Ocean Isle & Sunset Beaches, North Carolina

A couple of weeks ago Paul and I made a trip north across the border to North Carolina. Our first stop was Ocean Isle Beach. We had hoped to find some treasures on this beach, but no luck so we enjoyed a leisurely walk. It was a sunny day with just a little wind. One of the nicer days we have enjoyed during our stay in the Carolinas.



We visited the Museum of the Coastal Carolinas in Ocean Isle Beach. Although it was not open for visitors at the time, the ladies working there were kind enough to turn on the lights and let us walk through to see the exhibits. I enjoyed the shell displays, part of which is shown in the picture below and the fish tank. Although a small museum, it is well worth a visit.


Our next stop was at Sunset Beach, only a few minutes drive from Ocean Isle Beach. We found this area to be more nature and less populated which we prefer. We took the boardwalk to the beach and enjoyed a long walk.

Paul and I really like this tall grass and love to watch it blowing in the wind. It grows in clusters all over the area.

These are some of the beach houses along the waterway at Sunset Beach. A lot of them have rooftop decks to get a better view of the ocean.

On our drive back to Surfside Beach we stopped in Calabash, North Carolina for dinner, which is named the seafood capital of the world.

I still feel that our seafood at home in Beresford is high on the list of the best.

Our Sea Shells

A fun pass time for us this year here in South Carolina has been finding seashells. When we arrived here at Surfside Beach in January we joined the Grand Strand Shell Club, attended their monthly meetings and signed up for a shelling trip to Raccoon Key. We hope to take another trip to Bull Island before we leave at the end of this month. We have shells all around our condo and now have the difficult task of selecting the ones we can keep, which will not be easy as they are all special.

We would like to share some of our finds with you. This pail holds some of our finds from Raccoon Key - whelks, channel whelks, and sand dollars. I have over 50 sand dollars from that one trip and one very special sand dollar that Paul found for me on Valentine's Day on our beach walk.

Sand Dollars

Whelks

Lettered Olives

Starfish, Pen Shell, Scotch Bonnet (rare), Sea Urchins

Angel Wings, Tulips, Channel Whelks, Nutmeg & Nassa Shells

Cockle Shells

Paul also found this Horse Conch which still needs a little cleaning but a rare find.

Raccoon Key Shelling Trip

When Paul and I came back to Surfside Beach this winter we joined the Grand Strand Shell Club. We met Irm and Don who live here in Murrell's Inlet and they asked us to join them on a shelling trip to Raccoon Key. I met Irm last year at the Can-Am Days and was very impressed with her sea shell crafts, which included beautifully-made shell gift boxes.

This past Sunday we drove with Irm and Don to McClellanville, South Carolina to meet up with about 30 enthusiastic shellers and take the boat to Raccoon Key.


Aboard the boat here Irm is looking at some of the shells and fossils that have been collected on earlier trips. Don and Paul are looking on.

The boat ride is about 40 minutes and along the way our Captain, Chris (who is a honorary Newfoundland) stopped at Bird Island for us to see the pelicans and other birds. We are very lucky to see a pod of dolphins playing in the cove.

It took Captain Chris a couple of attempts to find an area for us to dock the boat so we could get off without getting wet feet. Although it was a sunny day, it was rather cool and not a day to be wet. Everyone is anxious to be the first off the boat so they can quickly look for the best shells. Sometimes the mud can be like quick sand, called pluff mud, so it is not always best to be the first one off. This trip we landed on solid ground. We arrived at 11 a.m. and Captain Chris returned for us at 3 p.m.

There are regulations governing how many shells that be taken off the beaches here so we were told that we were only allowed a bag each. Some people were armed with 5 pound pails, carts, etc. Paul and I had a couple of bags and a small pail. Here you can see some of the shellers busy collecting treasures. As our pail was small, it was filled quickly with many whelks, although my aim was to find sand dollars.

After a couple of hours shelling, we found Don sitting on the dune. He had collected a tub of sand dollars for me. Up to this point I had only found five, while some of the ladies had tubs and tubs of them. Jackie also gave me several and pointed me in the direction of where to find them. Paul and I were the amateurs on this trip. This was also our lunch spot. Unfortunately Don's lunch was down the beach with Irm.

I was very happy with all my treasures that I found during the day and while waiting for Captain Chris to return for us, I still had to look for one more sand dollar, and happily found it.

Paul and I enjoyed meeting all the shellers and it was a very enjoyable day. The beach area of Raccoon Key was so untouched and there were shells everywhere. Paul did find several channel whelks which are a little rare and I found a slightly broken scotch bonnet which is also rare.

