Fun in the Sun

Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. are enjoying a tranquil week in Nags Head along with several thousand motorcycle enthusiasts.  He has turned his new hearing aid way down so the noise is not as bad as it could have been.  Between the bikes on the Bypass and the bulldozers on the beach maybe "tranquil" is not exactly the right word to describe the Outer Banks right now but they are having a good time anyway. All too soon they will have to return to the peace and quiet of  Baltimore (which is marred only by the occasional gunshot and police siren) so they are enjoying  their stay at the beach as much as they can under the circumstances

. Construction of the new Jennette's pier is proceeding apace.  The pier house looks like it will be a formidable structure in its own right.  It is beginning to remind Uncle Jack of the grand West Pier at Brighton on the south coast of  England, pictures of which he has provided below.  After seeing the fate of the Brighton pier he can't help wondering if the new Jennette's pier might not be the wisest use of public funds given Mother Nature's implacable tendency to obliterate man-made structures placed too close to the sea no matter what they are made of. Time will tell as it did in Brighton.

Brighton West Pier just after it opened in 1899.  Victorian hubris at its zenith.

This is what was left when Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. visited Brighton a few years ago.  It cost more to remove the wreckage than it did to build it in the first place.

There's not much sand sculpture to be found in April but this would stand out at any time of the year. This is probably the only kind of building at the seashore that makes any sense.

A modern day Sisyphus at work in the shadow of the troubled Comfort Inn South which has survived another winter on the edge of catastrophe. It's a happy time for the 'dozer operators who are working from dawn to dusk to stave off the inevitable---at top dollar.

Your better class of bikers dine at Sam and Omie's.  The rest are at Hooters.

Saturday morning about a zillion cormorants like these flew north past James street in South Nags Head.  Ten minutes later another flock of similar size flew south past the same spot.  Does anyone understand cormorant behavior?