in celebration of

long before the Summer of the Shark made landfall along the North Carolina coast, my parents made plans to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary (a little early ~ the actual day is August 21) on Oak Island with their nearest & dearest (that would be me & my family and my brother & his family).  feeling a little like shark bait wasn't going to scare us (unless you consider not going in past the tidal pools an indication of our scaredy-sharkness), so beachward we went!

the big 5 - 0

our family arrived the day of the Women's World Cup, USA vs Japan, and there were many soccer fans in the house (well, maybe three, really).  after several rather swift U.S. goals early on, the excitement kind of plateaued - but we all cheered the U.S. team's win!

Samuel & Grandpa

Joseph, Sam, Nana, Alex, & Jeff

 after that, it was time for games with Grandpa & Nana!

Rummikub is a current favorite.

the weather for the week was superb - high 80's, great surf, a nice wind to cool you down.  if only.  if only the sharks had seemed less of a possibility.  sigh.  if only.

Mom, Dad, & Jeff scan the surf for predators

so we took walks, looked for shells, played in the sand, read books, went on excursions - and occasionally a few of us went for oh-so-brief swims in the ocean.  for those of us who love swimming and surfing in the ocean, it was small torture.  a few people up and down the beach did go out on surf boards & such, but most people stayed on the sand or at the very edge of the waves.

Jeff & Dad ~ Kelly, me, & Mom

back of the line

one evening, a group decided to get ice-cream at Dairy Queen.  as did approximately one hundred thirteen other beach-goers.  three lines moving as slow as hot caramel to the window, where you got a brief blast of frigid air when you placed your order before being gently returned to the humid night.

i love walking along the shore looking for (& collecting) shells.  it's one of my favorite things to do at the beach.  i always like finding pieces of coral, and this trip also brought many cross-barred venus clam shells which i enjoyed running the pad of my thumb across as i continued down the beach.  they are rough like a cat's tongue.  i also found several olive shells as well as moon shells (baby's ears) and turkey wing shells.

Sea Turtle Eggs

our cottage's beach access was from behind the dunes

two cottages down the beach.

~

one morning, an early riser

discovered that a sea turtle had nested her eggs

directly in the smooth, recessed nook.

fibrous sea oats flanked it,

& the tide did not quite reach it.

...however...

sea turtle patrol arrives (yellow shirt & green shirt) to assess the nest

the sea turtle came out of the ocean during the night at high tide & headed straight for the dunes.  once at the dunes, she dragged herself along them until she found a spot that was protected from the tides.  she dug a really deep hole with her back flippers, laid her eggs, and refilled the hole.  she, then, dragged herself back down to the surf & swam away.  she left a path scraped smooth by her plastron with deep flippermarks at frequent intervals on either side.

the sea turtle patrol first must determine if eggs are in the nest - or if it was a dry run, wishful thinking, first attempt, or a dud on the part of the sea turtle.  the only way to do so is to start digging.

 a small crowd gathered,

including all but one from our cottage.

so now...what to do?  the eggs take about two months before they hatch, and this nest was directly at a beach access in high (human) season.  so the decision was made to move the eggs to a safer location on the beach.

which meant that, one by one, the eggs had to be carefully removed, placed carefully in a bucket, and carefully transported up the beach...then carefully re-nested!

the sea turtle patrol measured an egg, as they were larger than the eggs from a nest the team had moved earlier that same morning, and it was a whopping 15cm.  the team speculated that might mean these were eggs from a green sea turtle (rather than a loggerhead), but we may never know.

 another clue that these may have been green sea turtle eggs: there were 131 eggs in the nest!

that is more than the typical loggerhead lays &

safely in the range for a green sea turtle.

luckily, sea turtle eggs are fairly durable.

mama turtle's retreat to the sea

Beach Bonding

Sam & Samuel ~ Joseph & Alex

the social interactors & the gadget guys.  fortunately, there are two of each.

Dad, Mom, Samuel, & Mike

a family beach tradition is building a Ball Roll ~ basically a sand mountain with curving pathways, tunnels, and moats through which a ball, well, rolls. 

i brought the Really Big Shovel & my brother brought the initiative.  Samuel & Samantha brought the enthusiasm!

industrious cousins

i think the kids managed three separate visits to the arcade & became quite savvy consumers as far as maximizing token:ticket ratios...if that was one's particular goal.  it seemed that the younger or older you were, the less that ratio was of prime concern ~ those on either end of childhood went more for good, plain fun.

