From my sickbed, where a million tiny daggers stab my lungs every time I cough, I bring you some pics of a gentler time, not so long ago from our vacation on Bald Head Island. We spent four days there with the Carey clan. It's a crazy little place, a sort of manufactured version of someone's utopia, a little island accessible only by ferry. No cars are allowed on the island so everyone motors around on golf carts.
The pic at top was taken from the balcony of the house in which we stayed, which was only a few hundred yards from the beach. A quick jaunt down the zig-zag boardwalk and there you have it.
The island feels a bit like a giant subdivision in the sense that all the houses sort of look the same -- different shades of grey and tan, porches wrapping around this way and that.
The real attraction of this trip for the Carey clan was getting to fuss over the family's newest member, my niece Genevieve, who's 15 months old and took to the ocean like a...well, you know. Fish, water.
The above is not an actual member of the Carey family, although he/she was so amazing we probably would have let him/her in. We spotted this bird from a distance at a nature reserve on the island. I have no idea what it is -- heron? crane? -- but it stood so still in this pose for so long we thought at first it was a statue. God bless the zoom lens. What a magnificent creature, eh?
Speaking of magnificent creatures, here's the whole Carey crew, hanging on the beach. We harangued a nice fisherman to take a few snaps for posterity. A few more shots...
The core Careys...Joel, Julie, Mama Jean, Amy and Chris (who was so sick that day, poor thing.)
Mama Jean and her grandkids, Lee, 17, holding Baby G., and Kate, 14. (The older two belong to Chris's sister Julie and her husband Mike.)
Genevieve agrees to sit still just long enough for a family photo with her parents, Kathleen and Joel.
Amy's husband (and my fellow Scot), Hamish, holdin' down the beach.
My brother-in-law Mike (Julie's husband, Lee & Kate's dad), relaxin' in a styling hat borrowed from Baby G.
And if you're a big fan of Bald Head Island or the Carey clan, or both, you can find even more snaps on my Flickr page. Enjoy!