Hushpuppy Territory

Kristen here - it is Tuesday morning on the 16th of December. Yesterday we pulled up to a marina in Coinjock, NC. After leaving the lock dock at about 9:00 yesterday morning to make it under the hourly bridge opening we motored south. It was amazingly warm when we got up. We considered putting shorts on, but then realized that with the wind it would seem colder. We also realized that Kaitlin has no shorts! As we motored on south, we home schooled up top for a change. It was so nice to not be below with the same old scenery. We lugged all of our books to the cockpit and had school. We were interrupted many times by low flying military planes, bridge openings, hunger and high wind. Toward the end of the day the wind picked up to 25 knots on our nose and the kids had to hold on to their books.

One of the places we passed through was so wide you couldn't see the other side. The whole area was about 2-5 feet deep except for the small channel dug out for the ICW. It was here that we experienced the high winds. My guess is because of the open space. Once we got back to the tree lined area, winds died down.

Coinjock is pretty much a dock, a restaurant and a marina store. The store had lots of cool t-shirts and "Coinjock Marina brand" food. We bought some peanuts, honey and pickled okra. This morning we had grits to celebrate being in the south, and we put the honey on the grits. I'm most curious about the pickled okra. The restaurant was famous for its large prime rib. Chris, Casey and I shared it last night and couldn't finish it! Kaitlin had fried chicken. Casey went nutso over the hushpuppies. Finally we're in real southern hushpuppy territory. We had a few for appetizers and they were simply delicious.

Today it was raining and foggy when we woke up. Everyone was tired, so we decided to hang out here for another day. Who could pass up one more visit to the marine store!! I do have to admit, they even had a North Carolina keychain for Kaitlin's collection.

Tonight was leftover night for dinner. We had stir fry from two nights ago's dinner, hushpuppies from Cantlers restaurant in Annapolis, MD (nothing compared to last night's hushpuppies), french fries and fried chicken from Coinjock, NC, and artichokes bought in Chesapeak VA. Three whole states in one meal!