Hunting Island Day 1

Monday September 23 Day One Hunting Island

Breakfast went fine until we realized what we had forgotten – the coffee cups!  Since we usually leave home drinking a cup of coffee it is not on the checklist!!  We had left about 10:30 for our drive to Durham so had already had all our coffee.  We have lots of paper coffee cups that I use for cooking eggs in the microwave so they worked for coffee! I can see a new Hunting Island Coffee mug or two in our purchases today.

Today will be a restful day – go to the beach. Check on how to permanently set up camp – this site is a great location but poorly configured for power, table, etc.  There is a huge 2 foot stump right where we would want to have the table.  Not sure we will put up table tent as weather is perfect and we have good shade.   We can change sites but all those available are poor locations – long way from bathhouses and the beach….so we think we will just make this site work. 

Ben walked to the beach for a quick peak and came back to say tide was way out…will go back later.  With nothing that had to be done we did nothing until we ate a bite of lunch and got ready to head out to explore a little.  We were anxious to see how much damage to the island as a whole.  We drove to the south end of the island – the pier is permanently closed and they do not allow fishing around it. This damage is from several years ago and has not ever been repaired.  We drove on several of the back park roads and observed many locations where trees were down – some recent but many from several years ago.  At the South Beach location it was now high tide and there was no beach at all.  About 10 feet from the parking lot was tide.

South Beach - near high tide and there is no beach

Ben found several places he wants to be try fishing tomorrow.  We saved the lighthouse area for another day.  We drove across the bridge to Harbor Island and Gay Fish Company – bought shrimp and flounder as well as some bait.  We also checked out the open time for the Shrimp Shack.  This is a small restaurant across the highway from Gay Fish Co. – owned by them I understand.  It serves only lunch time and I was unsure of the hours.  We have never been to the Shrimp Shack but understand the Shrimp burger is very special. We plan to make it there for lunch one day this week.   They are building a new bridge between Harbor Island and Hunting Island. It is a 2 lane draw bridge that I am sure is a traffic tie up on weekends.  I see no signs of widening the road though so not sure what their long term plan is.

We made it back to camp, took care of a few camp tasks.  I lost the bug spray and needed to find it – done it had fallen in the trash.  Our dinner tonight was excellent – shrimp scampi – rice and corn…it was lick the plate good.  I also steamed shrimp to have for lunch tomorrow.  We also bought flounder that I will cook tomorrow night.  Then we will be going out one or two nights. 

As I sat here typing this blog entry, I heard rustling and saw a young deer eating grass right beside the picnic table! 

The temperature is wonderful – high 80’s but very comfortable in the shade with a breeze from the ocean.