Checking back in from Beach Week

The marsh and Bird Island from our deck on Sunset Beach, NC

Another family beach week has come and gone. This has to be one of the best ever, weather-wise and other-wise! Both of my sons and their wives and our two grandchildren were with us all week. Charlie's two brothers were also at the beach with their families, and two of my brothers' and families also rented houses on our street. And we had a surprise visit from two of my other brothers who drove down on Friday and spent the night. All I can say is, it all went by too fast.

This is the row of cottages on the inlet side of 40th Street at Sunset Beach. At low tide, the inlet is rather murky-looking, but very attractive to the herons and gulls searching for crabs in the sand. One morning we saw a deer calmly walking up the inlet past all the cottages.

Here is a nice oleander shrub at the edge of our lot. They have glorious tropical color. Granddaughter Lily turned two years old during our week at the beach. She loved the surf and having so many relatives to play with this week!

Grandson Avery was lots of fun to play with at the beach and in the cottage. He actually caught some silvery little fish in this butterfly net.

Here are some of the older McBrayer Girls on Sunset Beach- my sister-in-law Phylis, DIL Miranda, DIL Emily, and moi, with sunburned feet hidden in a t-shirt. Three of us had polka-dot bathing suits this year!

One tradition at our cottage is "Hat Night," when we all choose a straw hat or other cap from the cottage collection. Here is son Dave with Avery in their chapeaux.

And here is my dad and DIL Emily on Hat Night.

And the littlest one chose the biggest sombrero for the party. Lily is under there somewhere!

Sunset Beach can only be reached via a one-lane swinging drawbridge. It opens at any time for commercial boat traffic on the Intercoastal Waterway, and on the hour for waiting pleasure boats. We seem to get caught by the bridge opening every time we go anywhere. Two days in a row, we saw this heron sitting near the bridge. He looked so funny, like a little penguin.

That's it for now. Today we have to put away all the beach stuff. We drove my dad to Durham to my niece's house to meet up with my brother for the drive back to the mountains.

Now that I am no longer employed and back from the beach, I will try to make All Things Quilty actually have more posts about actual quilts!