white fishing boots. We took her picture along with very photogenic shrimp boats and a nice boy who posed for Vickie while he was cleaning up his boat.

Turned out to be a great trip and we headed home---ultra fresh crustaceans in hand. We stopped by the Food Loin and picked up the fixings for some turf to go with our surf along with some good horseradish for building seafood sauce. After arriving home, we put the turf in one Ziploc bag with appropriate seasoning, and the surf in another Ziploc bag with a citrus-parsley-garlic salt marinade we invented in Florida earlier this year. Vickie headed off to scope out the grill situation. This was going to be a new experience for her cause we were using charcoal instead of gas. (here Jerry laughs hysterically) But she rose to the occasion, and we had a great meal of local food in beautiful surroundings. As we are wont to do, after dinner it was books, cards, puzzles etc. till time to retire.

Today I got out my digital pocket recorder, and started making some notes about the curiosities of this “villa”. I hope to combine my observations into a Trip Advisor review and perhaps some interesting notes.

More Later,

Wes

Topsail #2

Sometimes I think I'm a little like Jerry Seinfield's show--a lot of drivel about nothing, but sometimes entertaining.

Tuesday was another great weather day here at Topsail. I got busy in the morning and erected our gazebo down on the beach. With reasonable weather and the good screw in sand anchors we have it is good to go for the week. Having it down there certainly makes sitting on the beach a much more pleasurable pastime. One of the reasons we did not go to our usual beach this time (Ocean Isle Beach-south of Wilmington) is they have banned beach gazebos. They used the very thin excuse of wanting to protect the sea turtles that nest on the island. But the years we have been there we have never seen a sea turtle nest interfered with by a beach gazebo. It's more about they just wanted to start an umbrella and chair rental concession to make more money. All they accomplished was to send long time Ocean Isle goers to other friendlier beaches. Oh well we are here and it's nice. The surf was pret ty stout all day Monday, and I went in swimming for just a little while. (paid for it later with joint pain) Mostly we just enjoyed the sun, sand, and surf all day. (oh and sat around and watched the stock market go in the toilet. I'd personally like to strangle some of the greedy folks that perpetrated this ridiculous real estate financing mess)

Tuesday Vickie and her mom went out to shop the local establishments for a while and Mother and I made use of the beach. The wind had changed and with it the surf was much calmer. I was able to get mother in for her long desired swim in the ocean. Unfortunately with the change in the wind came hordes of biting black flies. We didn't notice them while swimming, but as soon as you got out of the water they tried to carry you away. We bid a hasty retreat to the villa and started planning diner. We had originally planned to go out and get some shrimp from the local purveyors that sell the catch off the boats that ply the waters in front of our living room window. But as we were planning to have "shrimp on the barbie" Vickie went out to scope out the situation. It appeared she would have to fight the flies for use of the grills, so we went to plan B. Plan B happened to be a little restaurant I'd seen called the Clam Shack or something like that. We got all loaded up, found the place, and it was closed on Tuesday night. Well then we decided to ride down to Surf City and see what was there. Being off-season, that turned out to be non productive as well. Soooo it was back to the villa and an impromptu dinner of BLT sandwiches and cantaloupe. Turned out to be very good with everyone well satisfied. The girls played Skip Bo well into the night while I alternately read my book and snored. Later another day drifted off to tired beach sleep. We are still planning on getting some shrimp for The Grill Queen to put on the barbie and we are also contemplating some fishing on the pier. Perhaps tomorrow.

More later,

Wes

Topsail Beach #1

Hi again all. This week finds us on a trip to take our respective Mothers on a beach break. We're at Topsail Beach just South of Camp Lejune NC.

