Off to the Beach - Fun in the Sun - Grilling on the Deck

Bridge Over to Cedar Island, NC

We're headed to Cedar Island, North Carolina on Saturday. My son just graduated from high school, and I had him pick our destination. He wanted to go back to Cedar Island. We went a couple of years ago and had a great time.

Cedar Island is an inner barrier island - tucked behind Ocracoke Island (the bottom of the chain of outer bank islands). It's a small town - peaceful and beautiful. The cost to stay on the water is about half what it would be on Ocracoke, and the ferry is right up the road. We just hopped that and hit Ocracoke for a day last time.

There's a hotel on Cedar Island, but we work out better getting a house. I figured that out when the boys were little and bouncing off the walls in motels. I found Vacation Rental By Owner and discovered that we could get a house - and often for less than the price of a hotel. They have houses for rent all over the world. We've had great luck with VRBO.

The house we rent at Cedar Island is right on the sound. The water is shallow and great for swimming and for boating. The owners have a kayak and canoe which guests can use.

There are clam beds out in the sound. The boys discovered those. We enjoyed grilling fresh clams the last time we went. Since we know about the clams ahead of time, I've been thinking about different clam dishes we can enjoy.

The owners of Cedar Sunrise have a nice gas grill on the porch, and we grilled almost all our meals on the last visit. We found out where the shrimp boats come in, so I know we'll grill some shrimp. It would be really nice if I could locate my grill wok, but my son reorganized the basement. I can now find nothing, but it looks better down there.

Cooking seafood is really easy. The key is not to overcook. We've gone out to eat seafood - of course. But the boys like my cooking better. I've converted several folks to eating scallops. Scallops usually are not very good at restaurants, but I can fry them up and never have enough.

Renting the house at Cedar Island worked out great last time, and I'm looking forward to visiting again. I can putter on the porch and play around with the grill and still see the boys out swimming and boating. The boys are teens now, so I guess that wouldn't be essential, but I like to know where they are and what they're doing.

I'll be offline next week. No net service. Even the cell phone wouldn't pick up last time. That's OK. Being unplugged for a week is refreshing.