More From The Beach

Wednesday we ended up going over to the Currituck lighthouse. It is a very beautiful structure. I believe that it may be my favorite NC lighthouse now. The lighthouse is open for visitors to climb, and climb we did. I got some pretty good pictures all along the way. I would love to share them with you now, but for some reason, my friends' computer cannot find the driver for my camera. I blame Vista. We also looked around at the buildings around the lighthouse too. There were some very interesting details.

For instance, there was a two-holer latrine/outhouse out there. It was not in operation, but an inspection of the building revealed that there would be absolutely no privacy in the privy. If I can get pictures up, you'll see what I mean. I also saw what looked to be a double cistern and water collection system on the keeper's house. I have pictures of that too. It is a shame that they didn't have someone out there to explain what everything is and to give some background information about the lighthouse and grounds.

We also explored the old Corolla village and shops. It is pretty much all tourist boutiques. The one big score that we did get was a barbecue joint that was in the village. Excellent 'que. Their ribs were very good and everything that I tasted was, well, tasty. For Eastern style barbecue it was a pleasant surprise.

Wednesday night we took another swing at Triopoly - although we probably should have called it Dupoly? We took the top level off to help shorten the game. I was playing great and had lots of sets and had even built several skyscrapers, but once again the other players started boycotting my properties. It was very sad, and somehow I ended up being cash poor and going down in ignominious defeat. "The Godfather" seems to have lost his touch. Perhaps it is because we are playing the international edition instead of the original one! After Triopoly we did a little bowling on the Wii. Very fun night. I even managed to pull off a few of my niece's over the shoulder strikes.

Yesterday we went to get some supplies for fishing. We bought bait at one store, but they didn't have licenses and they didn't have the other tackle that we needed. Afterwards we went shopping for some gifts. I was generally underwhelmed at the offerings. I saw absolutely nothing that I couldn't live without. We finished up at another tackle shop where I was able to get my license and some flounder rigs. It was a nice shop and the owner was very helpful. I don't recall the name of the store right now, but it was in the same shopping center as the Food Lion. His prices were pretty reasonable too.

Our fishing expedition didn't go so well. I was fishing with an old Penn Number 9 baitcaster. I had never fished with it before. I guess it would probably be safe to still say that! I spent most of my time "fishing" trying to get backlashes out of the line. I thought a couple of times that I had figured out how to do it, but another cast using the same technique demonstrated (with a mighty snarl of 20 lb test) that I had not. I also had my license checked for the first time on the beach this trip. I thought that it was interesting that it was checked by a deputy instead of a Wildlife officer.

After a couple hours in which no one had gotten a bite (but a lot of fish had gotten a free meal) David's son was tired of fishing. So I left the baitcaster and went back to my more familiar Penn spinning reel. I did have better success, although not with the flounder rig. After about a half an hour of fishing with it getting no bites I decided to switch to a drum rig like we usually use in the fall. It wasn't long before I did get a really nice blue bite. However, by that point most everyone was ready to move on so we packed up and headed on up the beach to look around some.

We didn't see the horses this time, but we did see a wedding on the beach complete with a steel drum band. I have never quite understood the fascination with beach weddings. Not for me, thanks.

Last night we started trying to get rid of some of the leftovers that we have been amassing. Most of the dinner was veggies, although we did take the leftover grilled chicken and steak from earlier in the week and added them to salads. Mmmmmm. Very tasty.

Instead of a game last night we ended up working on development of a game that David and I am working on. It is an iPhone application. I added some information to the database and he did some coding. We also kept an eye on the Baltimore/Seattle baseball game. Tonight Baltimore is playing the Braves. I hope that we can watch some of that too.

Today we have taken our time and not done too much. David and his family went out to play some miniature golf and I have been enjoying the solitude of having the house to myself.

Tonight we will probably play some more games. I am hoping to play some Risk. I've only played it once before and want to take another swing at it. Of course we will also continue to play billiards too. David, his son and his dad are all pretty good. I rarely win against them, but I have managed to pull off some pretty cool shots this week, including a few jumped cue shots to sink a snookered ball.

Sadly, our time here at the beach is coming to an end. We have to relinquish this wonderful house and head back to reality. I'll probably go kicking and screaming!