The Essential Beachcomber

I was out on the beach at 7:30 am Sunday to see what Irene had left behind Hurricane Irene finally blew past the coast of  Wilmington, NC early Saturday morning.  I laid in my bed with the blinds wide open watching the pine trees bend & sway back & forth. I was following the storm on the local news channel's Twitter feed till the Internet succumbed to the storm. The following morning brought lots of wind & rain from the backside of the storm.  The power was still out so I spent the morning drinking Diet Dr. Pepper for some caffeine (note to self - buy Starbuck's for the next hurricane) & listening to my bil & my nephew play gin rummy at the kitchen table.  I was very tempted to head to the beach but I suspected the bridge was probably closed so I kept my self entertained with the impromptu casino in the kitchen, playing Words With Friends with my sil till my phone battery went to 18%, and eating all the Popsicles that were starting to thaw ...

Relocating to a new area, either by moving, visiting, or vacation, requires alot of research for most of us. Where am I going to work, live, shop, kid's school, ......blah blah.  When I am in a new area I want to know one thing -  Where are all the seashells? What's the best shelling beach? How's the access? How much $$ is a trespassing ticket?  This is simplified by the fact that most my kinfolk - in-laws & out-laws live on an ocean or the Gulf of Mexico so when I am on the road visiting family the ocean is usually just a short drive away. Even my land-locked sister in the heart of Tennessee  managed to find a junonia at a garage sale. So how do you find the best places to shell?  Here's some things I do. Find the local shell club. First I google'd the local shell club and read what their members had to say about the area.  Since the Outer Banks  are a few hours away I looked for local info which pointed me to the south end of Wrightsville B...