As many of you figured out, Willow visited the beautiful Crystal Coast of North Carolina! Good CSI work! I went ahead and posted the "reveal", since so many had guessed correctly!
We live in the historic town of Beaufort, and Willow also visited nearby Morehead City, Swansboro, and Atlantic Beach. If you would like to know more about our area, you can visit
http://www.crystalcoastnc.org/ We love visitors, and as you can see it would make a beautiful spot for an eskie picnic! *hint, hint*
We loved having Willow as a guest and had fun taking pictures with her. We had planned to take more pictures, but it rained the entire week we had Willow, and I didn’t want to keep her too long. We had one sunny day for pics, so we hit the ground running. I had hoped to take her over to the local lighthouse, Cape Lookout, as it is a very attractive diamond pattern lighthouse, but we just couldn’t squeeze in the time with all the rain.
Fun Facts:Beaufort is actually pronounced “Bo-furt” here, in contrast to the “beuw-fort” pronunciation of Beaufort, South Carolina. Founded in 1722, Beaufort is the 2nd oldest town in North Carolina (Bath being the oldest). We are “technically” an island, as we are surrounded on all sides by one type of water or another, with no land connecting us to the mainland.
We are also known as one of Blackbeard the Pirate’s homeports.
http://www.ncmaritime.org/blackbeard/default.htm They have discovered many artifacts that have been attributed to Blackbeard off our coast and historical documentation supports that he frequented Beaufort. Each year we have a mock “pirate invasion” that has a festival-like quality to celebrate that heritage.
If you are a study of languages or local brogues, you would love to visit the Down East communities of Harkers Island, Cedar Island, Atlantic, and all points in between. They are located 15-45 minutes from my home. Some of my family originated from Harkers Island and has slight traces of the brogue, but many of the natives have remained in those communities, preserving both their way of speaking and their way of life. Many are following in their ancestor’s vocation of commercial fishing, while some have taken jobs that take them out of the community each day. For example, you may say, “high tide”, but a person from down east will say “hoi toid”. My favorite word is “mommicked”. I didn’t realize until I went to college out of state that “mommicked” was not in many people’s vocabulary. (Spell check in Microsoft Word has a fit with the word, too). Here’s a great documentary video where you can hear some of their brogues and get some definitions of commonly used words, including “mommicked”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgi9wYsR5fo Guide to the Pictures:Day One: This is our 16 year old cat, Romeo. He was afraid we’d brought another white fluffball home.
Day Two: This is at the Atlantic Beach boardwalk.
http://www.atlanticbeach.net/ Day Three: This is in Swansboro, a small town just south of us. Commercial fishing is a large industry on the coast of North Carolina. Sadly, many commercial fisherman are losing their livelihood due to tightening regulations and overseas markets.
Day Four: This is the historical drawbridge to Beaufort. When a private or commercial vessel needs to pass, the bridge opens up to let them through. It’s a headache to the motorist who is late for work, though! This bridge and the town of Beaufort were featured in the Nicolas Sparks’ movie, A Walk to Remember. The majority of the movie was not filmed here, ironically, but the bridge was filmed.
Hundreds of fossils still remain in NC’s coastal plain. Many are simple shells that have fossilized, but they are still interesting to find.
Day Five: This is a gorgeous yacht that docks on the Beaufort waterfront frequently. Our waterfront has a boardwalk with fun shops and excellent restaurants. We especially love Clawson’s and Finz Grill.
Day Six: This statue is titled “The Core Sounder” and is a tribute to an aspect of our commercial fishing industry. Persons who fished for menhaden (a large industry that is slowly fading) often used large nets. The making and mending of those nets is passed down generation to generation, as is the chants they used to keep rhythm when hauling in the nets. A youtube video of Menhaden Chanteymen is located at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w44PKhgAOR4 King Triton is a statue at Olympus Dive Center. The next two pictures are on the Morehead City waterfront and show many of the charter fishing boats that will take you offshore to catch a wide variety of fish. In the background of the last picture you can see a large red crane that is part of the State Port of North Carolina at Morehead City.
Day Seven: Fort Macon is a state park with public beach access as well as a Civil War fort.
http://www.crystalcoast.com/fortmacon/Day Eight: The still thriving Piggly Wiggly. Out of state visitors have always been horrified and amused by the name of this grocery store, so I just had to include it. I actually did not think so many people would be familiar with the chain!
Day Nine: This was just a clue that would be easily “googled”. It is a salon and spa located on the boardwalk of Atlantic Beach.
Day Ten: Lily, Snowflake, and Ian with Willow!
Thanks again for letting us host Willow!
