Beach :)

I traveled to the beach today with Jess and Lucy. Spent more than twice as much time driving as we did at the beach, but I feel it was worth the trouble. Rather than taking a considerably shorter trip to a fairly local beach I decided we should go to the place where I vacationed with my family when I was a child. I had not seen this area in a good dozen years or so. Also, I had some covert photog goals which I hoped to play out.

Oak Island is located in southern North Carolina along the Atlantic Ocean. It is unique in that it faces south, not east, due to it's location along the coast. It has the brightest lighthouse in the U.S. and I believe it used to have the longest pier on the east coast (though numerous hurricanes have stripped it of this title). While fully developed Oak Island has never been a "commercial beach" to me. It is more in the vein of the Outer Banks beaches with rows of rental houses and no tall hotels. There is no boardwalk. Even tacky souvenir shops can be difficult to find.

My suspicions were quickly proven correct: Lucy is terrified of ocean waves. She nearly knocked me over in her attempts to back away from them. It was almost as though she was scared to be touched by the water. We entertained the older ladies along the beach for a fair bit of time by attempting to coax her into the water only to have her quickly retreat to the end of her leash. Later in the day she grew brave and would attack the smaller waves created by speedboats on the inlet sides.

I was unable to follow through on my photog goals for the day. Lockwood Folly is located at the western tip of the island. There are eight (?) shipwrecks located in the sands of this inlet. I remember as a child seeing them exposed in the sides of the dunes. Unfortunately the tide was too high for us to wade across to the proper areas. As I doubt I will make it back down there again this year before the water is too cold to wade in I will have to shelve this goal for next summer.

All in all, a fairly fun day.