OoO

We mark our calendars at work with 'OoO' whenever we are going to be out of the office.  I've come up with a new meaning for 'OoO'...October on Ocracoke.  Carolee and I spent five days at the house by ourselves (not a complaint...we love to have other people around) last week, a rare event, and enjoyed some pretty spectacular weather.  Carolee celebrated her birthday on Sunday the 17th by running 11 miles in preparation for her upcoming 1/2 marathon in Indianapolis and we had dinner with Dennis and Alita at Oceana's Bistro that evening.  On Monday the 18th I took the ferry from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island and biked from the north end of the island down to the village of Ocracoke and back, a 27 mile round trip.  It was a perfect day and I highly recommend hitting the Outer Banks in October when the crowds have died down (except the fisherman) and the daily highs are still in the mid to upper 70's.  We are heading back to the beach next month and will spend Thanksgiving at the beach for the first time.  The weather will be cooler, but the beach is good any time of the year.

Earl (is no pearl)

Earl had Nora so wound up her hair was sticking straight up!  Actually we sweated Hurricane Earl out Thursday evening from Indianapolis by watching The Weather Channel for a ridiculous amount of time (like it would change something!).  The biggest problem was sound side flooding, but the island is back open for business and Highway 12 did not sustain any structural damage.  If you know the area, slide 6 of the slide show (see link below) will give you a good reference point. The picture is taken going north on Highway 12 and you can see Dillon's corner on the left, which is right across the street from Old Lighthouse Road.  Everyone is feeling fortunate that the area came through relatively unscathed considering this was a Category 4 storm at one point with winds of 145 mph!

http://www.islandfreepress.org/2010Archives/09.03.2010-HurricaneEarlSlideShow/index.html

"Gran-paw"

Carolee's Dad celebrates his 79th birthday today.  We had the entire gang of 22 over last night for ice cream cake and the opening of presents.  The extremely nice icing lady at Food Lion struggled a bit with the spelling of Grandpa...I got her to drop the "w" at the end but didn't catch the missing "d" till we got back to the house!

Myers Family Redux

I'm a little late on this post...but the Myers family made their return in early June and had what they described as "an awesome week".

HSC Men Make Their Return!

Stephen and the Hampden-Sydney men returned to the beach in mid-May for their second annual visit!  Stephen is a newly minted Wake Forest graduate and the rest of the group continue to further their education at Wake Forest, Penn State and other schools scattered around the country.

It's Windy!

We arrived on the last day of March for a 10-day Easter/Spring Break vacation.  The weather has been absolutely outstanding!  Every day has been in the upper-60's to mid-70's without a cloud in the sky.  The winds have gotten progressively stronger each day and have been gusting up to 35-40 mph.  If you are planning to come down to Hatteras sometime this summer, you can be assured that the ocean will be here waiting for you!

Bodie Island Lighthouse Restoration Project

I spent the last 3 days in Buxton painting a door and doing other miscellaneous projects around the house. On the way home I stopped to take a picture of the Bodie Island Lighthouse surrounded by scaffolding. The National Park Service is in the process of restoring the lighthouse, which will allow visitors to walk up it for the first time ever. The project is supposed to take 18 months. Use this link for more information:
http://www.nps.gov/caha/parknews/progress-on-bodie-island-lighthouse-restoration-project.htm