This bucket shows just some of the whelks, channel whelks and sand dollars that we found.

We would like to thank Karen for organising the trip but more so thank Irm and Don for inviting us to go along. They have made us feel very welcome here.

We hope they will visit us in New Brunswick some time.

A Little Bluegrass

Last weekend Paul and I attended the First Annual Bluegrass and BBQ Festival held here in Surfside Beach. It was a fund raiser sponsored by the Shriner's Club of the area.

It was a nice day for sitting outside enjoying music. There was blue sky and lots of sunshine. There were two bluegrass bands performing for the afternoon.

The children were having a fun time dancing and playing. This little girl was such a cutie.

As I said, the music was very enjoying and so was the barbecue. There were vendors from the local area as well as North Carolina and Charleston. Paul and I sampled the pulled pork and pulled chicken sandwiches, and must confess, we had seconds!

There was such a mix of people with all the snowbirds in the area. Everyone was a clappen and a tappen to the music. Music always seem to bring us together...

Paul and I look forward to next year. The location was great as it was just up the street from our condo.

Another Year Older

Before I start my new post, I wanted to let you know that the snow you saw in the photos in my previous post did not stay with us long. I am happy to say that within an hour of our walk on the beach most of the snow had melted and we were back to white sand again. I know some of my friends were concerned that we were experiencing snowy weather here. Thankfully, not so.

Since my last entry, Paul has turned another year older and according to him, another year closer to his first CPP (Canada Pension Plan) cheque, which he will receive at age 60, (two years from now).

We started his birthday celebrations with breakfast at our favourite weekly breakfast place here, the Prince Creek Diner. Our new South Carolina friends, Irmgard and Don, joined us and we had very pleasant chat over a nice meal.

Paul decided that he wanted to spend his afternoon walking the beach at Huntington Beach State Park and do a little shelling. We did have a great walk but we did not find any treasures on the beach. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon.


We also spent a little time walking on the boardwalk through the marsh and stopped to watch the herons and egrets.


After a very enjoyable afternoon at the Park, we returned to our condo, as Paul wanted to sit out on the balcony enjoying a cool drink while watching the surf. I joined him with a glass of wine but I had to get back to the kitchen and prepare the birthday dinner which was homemade lasagna, requested by the birthday guy.

The last event for the day was the cutting of his birthday cake. It was not a homemade cake as Paul thought I would make it too healthy! He wanted lots of chocolate and LOTS of icing.

I am happy to say that after we each ate a large piece of the cake, Paul disposed of the remainder - in the trash.

February Fury...

The US is calling it the February Fury. As of last night all but one state, that being Hawaii, has had accumulation of snow this winter.

Last night our area received it's first accumulation in 10 years. The Surfside Beach and Grand Strand areas received 3 inches of snow.

This was the scene from our bedroom window this morning.

And this was the scene from our front door.


But the snow did not stop people from enjoying the beach. We saw more people on the beach this morning than of all the time we have been here. Most were seen to be taking pictures of the snow.

This family was making a snowman in front of our balcony.


Many people in the area were enjoying our snowfall, but there were a lot of disappointed people here, as well. This was the weekend of the Annual Marathon in Myrtle Beach and at about 10 p.m. last night the Organising Committee made the decision to cancel the Marathon for safety reasons, as the roads were expected to be slippery in the early morning.

The sun is now shining and the snow is quickly melting but the Weather Channel is saying there is a chance of more snow for Monday.

Exploring Garden City Beach

Last week Paul and I decided to explore Garden City Beach. We drove south to the far end of Waccamaw Drive, which is considered Murrell's Inlet, parked near the Gulf Stream Restaurant and found a beach access onto Garden City Beach. It was mid tide so we still had lots of beach on which to walk. There were many beach houses along the dunes with large beach stairs.


Other than two men taking a walk, we had the beach to ourselves. We walked around a couple of break walls and headed south down the beach. It was sunny and a great afternoon for exploring the beach.




I did a little shelling along my walk, but without much luck, and stopped to enjoy watching the sandpipers and the other beach birds scurry along the shoreline.

Paul continued on with his walk along the dunes as he was curious to see what was around the point. He found lots more sand and water along with a marina housing large boats.

Here was our view looking north on Garden City Beach showing the beach houses along the dunes and the high rises of Myrtle Beach in the background.

It was such a peaceful afternoon and a great place to enjoy the ocean that we almost stayed too long there.

It was nearing high tide so we had to hurry back the beach before the tide came in too near the break walls as we would not have been able to get around them. There was only one place that we had to wait for the surf to roll out before we could pass around the wall.

Paul and I thought it was an afternoon well spent. We hope to go back another day.