Here we are at Topsail Beach staying at the St. Regis Resort, not to be confused with any other resorts bearing the St. Regis name. We left Martinsville shortly after 09:00 Saturday, and picked up Vickie’s mom in Danville a little after 10:00 (I had picked up my mother earlier in the week from Wilkesboro). The Tahoe was happy handling our beach load, and the roof rack swallowed the beach gazebo and chairs all fastened with an assortment of bungee cords. We set off across North Carolina to the coast. We lucked up and managed to find a week between hurricanes. Of course we picked the week when gas went to $5.00 a gallon, but the trip wasn’t too far and I had filled the Tahoe up with $3.49 gas the day before. Vickie and I had put new shocks on the Tahoe Friday, so the ride was smooth. (It was a new learning experience for Vickie changing shocks—now she knows how to change brake pad s and rotors, and simple shocks) For trips like this with 4 people, luggage, beach stuff, and food, you really can’t beat a big old American SUV. We were sort of lamenting the other day—the Tahoe is finally paid for (60 months of “The General's” zero percent money), and it’s worth next to nothing. But to us it’s a good old hauler that uses a little too much gas. Heck it’s even got a flex fuel engine and can burn E85 if someone can ever figure out how to make it out of something besides food. We plan to drive it till the wheels fall off.

The trip down was uneventful, and after stopping in Goldsboro to check out a boat we have been looking at on the Internet, we arrived at the rental agency near the suggested check in time. Since it is “off season” the check in process was painless, and we were soon moved into our “Villa” for the week. The St. Regis touted on its web site that it had made $14 million in renovations recently. I don’t believe that included our particular unit. As with all beach rentals, you never know exactly what you are getting until you actually arrive. We were a little disappointed in the overall appearance of the place when we arrived. However as with any real estate location-location-location are the main three selling points. From that standpoint, this place is wonderful. It has a huge living area/kitchen with triple sliding glass doors overlooking the ocean, and a Master Bedroom with 3 wind ows and a smaller sliding glass door overlooking the ocean. The other two bedrooms both have a direct ocean view with access to another deck. The pool is close by and there are two elevators to the floor. (although someone told mother in high season with a billion kids the elevator wait is interminable)

We set about making the place our own. Vickie, Mom and Mom, unpacked our stuff, and I attacked the kitchen. It is amazing how much “stuff” can accumulate in a beach rental unit kitchen over the span of a season. There were multiples of small frying pans, pots, lids, and enough assorted plastic ware to bail out the Queen Mary. Indomitable Vickie sat patiently in the middle of the kitchen floor sorting the “stuff” and mining the deep reaches of one closet that extended back behind the stove. We sorted out the stuff that was usable and piled everything else back in. We ended up with enough usable equipment to feed us for the week. The blender, however, was dead and this prompted an immediate call to the rental agent. There is no way Vickie and I can spend a week at the beach without a blender. Oh and while we were talking to the rental agent, we had to have her bring us linens. Eve n though Vickie had verified (twice) with the agents prior to the trip the correct linens to bring, somehow the mattress size and our sheets didn’t match in two of the rooms. I strolled back to find Lorayne and Mother both sitting on beds with fitted sheets covering ¾ of the mattress. But it all got handled and Dominos prepared a wonderful dinner, as they are wont to do many beach trip arrival days. We were all tired, so Vickie promised she would go with me early to the grocery store, and with that we turned in. The beds turned out to be great.

The next morning (Sunday) we were at the Food Loin soon after it’s 06:00 opening time. The store was well stocked and we enjoyed the fine selection. During high season beach grocery stores so often look like locusts have been there before you. Packing up all our purchases we headed back to the villa just in time to feed everyone breakfast. After breakfast it was off to the beach and pool to enjoy a bright, hot, sunny day. The weather was beautiful (if a little hot) for September, and the water temps were grand. I made a second trip back to the Food Loin since on Sunday in NC adult beverages are not available till after 11:00 (according to the clerk). But then I got to hang around the shopping area for an hour cause what the clerk really meant to tell me was the adult beverages were not available till noon. Vickie, Bert, and Lorayne, p assed the day with sun, fun, and women’s chat. I returned from my wanderings and caught up with them at the pool. Vickie also spent a great deal of the day looking for shark’s teeth in the sand. This is a new pastime that is more difficult than just looking for shells. She found a few, and planned to redouble her efforts the next day.

I fixed diner from the supplies we had rounded up at the Food Loin and all, well fed, gradually drifted off to bed.

