Re-visiting Emerald Isle.....

My friend Warren has just returned from his beach vacation with his wife to Emerald Isle, NC. Seeing his pictures posted on Facebook brought back such memories for me. When I was a kid, Emerald Isle is the stretch of beach my family would go to when we went to the coast. EI is a stickey-out part of the gorgeous Carolina coastline. We would load up the station wagon with our pop-up Cox camper in tow with every beach toy we 3 kids could stuff in the car. We always camped on the bay-side of Emerald Isle and would go gigging for flounder and netting for crabs late, late at night. The next day all of our fresh-from-the-water treasures would become part of a delicious seafood boil and fish fry that we would enjoy at our campsite picnic table.

My Dad had quite the creative set-up for our flounder gigging. He had two large tire inner tubes, one to hold a cooler for our catch and the other held our car battery that lit the light needed to light your way thru the water in the middle of the night. Ropes tied around the innertubes were then tied around your waist so they would follow you in the water, but leave both hands free for gigging or netting. The first time I went gigging I accidentally gigged a puffer fish. When I pulled the gig out of the water, that thing was puffed up monstrously and hissing and spitting! It took forever to get him off the gig. He was one MAD fish! I think Dad lost his patience with my scaring off the flounder more than I gigged 'em, so the next night, I was given the crab net instead. The crab netting didn't go much better because crabs kinda creep me out. The first crab I saw that night was running toward me--like he was charging. I got scared, dropped the net and ran toward shore, completely clouding the water so we could see nothing--no crabs or flounders. So much for gigging that night. The next night I was relegated to carrying the light. lol....such great memories. My Dad passed away about 8 years ago and sweet memories like that pop back into my head every once in a while and make me smile. *sigh*

I love how unassuming angels show up and bring wonderful memories back into our minds and swell up a heart. Thank-you, Warren, for doing this for me today. I know he won't mind if I share his gorgeous photo of Emerald Isle at sunset.....

(photo property of Warren Baker)