Sunday, my 62nd birthday. Anchor up by 8:40, at Wrightsville Beach. Been a long time since we’ve been ashore here, but it’s usually a good stopping point. Hustling to make sure we make the 9:00 bridge. Saw some folks doing yoga on paddle boards-very cool. Cloudy, interesting skies but no rain. Wind E 10ish. Anchor down by 2:35, Mile Hammock Bay, on Marine Corps Camp LeJeune. Threatening skies all day-check out picture of Larry anchoring. Then the rain started. At least I got to sit on my bean bag chair on the upper deck for a little while, just enjoying the marsh and the sky views…Larry grilled burgers….grill is on the upper deck, so he grilled in the drizzle. Whole rainbow as we ate in the back porch. My birthday gift from Mother Nature. We both got up at 1:25 am …..beautiful full moon coming up and out from behind the clouds, calm, all the buoy lights flickering out in the channel, could hear the ocean roaring. Beautiful night!

Monday. Anchor up 8:35. Another beautiful day. A school of small fish jumped out of the water in unison…..had to wait for a bridge to open….then, the inlet….there is the ocean we heard roaring last night…..a dolphin or porpoise jumped completely out of the water…..I kidded that it must be an escaped performer form Seaworld. Then a few hours later, a skate jumped out of the water three times consecutively…..odd. Tied up at Town Creek Marina, Beaufort, NC by 3:15. (AICW mile marker 202).This is a great marina. We always stop here. It’s also vet stop for Lizzie….

Tuesday, vet appointment. She had wellness check, bloodwork (early issue screening), shots and ears cleaned. It’s like bringing your child in with dirty ears to the doctor….I felt like a bad mom-but ear wax was deep…..then we brought back Italian from our favorite Italian restaurant here. Laundry got done.

Wednesday, food shopping and ready to leave tomorrow. When we arrived from shopping Larry noticed Lizzie was having an eye issue. One eye is less dilated than the other…..back to the vet. Now she is on prednisone! I am concerned. She has had eye issues before but not like this and it has been one and a half years……

Thursday, little shopping, more stocking…..Lizzie not better….I do not want to leave. The next three nights we will be anchoring out in the hinterlands of NC. Don’t want to be too far away from a vet. So we walked to downtown Beaufort for my birthday steak dinner at Ribeye. Simple and good. Then we stopped by a park to listen to some live music. About 3 miles round trip.

Friday, Lizzie still the same. So we switched to a weekly rate instead of daily rate. This seems to always happens here…..usually weather issues….I had to do condo board work most of the day, then went shopping.

Saturday, Lizzie still the same. Very minor improvement. I am concerned. We walked to the Beaufort Cafe for breakfast then visited the local farmers market. Larry got some popcorn, kettle corn, his favorite. I met a dog named Flora, a Great Pyrenees dog. Larry called me over and said “Flora, meet Flora”.

This trip has been filled with concerns with Mom, then Larry, then Mom again, now Lizzie……

Is it my turn next?