Pamlico River

Last Sunday, we loaded up and headed east. (Maybe one of DH's New Year Resolutions was to take more day trips? Not complaining!! And this just made me realize I never blogged about our Wilmington day trip...) My husband's aunt and uncle have a house at the Pamlico River, which is on the coast (sort of). Its a little over 2 hours of drive time from home, so not too bad. DH went with his uncle a while back to the river and has been raving about it ever since. So when they invited us down for the day, we jumped on the opportunity!

We got up Sunday morning (though not as early as DH would have liked!) and hit the road. After a few wrong turns, we made it to the river around 11am. We had a delicious lunch, then put the boat in the water and set off. It was a gorgeous day, temps in the 60s, though of course it was cooler on the water. DH's uncle likes to go fast on the boat and then it was C-O-L-D!! I had to wrap a thick coat around C, head and all, because the wind was so frigid. But once the boat wasn't moving it was very nice.

The men did a little fishing, we all did quite a bit of eating (what is it about being on the water that makes you so darn hungry?!), and we all had a great time. After a while, C told me she wanted to lay down, so she laid in my lap and promptly fell asleep. (Hello, baby girl, why can't you do that at home??!)

The Pamlico River is cool because its all mixed up in ocean water. Part of it was brackish water, which is part saltwater and part freshwater, and then you cross a line and you're in all salt water. The difference was amazing. When we crossed that line into the salt water, the temperature dropped probably 20 degrees. Okay, maybe not quite that much, but it was a noticeable difference!

While C was asleep, we mosied on back to the brackish water, and wound our way along the river. That's the place where people do some good duck hunting, I'm told. (I could never hunt duck. We have 5 at the house and while they're not tame, I still consider them my pets, so I could never intentionally kill one!) But that gives you the general feel for the area. Very swampy looking, but beautiful. Ducks, pelicans, and seagulls everywhere. And fish jumping out of the water right and left. (Though neither men caught a single one all day, haha.) Back there, it was very peaceful. We were the only boat around, the sun was shining and keepin us warm, and it was so quiet.

DH and his uncle saw an eagle the last time they were there together. They told me to be on the lookout for it, but his uncle said it was kinda a rare treat to see the eagle. I of course had my camera ready, but since C was asleep and I had to hold the coat around her, I couldn't use the camera. So DH grabbed it and was ready.

And then we got lucky! Super lucky.

DH's uncle said he'd never seen two eagles together like that.

I've never seen one in the wild, so it was awesome to see these magnificent birds. They stuck around just long enough for us to get a few pictures.

But we caught up with them again later!

I was proud of DH for getting such good shots.

After the eagle sighting, we loaded the boat back up and left. It was starting to get pretty chilly by then, and the men had given up on catching any fish.

To wrap up our awesome day, we stopped at IHOP on the way home for some delicious pancakes. All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful day, and I can't wait to go back to Pamlico!