The showers are finally here. Yesterday I was home in the mountains doing the final mowing of the year.

Last night when I got back just before ten, I was surprised to see two walkers in the neighborhood. I was surprised to see them both wearing shorts since I had been driving through some gusty rain. I guess the wind gusts had not made it to our nieghborhood. Thenight was so warm they probably could not resist one last summer evening stroll. It was a warm, almost perfect evening. In fact I had a number of windows open in the house until the rain blew in just before noon today.

Next week, instead of the sixties and seventies, we will be seeing more seasonable temperatures in the fifties. It is December, so we need a little cool weather to get into the Christmas spirit.

It feels like a Canadian summer day here this morning. We actually slept with the windows open last night, and the house was still warm this morning.

The temperatures are supposed to stay warm for the next two or three days, and then we will get some Canadian cold air.

According to the Weather Underground for yesterday, here are today's statistics for Cape Carteret.

Max Temperature 70 °F, Average High Temperature 59 °F, Record high 75 °F (2001)

Min Temperature 51 °F, Average Low 39 °F, Record low 25 °F. We appear to running about ten degrees warmer than normal. There is nothing wrong with that this time of year.

If you can have perfect weather we had it yesterday. I actually switched back to wearing shorts.

I am guessing this will be our last warm spell for a while, but it was absolutely fantastic. The temperatures were in the mid-seventies. We went over to the Ice House and joined the crowd having lunch outside by the water. When the sun came out from behind the clouds, it was actually a little two warm.

As we ate our Grouper Grandwichs, we could see the dock over at Clyde Phillips seafood where we like to purchase our goodies from the sea. The fresh local shrimp are one of my favorite treats. It does not take much effort to prepare some perfect shrimp if you start with really fesh shrimp.

We are expecting a few more warm days before the bottom drops out on Saturday, and we have to face the mid fifties. I can remember my Canadian days when that would have been getting close to spring weather. So far my first Carolina winter since my childhood days is turning out to be a pleasure. Every day that we do not have to run the heat makes winter one day shorter. That is a very good thing.

After a delicious late lunch at the Fairway Restaurant which I plan to review soon, we went looking for used boats once again. This time we headed up Route 58 through the Croatan National Forest to Maysville and then followed Route 17 east to New Bern. We stopped by one boat dealership that I had communicated with by email. The one used boat they had was way out of our price range so we forged on and headed east on Route 70.

We found the boat dealer we were had been seeking, but their winter hours include closing on Monday so we were out of luck. I got a telephoto snapshot of the boat we had come to see. Since we were only thirty miles away, we decided to go shopping in Beaufort . We took Route 101 in Havelock to get around Morehead City and Route 70 traffic. We were soon cruising around Beaufort.

Our first task was to see if some of the houses we had looked at before settling on western Carteret County were still for sale. The first three we checked were still on the market. The one we had made an offer on in June finally had a sold sign in the yard. I wonder if they got as much for their house as our original offer?

After checking out all the houses, we walked the boardwalk and snapped some pictures of a fantastic sunset. We checked out the local birding store that was having a going out of business sale, and then found a couple of great coat bargains at one of the local stores. We debated having a shrimp melt at Finz's since it was starting to approach six o'clock, but we finally decided that our Fairway lunch had killed our hunger for dinner.

We headed over the bridges to Morehead City, and got on Bridges Street to miss the five o'clock traffic. A few minutes on Route 24, and we were back in Cape Carteret shopping at the Lowe's grocery store in under thirty five minutes. We actually live in a pretty small piece of paradise. All the spots are a little different, but that is what makes living here so great.

Yesterday was another great day. We mostly relaxed, enjoyed some football, fishing off the dock, and visiting Swansboro's little park by Route 24.

I did walk out on the bridge and takes serveral photos for a panorama shot that I will be posting later with Instructions on how to make your own.

Later in the afternoon I worked on my fly casting, then went for a bike ride before we went off to Morehead City for a quick evening meal.

I absolutely love being able to get on my bicycle on go for a quick ride. At our Roanoke house the road is so steep, that I have to load my bike on the back of the car and drive for a mile or two to find reasonably flat ground. With weather as warm as it has been here on the Crystal Coast, I hope to ride my bike well into the winter months.