Pictures – An all toooo short vacation in North Carolina

We set out to take a 6 day vacation in North Carolina as we frequently do around Memorial day. We like to leave a few days early and stay past the holiday so that the drive there and back is not so terrible….little did we know….

This trip I’ve broken the pictures up onto a number of separate galleries according to the topics so that I could add a bit of narrative. You’ll see why…

Day One: Arrived at midnight and made the trip over to Okracoke. The weather was not looking so promising so we opted to go there early, rather than  late and this was to prove to have been a very wise choice. The weather was great and the day very nice. Only down thing was that it took a very long time to get on the ferry…almost 2 hours when it usually is less than an hour wait.

Also day 1: It is not uncommon to see Navy fighter planes out of Norfolk as the pilots get their time in. On a couple of occasions, the pilot has been really low and it can be neat to see. This time, up in the sky I noticed 3 planes: 2 fighters and a larger aircraft. I suspect that what we saw was a couple pilots practicing an air-refueling out over the ocean that were returning home. Nice to have a really good telephoto lens handy….:)

Day 2: We took several walks on the beach and as I generally walk in the water, say up to my knees or so, I keep an eye on what is in the water with me. Usually not much other than birds. This time I glanced down and saw a couple of largish brown shapes and as they went quickly by me, I took as many pictures as my hands would accomplish. It was not until I saw the actual pictures that I could tell that what we were seeing was a pair of Sting Rays looking for lunch. I’d never see that before.

The balance of Day 2 was walking on the beach on a very pleasant day:

I like those selfies at the end with my sweetie!

Now, we’ve spent countless hours on the beach and dodged under and around hundreds of fishing lines. Usually the fishermen are competent enough to set their lines in such a manner that you can walk under them without any issues. Only once on this trip did I actually bump into a poorly placed line. But….I think only 1 or 2 times have we ever actually seen anyone really catch a fish. I think they are there mostly to drink beer and tell lies to their buddies and waste away the day. This time….well, see for yourself….we watched a man pull in a 275 pound shark…..

I was too new to this camera to risk taking a video of this as it unfolded, and it did play out rather quickly. We were sitting on out beach chairs a few dozen yards away when I noticed what was happening but at first had no idea just how large this catch was. After landing the thing and taking a bunch of pictures, they rather gently escorted the shark back into the water. A very special thing to have had the good fortune to have witnessed.

Day 3 was more beach time. By this time Jan’s foot was bothering her a bit so we mostly rested and did some reading.

Now that last picture in an indication why we cut the trip short.