On the Boardwalk

It was another beautiful morning, and we decided to take a walk on the Town Boardwalk.  So we strolled the half-mile down Marlin Drive to Highway 12 and then crossed over to the Boardwalk - it's that close. right behind Dockside 'N Duck.  It was sunny and warm, even under the shade of the maritime trees, and everything seemed to be blooming around us - tiny strawberry blossoms on the ground, purple-tipped rosemary, and this remarkable little pine tree we see everywhere out here, which I think may be loblolly pines.

 
I know trees are flowering in Highlands, too - dogwoods, and the relatively rare Carolina Silverbells that I realized only a year or two ago was growing just off our back deck - but these seem more exotic, as if we were in the dessert.  I have never seen a flower like this before, on a tree!

It was lunch time when we arrived at Wave Pizza Cafe, and this was not at all coincidental; this is a good place to order a pizza and eat out on a deck adjacent to the boardwalk and look out over the sound and people-watch a little.  There seemed to be a lot of young women with babies in strollers this morning; I suppose the husbands were playing golf or fishing.

I love this sign on the wall at Wave, which puts things in context a little.  I especially like that we have been to so many of those points on the sign, including Bar Harbor last April.

We finished our pizza and realized that we were sitting outside of Duck Donuts, one of the top-rated places to eat out here according to Tripadvisor.  We do not eat donuts as a rule, but we decided to give it a try.  Martha disappeared with $5.00 in hand and returned with two wonderful cinnamon donuts, drizzled with key lime.  (Sorry, no photo, they disappeared too quickly.)

We took our time (what a wonderful phrase!) on the way back, pausing to look at the living things in the maritime forest that this boardwalk reveals, not just exotic flowering trees but this un-moving turtle, taking in the sun just as we were, down below us in the muck of low tide.

This little fish-cleaning shack behind Dockside 'N Duck seems to slide a little farther into the sound each year we pass by.

Dawdling:  that's what we were doing today.  "To waste time; idle; trifle; loiter."  But you're not wasting time if you are enjoying what you are doing, are you?  The house across the road from us has the right idea; like so many of these homes, it has a vacation-themed name on its side.

And that's the time zone we found ourselves in today - Island Time.