Cottage Crazy: Weather is changing on 10/19/13 on Tybee Morning e...

Cottage Crazy: Weather is changing on 10/19/13 on Tybee Morning e...: Interesting Morning. As pretty as it could be before sunrise. A few clouds on the horizon with almost no wind. We biked over to the far nort...

Weather is changing on 10/19/13 on Tybee Morning early...

Interesting Morning. As pretty as it could be before sunrise. A few clouds on the horizon with almost no wind. We biked over to the far north side of the island and enjoyed the sun and a nice breeze of about 7 miles and hour. Enjoyed watching the boats and a ship leaving the Port of Savannah while we enjoyed one of the many beach swings. After about an hour we noticed a thick line of gray clouds on the horizon. Very quickly they started coming towards us. Very soon the whole sky was almost covered. It was kind of exciting 

and a little bit scary. The wind picked up with a hint of cool air. It was 73 this morning. So far no rain...HERE...as Easton would say! We headed to Paws & Paddles for a great breakfast by Chef Mike. Enjoying being lazy on the sun porch. I got some nice shots of the full moon and the lighthouse this morning before sunrise. 

Mike enjoying his coffee in the surf. He has enjoyed his fisherman shirt with the silky material and many vents as well as his shorts with many pockets for holding shells etc.  from West Marine. This is the perfect Tybee combo with a t-shirt under. About as dressed up as one ever needs to be here! 

This is the far north side of the beach that we love so much. Usually very quiet. The birds and and the Horseshoe crabs are farther down the beach in the opposite direction.

We see this lady every morning before sunrise and every afternoon walking the north beach. Always in a pretty bikini with her hat cocked to one side to keep the sun off her face. When the water is warmer she swims the entire length of the beach. We were actually worried about her one day she had been out there so long. A fellow on the beach said not to worry she was fine and could stay out there for a long time with no problem. We also watched a man swim the length of the beach this week. Water was 71 and then climb out and run back down the beach. He looked to be 50 or so and didn't have an ounce of fat on him. I could easily imagine him as a secret agent or a navy seal with his short hair, tanned tall frame and his unsmiling face. Tybee is truly an interesting mixing pot. 

Cottage Crazy: A Beautiful Friday on Tybee Oct. 18, 2013

Cottage Crazy: A Beautiful Friday on Tybee Oct. 18, 2013: A warm 73 degrees this morning on Tybee. Low thin clouds along the horizon didn't prevent a beautiful sunrise! We enjoyed the very light...

A Beautiful Friday on Tybee Oct. 18, 2013

A warm 73 degrees this morning on Tybee. Low thin clouds along the horizon didn't prevent a beautiful sunrise!

We enjoyed the very light soft breeze and then biked over to the far north beach to see the birds and horseshoe crabs on the beach. Hundreds of black skimmers with orange and yellow bills. Awesome. We sat on one of the beach swings after walking the beach and finding numerous large shiny olive shells. They are so shiny and perfect they looked like you purchased them instead of plucking them out of the surf. We seem to always find several if it is high tide or just after.

This is the side of the island that most tourists never see. It follows the river channel back towards the Port of Savannah. Very wild, very peaceful, and very much my favorite place on the island. Pictures can't do it justice.

The sand is smoother, whiter, and the beach feels more like Sanibel Island. Georgia beach sand tends to be more tan than white. The Horseshoe crabs are interesting. They dig in the sand and lay eggs and then have to find their way back to the surf...lots don't make it. 

We ended up staying on the beach for over two hours after sunrise since it was so delightful. The air had such a soft feel and the gentle breeze was comforting.

This trip is ending on Sunday morning when we head back to our urban home in Downtown Roanoke and cooler temperatures. We have enjoyed every minute. Still some time today and tomorrow so laters...

Meeting my Cousin on Hilton Head Oct. 16, 2013!

We headed over to Hilton Head Island yesterday morning to visit my cousin. She is formerly of Portsmouth, Virginia. She also lived in Roanoke, Virginia for many years. She is the daughter of my Grandmother Wright's baby sister Marie. We visited at her lovely home and then had a delightful lunch outdoors at a local restaurant on the most perfect Oct. beach day. Glorius sun with a light breeze and very low humidity. It was so great to see her and share some family memories and history. We had not seen each other since Grandmothers 80th Birthday Party in 1987. I have fond memories of the party that Janice gave Grandmother Wright. Grandmother was just thrilled and seemed quite happy that day. Most of her immediate family was in attendance.  She always talked at length about Janice and her accomplishments and how beautiful and talented she was. 

We hope to stay in touch since we both now have homes within 45 miles of each here. Lots of similarities about the two of us. She loves poodles! Four of the sweetest miniatures all black/with a bit of gray. Three boys and one darling little girl. I fell in love with Dixie and she seemed to really like me too! It might of been that we kinda greased the skids with the dogs by bringing them a bag of Beach Bum homemade dog biscuits from the SeaSide Sister's shop on Tybee. The dog treat business is part of our MerMaid Cottage groups non-profit endeavors. They also do their own coffee which is placed in each cottage. We had hoped to bring some of that as well but they were temporarily out. We also both have an Earnest Johnson original painting in our homes. He was a very accomplished watercolorist from Oriental, N.C. I met him in Roanoke at the Sidewalk art show one year shortly before he passed away. A delightful and talented man. My painting is of a sunfish sail boat tearing across the water. Her's is a snow scene of Hotel Roanoke which was commissed by her and her former husband to make signed prints for sale to benefit a local charity. 

We also share a friendship with Suzanne Gandy! They used to live across the street from each other in South Roanoke. We both agreed if Suzanne is your friend you can always count on her when needed. So true. Suzanne mentioned her friend on Hilton Head one day at lunch with me at Wildflour on 4th Street in Roanoke. I asked a question or two and then it dawn on me she was talking about my cousin! What a small world. So glad we had that conversation! 

