Kindle
Blue Skies over the White Oak River
Winter is tough for many of us, but some blue sky and blue water enjoyed when the clouds and cold seem to be winning can make a huge difference in how we feel.
Some of us are incredibly sensitive to sunlight or the absence of it. When we lived on the side of the mountain in Roanoke, Virginia, I loved to roll out of bed and capture the sunrise. I photographed some amazing sunrises there.
Over our twenty plus years on the mountain I noticed more and more haze obscuring the sunrises. While I had no real scientific explanation or proof, I always linked it in my mind to unbelievable increase in truck traffic going down Interstate 81 through the Roanoke Valley.
So when we started looking for a place to spend our next couple of decades, sunshine and blue skies were priorities. I also wanted access to water. My dream was to live by the water and enjoy it to the fullest.
It did not take long wandering around North Carolina’s Crystal Coast to figure out that there is a lot of sunshine with accompanying clear skies here on the coast.
No place is ever a perfect place to live but without a lot of effort we have somehow enjoyed living in a variety of different places. Some of those places have been very foggy spots or snowy places.
However, here along the White Oak River, we found our water and our blue skies. Sometime the skies and waters are an almost perfect blue. Other times they are so bright, blue, and sunny that it is hard to capture them in a photograph. The one at the top of this post that I took from our skiff on March 7, 2015, was a challenge to keep from washing out because of all the sunshine.
If someone called blue skies and blue waters spring tonic, I would immediately agree with them. Compared to a place like Chicago, we have lots of clear, sunny skies. It looks like we have about thirty days a year more of sunshine than Chicago. That actually confirms a conversation my wife had recently on a trip to the doctor.
The doctor told my wife the story of walking to work one gloomy morning in Chicago and how he made the decision to move from the dull skies of Chicago to here. He has been on the coast for several years and says he has not regretted the move. Even this winter which had more gloomy days than normal was a treat according to the formerly frozen Chicago doctor.
Generally I can take cold weather in stride as long as the skies are blue. This winter even I felt under attack from the cold and sometimes dark skies. Still I usually made it outside if the sun was shining. Mostly I was just waiting until I could get back on the water.
That mission was accomplished this past early March weekend. While it was not a long day on the water like I would prefer, it was certainly a good dose of spring blue-sky vitamins. My trip into the White Oak was a great reminder that spring will soon be here with warmer waters and bluer skies.
Spring can be magic here on the Crystal Coast. There is no reason to believe the spring of 2015, might not be a memorable one like the spring of 2011. Our area’s spring waters are addicting.
It is hard to wait on the water as it warms up, but the fun on the water under those magnificent blue skies is well worth the wait.
So if you are looking for a place with sunshine, you might want to give the Crystal Coast a try. If you cannot make it for a visit, there are lost of sunny pictures in my book, 100 Pictures, A Thousand Words, A Crystal Coast Year.
If you want to find out more about this special area, we send out an almost monthly newsletter. Our most recent newsletter was sent out just after Valentine’s Day. Our first newsletter of 2015 can be found at this link. Our last newsletter of 2014 is still available on the web.
We will be getting another newsletter out around the end of March after the first of the season’s festivals.
If you are interested in visiting the area, check out our free online travel guide to Emerald Isle.
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