Weekend Outlook

It's Friday and the weather is changing. It's warming up and the rain is moving in. It should be raining by this afternoon and it's forecast to continue through Saturday. It will be an interesting change.

This morning, as the clouds began to move in, Ken and I walked over to the beach to see the sunrise.

There were a few people out walking or fishing, and we could see, as you can in the photo above, the lighthouse out on Cape Lookout. It was a brilliant morning and I'll put more photos up later.

Today our plan is to run some errands (we're sending a box back home through the mail) and try to hit the NC aquarium this afternoon. Our attempt to go there yesterday was thwarted by a private event that closed the aquarium for most of the afternoon. Something fishy was going on...

Photo Du Jour

A shrimp boat plies the waters off the coast of North Carolina. This photo was taken from the balcony of our rented condo on Atlantic Beach.

We're planning to take advantage of sunshine to visit Fort Macon this morning and this afternoon we're going to the newly expanded North Carolina aquarium. Our friend Peter from Washington, DC, drove down yesterday to spend a few days here, so he'll be accompanying us on our adventures.

Our colds are getting better, but some symptoms are lingering. I'm sleeping much better now and that makes a great difference.

Last night we went to the Sanitary Fish Market for dinner. Ken had fried jumpin' mullets, Peter had fried grey trout, and I had fried shrimp and scallops. Yum! I love good fried seafood, and they make it good down here!

A Day At The Beach

Well, not exactly. More like a ten minute walk on the beach. We're still trying to get over these colds and they just keep hanging on. Ugh! We walked outside at the warmest part of the day just to be out in the sun and see the beach and the ocean. It was worth it! We saw many birds, among them sandpipers like this one. I took a little movie of a sandpiper running along the beach, but I have yet to figure out the video upload thing, so you can't see it yet.

Other sights from the beach:

Tire tracks make interesting patterns on the low-tide sand.

Shells.

Beach cans.

This is the view of the Atlantic Ocean from our condo.

Views From The Westin

After visiting the aquarium, we rode up to the 72nd floor of the Westin Hotel in downtown Atlanta for a drink and views of the sprawl. Atlanta has some cool buildings, many of them skyscrapers. It's also a classic sprawl city that chokes with traffic every day. Still, it's pretty to look at on a clear day from over 700 feet up!

Looking north from the bar, the Peachtree Street corridor, or perhaps more aptly named the I 75/85 corridor, stretches out toward the horizon. Georgia Tech is on the left of the freeway.

In the center right of this picture is large area of trees; this is the neigborhood where the condo we were staying in is located.

We left Atlanta on Saturday, spent the night in Rock Hill, SC, then made it back to Morehead City, NC, on Sunday. Our condo on the beach is comfortable and we are recuperating, slowly getting over, I hope, our head colds.

I watched Monday Night Football last night. At least, I watched the first half. What a spectacle. I haven't seen much American football lately, and I was amazed at what I saw. It's much less about the game and more and more about pure hype, selling products and selling people. At one point they had the guy that sings the opening song for MNF (Hank Williams, Jr.) in the booth talking about what it's been like singing the MNF opening song for so many seasons.

The game seemed more like a reality show about a selected group of players. We heard more about their off-the-field exploits than we heard game analysis. The actual plays on the field were interspersed with interview clips of these star players. One was called the player you love to hate and his bad-boy reputation was hyped and hyped and they showed clips of him interacting with other players on the sidelines. Since he was excited we were told he was yelling at team mates, coaches and other staff. I'm not convinced.

The game was presented as a set of personal battles. We were encouraged to watch how certain players interacted with other players during the game. The camera work has gotten much closer to the players and you can see their facial expressions on the field in a way that you never could even five years ago. It was a show about individuals. Maybe fans enjoy this, but to me it seemed that the whole concept of a team effort was missing.

The opening plays of each team featured the introduction of the respective offensive and defensive lines, which is normal. But instead of one of the commentators doing it, they had a pre-recorded, obviously scripted semi-comedic reading of the introductions by one of the star players from each team.

Oh yeah, and there was some football, too. I went to bed at halftime.

Rain In Rock Hill

It was a pretty bad night of coughing and generally not sleeping. And now it's raining. I think I've gone through a box of kleenex a day for the past few days. Ugh.

And, we have a whole day in the car ahead. Double ugh. The good news is that this evening we'll be in our own condo for a whole week and can hopefully recover. Ken said he's feeling better this morning, so that's a good thing. In fact, he's almost chipper. I hate chipper.

As promised, here are some more phishy photos.

Jellyfish at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

Like Monterey, there is a jellyfish exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium. Unlike Monterey, it's pretty small and there aren't many varieties of jellies.

A whale shark high above my head.

The big draw at the GA is the open ocean tank that contains many varieties of sea life. And the star attraction here is the collection of about five whale sharks. They are truly amazing creatures and they impress you as they glide by the big window or above your head when you're in the acrylic tunnel under the tank.

One of the smaller whale sharks comes close to the window of the big tank.

Thanks for keeping the comments coming. Our connection to the internet depends on the availability of wireless networks where we're staying and internet cafés when we can find them. The connections are not the best and our laptop is old and we often lose the connection in the middle of doing things, so it's a slow and frustrating process. Thanks for sticking with us!

We have two more weeks in the USA before heading back to France. We miss home, but we're enjoying seeing friends, family and the sights. I do long for my own bed...

Georgia Aquarium

Yesterday Ken, his mom, and I went to the new aquarium in Atlanta. We stayed in a friend's condo (warm thanks to Buddy and Charlotte) which was very, very comfortable. After a quick lunch with our friend Evelyn, we headed down Peachtree Street to the big fish tank.

This is the central atrium of the Georgia Aquarium. Very patriotic, eh? A red, white and blue wave.

This is the beluga whale tank. I didn't get pix of the whales but I did get some of the crowd watching a diver clean the inside of the tank.

The large show tank includes skates among the many fish above your head and behind a huge acrylic window.

That's all for today. I'll post some more phish photos the next time we get an internet connection. Today we're on our way back to NC from Atlanta. We're spending the night in Rock Hill, SC, just south of Charlotte, NC. Tomorrow we'll do the rest of the trip back to the coast where we've rented a condo on Atlantic Beach for a week.

Ken and I have both been sick with head colds and need to stay put for a while to rest and recover. Many thanks to Evelyn and Lewis for recommending OTC medicines that worked (and continue to work) to relieve our symptoms!

A Special Photo

This is a special photo for Amy H. at Chitlins & Camembert. While in Washington DC's Eastern Market we saw this butcher catering to local Washingtonians. We, however, did not partake.

Here are two more familiar sights from Washington:

The Lincoln Memorial.

The Washington Monument seen from the Tidal Basin.

Tomorrow we head to Atlanta for a few days and a visit to the new Georgia Aquarium. We're back in North Carolina on Sunday for a week in a condo on the beach. See you soon!