Samuel & Joseph watch Samantha play skeeball

 a little clip of Samantha playing skeeball

Jeff & Samuel watching Joseph & Alex race dirt-track

 video clip of Joseph & Alex racing

at times, they joined forces,

each taking a turn to reap the rewards!

 the wack-a-mole never stood a chance

and the winner is....

the Chameleon Game, where 1 token could yield as many as 37 tickets

 The Chameleon Game

 

Sam turned in all her tickets for Dum-Dums!

they turned in tickets twice & each chose, almost exclusively,
C A N D Y.
when Joseph attempted to turn in 1,200 tickets for only bubblegum, the attendant refused to count higher than 100.  so Joseph got something else, instead.

video clip of Alex & Joseph playing air hockey

Alex and his candy medley

  

Food

we, also, ate a lot.

Joseph & his shrimp creole

The Point & Sound

Oak Island is a nice little island that "faces" south.  the ever-changing sandscape at the western end of the island is a lovely place to spend an evening.  we discovered a very large tidal pool that was completely inaccessible to sharks (only tiny, silvery fish got trapped at low tide) & was, even so, about five feet deep in the middle.  if you discovered you didn't like to be surprised by crabs or fish (?) nipping your ankles & became slightly freaked out when that happened more than once, then there was lots of great shell-collecting, too.

dunes at the Point

sunset at the marina

a little unkempt in a beachy-kind of way

Joseph & Samuel

ones whom i love

the dynamic duo

 In Celebration of Fifty Years

Mom wanted everyone to collect shells

that could be strung together.

to be continued...

 and we all went out to eat 

at Fishy Fishy

in Southport

with a group of ten, we figured a 5pm arrival was called for.  just ahead of us was a group of fourteen, so i think we called that just about right.

looking beachy-chic

starting to organize into picture-perfect

Mom and Dad with Jeff & his family

Mom and Dad with me & my family

weighing our options

there was a collective groan when the waitress revealed they were 'out of' fish tacos.  how can a restaurant be out of anything at 5:30pm?

Samantha laughing with Grandpa

Dad had a fun guessing game about their fifty years together, although my brother and i had a distinct advantage.

fun & games

here's to 50 years of love & laughter

Kayaking

 after considering various watersport options,

we decided to go kayaking on the tidal canal.

~

the following photo is a slightly idealized

representation of the experience

 ~

although many of us

found it to be a serene outing,

even invigorating in a contemplative sort of way,

others of us

did have moments when various youthful participants

caused the serenity to dip

ever so slightly

and our contemplations

suffer from

just a tad bit of

interruption.

marsh grass

weighing the odds

or how to look for sharks 

my brother & oldest son in the waves ~ shark watchers strike a pose

Fifty Shells of Life

Samantha helping me out

finally, we had just more than fifty holey shells collected & it was time to start linking them.  i ended up using dental floss.  i asked for the no-mint variety but neglected to, also, ask for no-wax.  what a sticky shell-stringing game!  the first ten or twenty were the most challenging, with all this sticky, waxy dental floss curling around my fingers, the table, and onto the floor.  after things had settled down a bit, i recruited my sweet niece to complete the task, which she did with incredible competence.

assisting with a tricky one

 here's a panorama of the completely-linked shells

(not sure where my mom is going to hang it,

& sure hope the dental floss holds up!)

More Food

this is what four pounds of   S H R I M P   looks like

 sometimes we ate so much food,

we fell into a deep slumber.

 or had to zone-out

playing on our ipods

right next to each other

but not looking

or interacting in any way

except for the occasional

'hey, i just scored

the most awesome & challenging

& inhumanly possible

 goal ever.'

sadly, soon, just like this mockingbird

was trying to tell this hawk,

the week was UP

and it was time to GO.

somehow, we managed to take the long way home.  we ended up having lunch in downtown Fayetteville at a pretty nice little cafe with all the rest of the people who were, also, having lunch in downtown Fayetteville.  we were watched over by this blue man, which was alright.  & so was the food.

oh, & here's that tidal pool at the Point.

we went a couple of times at sunset,

which was really nice.

~

except for the time that the disobedient dog

came out of the water, shook himself off,

ambled over to where i was sitting

& proceeded to lift his leg against my brother's pile of stuff.

luckily, the moment that leg lifted,

i squealed & yanked everything (plus myself)

out of the way.

ick.

~

but, otherwise, it was really nice.

Samuel, Samantha, Alex, & Joseph

sunset

 a lovely celebration

of my parents'

fifty years

together.