We are facebook friends and will work to stay in touch. I am not good with phone calling. I guess I have spent so much time on the phone at work that the telephone seems like work to me. We all totally enjoyed our visit and look forward to seeing each other again. She is an accomplished pianist and performs with a theatre group in her area. We will have to work on catching a show when we are down here again. Our waitress assisted with taking a photo of all of us.

Enjoyed  a nice reunion. Such a beautiful place and sweet sweet pups.  I could spoil those pups silly in a quick minute!  We would make great pet/house sitters and we are even experienced...LOL.

My Sunfish Sailing painting by Earnest Johnson.

A Tybee kind of Morning...Kite Surfing & Photo shoots

We biked over to the North Beach knowing it was cloudy and little chance of a great sunrise but we enjoy greeting the day at the beach. It was quite windy. We climbed up on the lifeguard station to be out of the wind. A good looking young man stopped by and unloaded a mini mountain of stuff. We quickly realized we were in for a treat. He was very friendly and he was a Kite Surfer. We have had the pleasure of watching this sport from a distance. Now we were going to see how it was done from scratch! He said when the wind was up he just had to take the morning off and head to the beach. He looked much younger than the 42 years he mentioned. Tall dark and handsome with an outgoing personality. We discovered in a short time that he was a contractor on the island, a type A+ personality with a heavy dose of perfectionism!  It was very obvious that he was a perfectionist by the way he had his equipment organized. He quickly starting laying out the complicated looking lines, and other pieces of equipment. He used a hand pump to add air to the outer rim of his kite. That was the first time I knew they did that! In short order he had the kite inflated and ready to go.

He had a harness that fit around his waist and he had a wet suit on as well. We were in for a treat. He was an extremely accomplished Kite Surfer. He was using a wake type board today. He commented he had surf style boards as well. When he hit the water and started jumping the waves and getting 20 feet or so of air I felt like I was flying right along with him. 

We enjoyed watching him for over an hour. He offered some help to another Kite Surfer who was clearly learning. He had his lines so knotted up when he got them out it took nearly an hour to straighten them out. He struggled with the kite and our new friend finally held the newbies kite along with his own while the newbie got straighten out and finally hit the water. He was clearly still learning which highlighted the difficulty of the sport. 

Being Tybee less than 20 feet away we also had a full blown photo shoot going. Complete with clothing changes accomplished inside a small black tent like structure and was held down by three young women getting inside with the one girl that was was changing. Very interesting. 

Just another early morning on Tybee!

A Tybee kind of Morning on North Beach!

A nice 70 degree Oct. morning bike ride to the North Beach to watch the sunrise. We were enjoying one of the many Tybee swings when I noticed to the left and slightly behind us a nice large woven basket. Next to it appeared to be a large blanket/quilt/rug type thing with what appeared to be someone sleeping on it. Under what looked to be parachute fabric! They appeared to be sound asleep. After an hour or so we noticed some movement. Quite a lot of movement. I believe we were witnessing the remnants of young love. A couple appeared and then more movement. I think they were looking for their clothes! More movement under the billowing fabric. Then they both suddenly sat up with clothes on. I was wondering if they might be homeless or out of luck and funds. While I was pondering this we were walking in the water down the beach. A glimpse back their way reassured me that they were probably just fine. They were both checking their smart phones. Too funny.

There were several professional looking photo shoots going on before the sun came up. One young lady was kneeling in the surf with skin tight colored pants on and a small lacy top while a photographer with crew holding all sorts of umbrella like thingies and flash devices was telling her how he wanted her to look and move. She was holding her beautiful full head of dark hair to one side and for all the world she looked just like a mermaid!  Another group was photographing a woman with a variety of huge pieces of colorful fabric as she played with them in the ocean breeze. Quite pretty. At one point she appeared from a distance to have large golden wings. She looked like a large golden bird!

We usually hear our resident bag piper play his welcoming song to the sun on the weekends. He wasn't out this morning which was too bad since we had such an interesting group of folks enjoying the beach. Just another Sunday morning on Tybee. Actually lots more activity than usual for Oct. I am thinking that things will quiet down as all of the weekend Pirates leave today. But it's adventure to see what each new morning brings us.

Heading to Tybee Tyme in the early a.m. tomorrow!

Looking forward to some Tybee Tyme. We have been crazy busy finishing up selling our Mountain home. Lots of discarding things we don't have to have in our new urban life. Moving and giving things away to family, friends and the Salvation Army. Moving some things to Paws & Paddles. Handling the legal aspects of selling real estate. All good stuff but stressful while I am working every day. We got it all done with the help of family and friends. Mike and Lorrie worked tirelessly the last two weeks. Maricelino helped by moving lots with his truck. Lorrie identified church friends who needed and were thrilled with 3 trucks of furniture. Anne jumped in and helped while keeping our spirits up by telling us we were going to get it all done and that it would be worth it! Suzanne encouraged me to go for what we wanted when we weren't sure about making a move before selling our house. So glad we did. Last night was a great example of why Downtown. I left work at 5:30 and we walked to the Taubman Musuem and enjoyed Thursdays Live. The exhibits were awesome, free music was great, and we enjoyed great food and wine in Norah's Cafe. Still got home before 9! None of which we likely would have done before. The night before we attended the town hall meeting about the return of Amtrack to the Roanoke Valley. Just the type of thing I had not been doing but like to do. We are going to try and catch some warm weather and enjoy our 45th wedding anniversary in Savannah and Tybee. More to follow... Our comfy King bed at Paws & Paddles awaits us on Tybee Island.