More later,

Wes

Kitty Hawk #3

Wednesday we got up, and hung around a while. I took advantage of the time to put a good hurting on a Tom Clancy novel I was reading. After everyone had breakfast, we paid a visit to the Wright Bros. Memorial. We had a nice visit there, and then decided to take a ride south to see the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Turned out to be a little farther than we had planned (about 120 miles round trip), but it was a beautiful day, and the scenery was great. We were amazed at how everything here had developed. There were huge cottages everywhere you looked. What used to be barren sand dunes is now cottage development. We visited the lighthouse but decided to forego the climb to the top, which costs $7.00 and involves stairs numbering in the hundreds. After returning to the condo, we spent a little time at the pool, and grilled some hot dogs. My dad and I had already decided we would go fishing again on Thursday.

Thursday morning, we got up early and hit the pier again. The "blues" were running, and the pier looked like a fish factory. However, we sort of brought a knife to a gunfight. Everyone was fishing on the windward side of the pier, and they were pulling in "blues" as fast as they could throw the lines. We were excited, and baited our hooks for the blues catching. Well we couldn’t buy a bite. Turned out everyone else was using something called a "Gotch Ya" lure. This particular lure must have been like cocaine to fish, cause they were pulling them in like there would never be fish again. We spent several hours trying to catch a fish. Oh and during this time the game warden came by looking in coolers making sure no one exceeded the 10 bluefish per person rule. He looked in our cooler and all we had was some very smelly squid. (I think he laughed, but he disguised it as a cough.) I finally caught one fish, but it was a retarded fish and looked like it had been caught several times b efore. I caught it on a Bass rig that looked like a minnow. I figured he didn’t know his minnows from his "Got Ya(s)". As lunchtime approached, I made the decision that we had to find some "Gotch Ya(s)". We loaded everything in the Tahoe and headed down the road for the bait store. We found the very same "Gotch Yas" at the bait store for $1.99. Two of them joined our fishing armada. After lunch we returned to the fishing pier to try our luck with the newly purchased "Gotch Ya(s)". As it turned out the blue fish had decided to vacate the premises while we were gone. I did manage to catch three using my new found lure technology but Dad caught none. While trying to catch the blue fish, Dad managed to throw half his pole overboard due to the pole joint not being fastened tight enough. However, we were able to retrieve the errant hunk of fiberglass and get him back to full fishing strength. We spent the remainder of the afternoon till about 3pm casting our "Gotch Ya(s)" into a 35-mph w ind. (the fish of course were never on the leeward side—how they know that under water I’ll never know) Finally the wind got too annoying to bear. Having nailed our limit of three fish (which we gave away) I decided that we would call it a day. We returned home, packed everything away, and headed out for a seafood dinner because of our inability to catch anything edible. Once again it was the old Master Card commercial. Who could have known the impact on Americana some advertising weenie could have. Fishing lures $1.99 each etc. etc. etc., fishing with your 86 year old father (and 50 year old tackle box) priceless.

