Victor + OBX = happiness

Two days ago, and yesterday, my sweetie on the beach. My husband loves this place -- not that I do not! I've taken a walk down to the pier and back each morning, but I have a knotted calf muscle today, sadly.

You know, there's an inn advertising for a manager, "couple preferred."

"Going out of..." wait a minute

So is this place going out of business, or is the owner just hoping to boost traffic?

Glassing in Frisco

I found two pieces of sea glass, and Vic found coral.

Of course, we can't resist shelling.

Birds and birthdays

So I'm sitting here reading Facebook, and a bird flies in the open front door (it's 75-ish degrees). He lands on a light fixture, then crashes into a window. He's motionless, on the floor, but he's still alive.

I take him out to the porch, a sunny spot, cradling him in my hands. He's flat -- splayed -- then he's upright, testing his legs; then he's down again, but not splayed out. I've snapped two pics of him and I off-load them to my computer. Off-loading is how I discover that it's October 26, my mother's birthday. The bird flies away.

Yesterday, when we were headed to Ocracoke to deposit some of her ashes, the ferry ran aground and took us back to Hatteras. Ashes still in the car.

Views, two days

From 'our' front porch. One includes pelicans; one includes a kite rising above the dunes -- anchored, on the beach, by my husband. They pretty much convey how it feels to be here!

Life goes on

Not to say that I am equating my mother's death and Hurricane Irene, but a certain weight lifted when we passed this scene. Even with all the damage and loss here, young people still come down to kite board. They spend money, they party, and they rejuvenate the scene.

Station damage

In northern Hatteras Island, where storm damage was pretty extreme, the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station got whalloped. One building was washed off its pilings and lost its entry ramp. The papers here say that every building at the site had at least a foot of floodwater inside.

These pictures are from a news site, not ones that I took. The entrance to Chicamacomico was barred when we drove past.

Vic and I will return to northern Hatteras to get a close look at damage and perhaps see how we might help. Distressingly, the population of the turtle enclosure at a Pea Island stop (on previous trips I posted pictures) appears to be decimated. I asked a ranger there and, though he said he did not have specific knowledge of turtle loss, he also said "no doubt" many died, as he knew a number of island creatures were lost in the storm.