Being At the Beach

If you've ever lived near a beach, in a coastal area, or even within a couple hour drive of the ocean, there's a strong draw to the big water that's hard if not impossible to sever. I'm obviously highly biased in favor of living in the Wilmington, NC area and as a REALTOR(tm) I'm invested in helping others move here, too, so there's my disclaimer.



However, while I can recite a long and very real list of great reasons to move to Wilmington, NC, which I won't recount here, clearly the greatest and strongest attraction is the beach. Yeah, we're a resort/vacation area but so are a lot of other places but people don't want to move to live there full time.

I believe that many of the other reasons people make the decision to move to the Cape Fear region are rational (jobs, health care, the arts, restaurants, business opportunities, growth, etc), but those are all justifications. The core reason to live in our area is the beach, and I believe that's a decision one makes with one's heart.

So if you live here and would never consider leaving or if you're thinking about moving to the Wilmington, NC area, don't kid yourself. The primary draw is the beach. And I think that's a good thing.

Olive Oil May Be Great for Your Skin, But NOT as a Sunscreen

New Years Day 2009 at Wrightsville Beach

Each year since Marge and I moved here at the very end of 2003 Marge and I have gone with Pepper to Wrightsville Beach. Most years the temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s. Today it was a bit more brisk, with the temperature only about 39 when Marge took this shot, but it actually felt a bit warmer. As you may be able to see in the background, there were plenty of people on the beach wearing only jeans and sweatshirts.

I wondered at first if I'd even send off my annual e-mail (0r now blog post) to family and friends about being on the beach in January in North Carolina when it was admittedly chilly as it was today, but then I glanced at the weather in other parts of the country and decided the point would still be made. Our daughter lives in West Hartford, Connecticut where the high is predicted to top out at 21 degrees and our elder son Richard and his wife Megan celebrated New Years Eve with friends in Montpelier, Vermont, where the high temp for the day is predicted to reach 7 degrees (when I checked earlier the wind chill factor was minus 20 degrees!). Even our son Peter in San Francisco will only enjoy a relatively balmy 54 degrees today but it was supposedly to be cloudy, so 39 and sunny on the the beach sounds pretty good.

Here's wishing everyone at healthy and prosperous 2009!

Sunday AM at Wrightsville Beach - Surfers, Bikers, and Pepper!

What a great time we had at Wrightsville Beach this morning. Dogs on leash are allowed on the beach October through April, so Marge and I put Pepper, our 8-year old female Giant Schnauzer, in the car and headed out early.

Those who don't live around here may not know that Wrightsville Beach has the best surfing on the East Coast, but truly year round, in almost any weather, you can find surfers on WB. So it wasn't unusual when Pepper made her first new friends of the day fresh out of the surf.

As we walked further down the beach we realized something was up, however, as the number of photographers with long lenses outnumbered everyone but the surfers. Turns out this weekend was the occasion of a surfing competition hosted by the SurfRiding Foundation.

Pepper enjoyed hanging out in front of the judge's stand for a while - she particularly liked the music.

Like most people, however, her eyes were glued on the 10s and 10s of surfers in the water. My camera isn't right for capturing images out that far, but the water was popping with wet-suited surfers, and many were waaaay much better than the usual Sunday morning crowd.

Pepper also met a young guy who took a break from competing to ride a blow up shark.

Here's the same guy with some friends in the water.

As we were leaving Pepper spied some folks on bikes and, well, she just can't stay away from motorcycles. So, the next thing we knew she wanted her picture taken with the bikers. Fortunately they were happy to oblige.

We left the beach to go home for lunch and to do a few chores. Pepper didn't want to leave at first, but we promised we'd take her downtown later.