Happy day,

Wes

Kitty Hawk #2

Today is Thursday, and it has been and interesting couple days. Tuesday morning, I picked up my dad to go fishing on the Avalon Pier. We loaded the stuff in the Tahoe, and off we went. We checked in at the pier, and paid our fee ($10.00 for 24 hrs) to an old Jewish guy that looked like he came with the pier. The pier itself was a trip back in time. The entrance building was crammed with a mixture of old fortune telling and strength testing machines, right beside the latest video console stuff. On the entrance was a sign "If you didn’t buy it here you can’t drink it here" but to my observation, it wasn’t exactly enforced. Murray (that’s what I decided to call him) stamped our hands with a red Tuesday, we bought a nice box of frozen calamari (or squid as fishermen call it), and headed out onto the pier. We decided to "rig up" our poles at the table shortly down the pier, to stay out of everyone else’s way. My dad opened a tackle box, that probably rode in our 56 Chevy, and we put on the customary pier bottom fishing rigs. It was at this time the fun started. Somewhere between his car and the pier, the tip grommet had fallen off dad’s pole. Well this wasn’t a tragedy, it still seemed like it would work. So we found a spot, baited up our hooks and "started fishing". It was at this point, I discovered the brand new pole and reel I had brought were totally unsuited to the task at hand. I couldn’t cast it six inches without the line turning into this horrible bird’s nest on the reel. Meanwhile, folks all around us are pulling in little Croakers two at a time. Oh yea, and dad’s pole with the missing grommet, wouldn’t reel up correctly. This is when the old Master Card commercial came into my head. "Pier fishing $10.00, squid $4.50, fishing with dad on the pier, priceless. For everything else there’s MasterCard". (or in my case American Express) I said the heck with this, and we made a 30-minute round trip to Kitty Hawk’s finest Wally Mart for some new poles. Trus t old Sam to think of the fishermen at the Beach. There was a fine assortment of complete fishing outfits for under $20.00. We picked out matching Shakespeare Tiger poles (one red and one black), and headed back to the pier. Things went smoothly from there, with the exception of the fish quit biting and now all we could catch were Skates (small stingrays). I caught eight and dad caught two. They are very heavy and difficult to get off the hook. Interspersed with those, we caught a couple little Croakers. However, something about sitting on the pier and watching the beach world go by grabbed me and didn’t let go. We had fun, and then left to come back later. In the evening, we came back and tried our luck. Again it was wonderful sitting on the pier fishing and watching the sun go down. We caught numerous little croakers, and finally called it a night about 11:30. Turns out, you can show up any time after 11:00 and get on the pier for free till 05:00 when Murray shows up and starts c ollecting the money again. More later.

Wes

Kitty Hawk

Tropical Storm Barry.....

Well here we are at Kitty Hawk NC at the beach. We had an uneventful trip down on Saturday, and it didn’t start raining till Saturday night. I drove my father’s car and Vickie drove the Tahoe with her mother. The place we are staying is quite nice, and other than heart attack stairs getting to the top floor (where the kitchen and living room are) we really like it. I thought my ticker was going to explode before we got all the stuff from the car up to the kitchen. (I brought quite a bit of food from home, to save going to the grocery store all the time. And anyone who knows me knows when I catch something un-perishable on a good sale, I stock up. So I raided my pantry to the tune of a couple big plastic tubs and my freezer for a cooler full.) As usual, something interesting happened on the trip down: I overheard a guy talking on a cell phone about "a storm coming up the coast" I didn’t think any more about it, until it started raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock Saturday ni ght. This place does not have gutters, and the rain was running off the roof like someone was hosing it down with a fire hose. I was busy hoping it was raining at home. I never turned on the news and then Sunday, it was still raining hard, and the surf was pretty severe. I thought to myself, what a storm. Then today, Lorayne, Vickie’s mother told me the whole thing had been a named tropical storm. Shows you what I know. I just thought it was raining quite a bit. Today she showed me where The Weather Channel was on the TV, and we watched the talking heads yammer about the "major storm". I must admit yesterday morning when it was raining so hard we couldn’t see out the windows, I started looking for Jim Cantorini out in the yard doing a live report. But leave it to Wes to be on a barrier island in a tropical storm and not even know it.

Today (Monday) weather is beautiful. It stopped raining about 5:15 am. This afternoon it is hot and all the puddles are gone. Yesterday during a lull in the storm, (sun actually came out) we walked down to the beach and stuck our ankles in the water. It was really cold (like 67 ° ). This morning, we went down to the cottage where my Mom and Dad are staying with some of my kin on my mother’s side. I got to see and meet some of my various cousins (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th) their spouses etc. It was quite interesting, and I found we had quite a few things in common. Miss Vickie, as usual, acted like she had known them all her life. This afternoon, we spent some time putting new line on an ocean type-fishing pole I’ve never used. Tomorrow I’m going fishing on the Avalon Pier with my Dad, ought to be a new adventure. Last time I can remember doing it (fishing on a pier with Dad) would be about 1958 here in Kitty H awk. First time I can remember them bringing us to Kitty Hawk was when we lived in Pittsburgh, and we came down in Dad’s 54 Chevy and it took two days. Rest of the afternoon I think will be spent by the pool with some adult beverages. More later.

Wes