We are here! Another year in Sunset Beach, NC. This will be our 9th winter here since we first started snow-birding in 2013. (We missed two years because of a surgery for mom and the pandemic).
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and are almost fully settled in, which feels amazing. Last year, I needed so much help and it took us over a week to get organized.
Our house is a delight. Roomy, bright, cheerful, comfortable. Seriously, I have a King sized Sleep Number bed. I'm currently sprawled out on the sectional in the living room with one dog on either side of me, playing jazz music on the big TV, and can see the sky through the windows in the cathedral ceiling (although today's a rainy one!) This is literally a house made with love and our landlady is AMAZING. We are so fortunate to have found an affordable and fantastic place to stay.
This is our first year staying on the island--in the past we have stayed on the mainland. It's a completely different and, so far, wonderful experience.
We made it down to the beach for the first time on Friday, and as you can see in the gallery of photos, the ocean was calm. And when I started to walk towards the water, I looked down and the first shell I saw was a broken sand dollar. If you haven't already read about my obsession with broken vessels, head over to this post.
On our rainy walk today, we spotted daffodils sprouting! And we loved seeing the moon through the windows in the house.
We had some added excitement yesterday when we found out that the military was right nearby tracking and readying to shoot down the Chinese balloon! I managed to spot the balloon, we saw the jets circling, but then didn't quite catch the moment the balloon was hit. However, in the pic above, you'll see to the right of the sun a little squiggle that is either debris from what was used to shoot the balloon or from the balloon itself. The other photos give a sense of the action and all of the contrails from the jets.
Later, watching the footage on CNN was like seeing exactly what we had witnessed. Wow!
We have every streaming service imaginable here, so hit us up with your TV and movie recommendations! We are loving indulging in TV each evening. We're currently watching Julia on HBO Max (highly recommend). I've also got $12 in amazon credits to pick an awesome movie or TV show! :)
Blessings from our happy place,
Emily