First Day of our Sabbatical

On Thursday morning, we left the Brookstown and drove to Raleigh - traffic still light, rain still held in abeyance - and had a nice visit with Martha's aunt Lizette.  Lizette will be 91 years old in March and does not look it or act it.  It was so good to see her again!  We let her know every year how much we appreciate her generous gift to us of allowing us to stay in her beach condo during the harsh winter months; this is, I think, our fourth year.  We arrived before dark, discovering upon arrival that the elevators (conveniently located directly outside the condo unit) were being replaced and were thus not operational.  But we adjusted the sail, as it were, and it was lovely to smell and hear the ocean as we unpacked and cleaned and prepared for our stay.

This morning I awoke well before dawn, as is usually the case here, where the oceanfront sky becomes brighter and brighter well before sunrise (7:14 a.m. this morning).  I was downstairs in time to watch this brilliant daily miracle, alone on the beach with only one other observer (a man in a pickup truck parked down the beach) watching the sky open up and a shy sun peak out from behind obscuring clouds.

It was a balmy morning, temperatures already in the 60s, with a brisk wind.  I practiced my morning Tai Chi, as I always do, alone on the little platform at the end of the walkway to the beach, a kind of stage on which I had been told in previous years that I had been observed every morning but this morning (I like to think) was not observed at all by the few late-rising residents staying here in January.  And then we both went for a run, separately.

I got started a little earlier, running due east to Fort Macon along the familiar road we have often traveled.  It was warm, and although in shorts and a light shirt, I wondered whether or not I was overdressed.  It is a great place to run here, flat, little traffic, and at sea-level, two and a half miles to Fort Macon and back.  When I reached the Fort, I decided to run out to the beach - the low tide had been at 6:30 this morning - and took the Eliot Coues Nature Trail and the Fisherman's Path to the beach, which we knew well from previous runs and hikes and birding expeditions.

What a joy it is to run along the ocean, dodging the waves that are crashing on the beach, crunching through shoals of shells.  This time of year, a peculiar phenomenon occurs where there is a kind of bench in the sand, a lower flat beach and a higher one two or three feet higher.  I stayed on the lower part, and passed only one or two beach-goers.  One smiling young man was sitting on the sand-bench, legs dangling, watching the tide come in.  It reminded me of that great Otis Redding song:

Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes
Watchin' the ships roll in
Then I watch 'em roll away again

"You've got the best seat in the house!" I told him as I ran by.  ""Yes I do!" he replied.

It was a great first day of our Sabbatical here - a gorgeous sunrise, a six-mile run - and it felt as if we were starting off a New Year in the right way.  It always takes a day or two to completely settle into this place out here.  There is cleaning and vacuuming to be done, and more shopping.  We eat here at the condo most of the time, but today we made an exception and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, The Shucking Shack across the bridge in Morehead City.  Then we stopped at Blue Ocean seafood market to provision ourselves, another favorite place that provides fresh locally-sourced seafood to most of the restaurants out here.

We had to wait a few minutes for our own modest order - wahoo salad and kale salad, both delicious - because apparently a truckload of fresh seafood had just arrived and the owner and his staff were busy, back behind the big windows in the fish-cleaning area, where skilled butchers can fillet a fish in a matter of seconds.

"I think that one is still wriggling his tail!" I told the owner, who came through with a bucket of fresh fish to dump out on ice.  "It may have been," he answered.

We returned to the condo in time to witness a gorgeous sunset.  These sunrises and sunsets out here perfectly enclose our days, and in this unique location we are able to witness both from the south-facing condo balcony.  Our long, long days are rounded every day with this beautiful display of glory.