Visiting Family

This past week we had some of the New Jersey Mackeys visiting us in Ocracoke.  The following are some of the highlights.   

Keith, Scot, Lydia, Abigail, and Courtenay taking an evening dinghy ride.

Abby hanging out over the water in the hammock chair

There was some fishing from the dinghy.  This was the biggest fish of the week.  A flounder caught by Courtenay.  Unfortunately you cannot keep flounder right now in NC, so it was this flounder's lucky day.

One afternoon we all went to the beach.  The girls got to drive the Jeep off-road.

There was a big clamming expedition one day.  Here are the nieces from left to right.  Courtenay, Lydia, and Abby.  Pengi is on the clam basket.

Keith and Scot with their clam rakes.

The rakes have butter knives welded to them for dragging along the sand to find the clams.

Scot shows off his most excellent clam hunting ability.

Here you can see how we float the clam basket.  This way as you get clams you simply toss them into the basket.  Also good to tie it to yourself to avoid the current taking off with the basket of clams.

Everyone here works for their dinner

Underwater shot of what we are looking for.

Courtenay preferred snorkeling to the traditional method of clamming.

After clamming we also took the dinghy over to Portsmouth Island for some shell and treasure hunting.  Everyone was successful.  This was just a small sample of what we found.

And so as not to ignore the other popular bivalve on the island; we also had some oysters one night courtesy of Devil's Shoal Oysters.  Here Scot and Keith sample some raw.

All that activity can be pretty exhausting.  Abby in the hammock.

Lydia in the hammock chair.

A quick rest and the next day Scot and Courtenay were out with the kayaks.  Here they are loading up at the boat ramp.

They just missed a bunch of dolphin coming into the harbor.  The Coast Guard got a nice close look at them as they went out.

Luckily the dolphin hung around and they got to see them on the way back in.

Scot and Courtenay coming back into the harbor.

Court' watching the dolphin

Sunsets here are always a hit.  The Pamlico Sound makes a great view for the sunset.  We got to see some really nice ones while the family was here.

Sunset over the ferry terminal reflected in my sunglasses.