A Wonderful Week at the Coast

Thank you to the folks who replied to my previous post asking for help in commenting.  My husband told me this morning he'd just found out that the browser I normally use, Microsoft Edge, has added some updates and these updates have some new security tags.  Apparently, the updates are making things hard for everyone (Hal wasn't able to do his online banking) and our bank is working to fix this.  The updates must have affected Blogger, too.  What a nuisance.     Thank you also for your kind comments on the loss of my uncle.  Honestly, I still can't believe he's gone.  In that post, I mentioned that we were at the beach house when we got the bad news.  On Sunday, May 22nd, we returned to the beach for another week spent with Hal's parents and our son, Will.  It was so nice to be there with family, and we had a great time.     

   

   

We enjoyed one of the prettiest sunsets I've seen in some time.  In addition, we did some things we've never done on our previous visits.  For starters, we climbed the Oak Island lighthouse, and that was quite an experience.  The next day, we visited Britt's Donut Shop at Carolina Beach, and oh my, those were some good donuts!!  Yum!  I had read about this shop in the Our State magazine, and my in-laws had been there before.  They were anxious for us to have the experience, so on Friday, we took the ferry from Southport to Fort Fisher and drove to Carolina Beach.  It was a fun outing.  After eating donuts and getting extras to take back to the house, we went to the Fort Fisher Aquarium -- another fun outing.  That evening, we ate at a new-to-us restaurant, Joseph's, which was fine Italian dining.  Oh, it was delicious.  I had the special, Parmesan Encrusted Halibat, and it was wonderful.  Halibut is such a good fish, but hard to find anywhere but at the coast, in my experience.  Oh, and I almost forgot, on Tuesday afternoon, we went to see the Downton Abbey movie, which was playing at the local cinema.  I saw that with my in-laws while Hal and Will went next door to see "Dr. Strange."  😏    

Oak Island lighthouse is the newest of North Carolina's lighthouses, built in 1959 and its light is one of the world's most powerful.  However, it's far from being our prettiest lighthouse.  North Carolina's most recognizable, and tallest, lighthouse is the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.  Since we've had the beach house in our family for 33 years, we think of Oak Island lighthouse as our lighthouse.  😊 Reservations are required two weeks in advance to tour the lighthouse and climb to the top.  Our son actually made the reservations because he had been interested in seeing inside the lighthouse for several years.  When I first saw the steps inside, I didn't think I'd be able to make the climb, but I did.  Instead of the classic spiral stairs that other lighthouses have, this one has ship's ladder-style steps -- 131 of them actually.    

   I can assure you I made a point not to look down while climbing these series of steps.  Hal took this picture.    

The views, and the breeze, from atop the catwalk were wonderful.  This is looking down onto the (partial) red roof of the coast guard station.  We toured that several years ago, and it was very interesting.    

   Now looking out to the ocean...   

The house above with the bright blue shutters used to be situated across the road approximately where the current coastguard station sits now.  This house was built in 1889 and was the Oak Island Life-Saving Station until 1940, when it was decommissioned, moved across the street to its current location, and later sold.  You can see the cupola/watch tower on top and the old black ladder attached to the front of the house.  I've always thought this was a pretty house, and I find it doubly interesting since I found out it was once a life-saving station.  You can read more about this house Here.     

   

Looking through this opening, you can see the lights for the lighthouse; we were not allowed to climb into that area.     

I'll leave you with these sunset pictures.  They were taken on the last evening of our trip.   

I was so excited to be able to take these pictures because the Sony camera I have now is the nicest camera I've ever had.  I'm still very much an amateur photographer, but I feel like I can get some nice shots with this camera.  One of the best things about it for me, is that it's a compact, and it's so easy to carry and use.   

This really was a gorgeous sunset.     

Thank you so much for visiting today.  Are you having a good summer so far?  I'd love to hear about what you've been doing!  Have a great weekend everyone!!