Here it is, the Lake Waccamaw post. Last year was the first year in a long time that we did not spend a week or long weekend at the lake, so we were really happy to go back and spend some time. My sister and brother-in-law were staying four doors down at a little rental house with a pier. That is where Tim, my brother-in-law, took this photo of me paddling his kayak. It was very nice to be able to sit on a pier and look at the stars and catch the breeze off the lake in the evening.
Although sometimes the wind barely made a ripple in the water.
On other late afternoons, we sat out in front of “our” (Cousin Fred’s) house and drank beer. The water was usually lukewarm. Tim dubbed us “The Redneck Hot Tub Club.” I’m going to design some t-shirts for us to wear next year. This is Tim and my brother Thad – usually there were more of us out there but the wimmins wuz in da kitchin fixing supper.
On Thursday, Sandy and I drove to Wilmington and roamed around the “art/antique” district shops (really more antique and vintage shops) and ate at The Jester’s Cafe. My sister sent us there for the pimento cheese sandwich with bacon and carmelized onions and she was right about it. Sandy had the smoked sausage quiche and we shared a slice of peanut butter pie. Eye rollin’ back in the head good. Then we went to Old Books on Front Street to see my nephew, Seth, and we met his girlfriend, Jess, who was working in the store cafe and gave me some peanut butter cookies.
And that was only one day of all the good eatin’ we did down east in North Carolina. When we weren’t eating something simple and amazing cooked on the gas grill at my sister and b-i-l’s house, we ate at Dale’s Seafood in Lake Waccamaw, which serves up the best Calabash-style fried seafood and vegetable plates at lunch. If you are snooty about traditional Southern food, don’t go to Dale’s. There’s no point in wasting all that goodness on the likes of you.
On Friday, I got up early, drove down to the farm and picked butterbeans, and then brought Mama back to the lake to spend Friday night. My brother and his wife and my cousin and his wife came down that afternoon. So we had a great family get-together.
Sandy spent a lot of time painting on the porch. He started out in the yard, but we had an invasion of midges for a couple of days mid-week, and it seemed prudent to leave the painting studio on the screened porch. I wove some fun wabi sabi kind of stuff and read two books. I’ll post photos in the next post.
We didn’t see many big gators or strange critters this time, so I was quite happy about that. It’s funny how you get to know the different ducks when you stay there for a while. The weather was cool at the beginning of the week and it didn’t rain but one night. I like the rain at the lake, though, and would have liked to have a big storm at least one day.
slowly she turned 