Going to Carolina in my mind...

We had a nice time in Wilmington North Carolina... ate fabulous sushi at the Bento Box and then spiffy burritos at Flaming Amy’s. We miss real restaurants so this was a treat! We also took a day and walked around the Wilmington historical district and marveled at the fact that places downtown seemed to just open apparently when they felt like opening. For example, a sign on a shop would say open at 10 am... well, it was like 11 a.m. when we hit town and there was no signs of life.

Too bad. I was looking for a squashed penny machine.

So we did a little of the river walk, and then we took to driving the pickup around the historical area and found some great looking houses....

We did not ride with this fellow although he might have been fun.

Later David hit the ball a bit...

and we visited the course we came to see. As it turns out, this particular golf course is not what we were looking for. So... off we go again chasing the sun southward.

It rained a little through the carolinas but both the North and South Carolina highways were fantastic. Clean, clear, well maintained, not crazy busy. When you notice how nice a freeway is... you realize they have been taking good care of it.

I think I mentioned I got a kick out of the fact that there were palms beneath the pines instead of ferns like back home. Anyway, from Wilmington, it was a short ride past Myrtle Beach and then down to Huntington Beach State Park which is right on the beach. This park is a super popular area for bird watchers because of the marshes in the area... and at the edge of the marsh near the front gate of the park I immediately noticed the sign that really bummed me out:

Do not feed the alligators.

Oh.. ok... I better put away the bucket of raw chicken or raw poodles that

I have been packing around for just such an opportunity.

Dang... the man is always a-ruinin’ my fun!

Delta didn’t let it ruin her fun though! Silly gators!

You should have seen the hair down the ridge of her back

when she first saw this fellow!

She snuck up on him all careful and slow.

Back at the camp we wandered down the path to the beach around sunset and goofed off a little.

We made such a score of great shells that upon our return to camp we quickly checked out the tide table so that we can be some of the first on the beach in the morning to score some more.

Turns out we had no problem finding shells that next morning. We were alone out there (it was like 6 am) and found quite a few more very pretty ones.

However, after taking pictures of the shells etc. my camera decided to run out of batteries

so I did not get a picture of the sunrise.

As far as the camp, it is definitely off season so there are very few people... but the park is not empty by any means. This campground might actually be at half capacity and there are bird watchers galore wandering around all the time. It has been nice, quiet, clean, and very pretty. Just what you'd want. We might go check out Georgetown in the next couple days. Will keep y'all up to date.