Ever have days that seem like you blinked and the day was over… and you felt like you did not accomplish anything? I’ve had plenty of those days too but …
… Father’s Day (June 19, 2011) was not one of them.
It was one of those days, I wanted to scream ARGH!!!!! at the top of my lungs, not in anger or frustration… but in complete and utter satisfaction.
You see, it was one of those days where I squeezed every last drop from the day.
I left nothing on my plate … I left nothing on the table unfinished.
My Primal Fathers Day
Not bad for a 50+ year old, formerly obese diabetic. :))
7:15 Awoke, jumped up threw on some clothes and headed toward the front door… alone. No one else wanted to come play with me. :)
7:30 Grabbed a hand full of sliced smoked ham as I headed out the door. Stopped at McDonald’s for a Large Coffee
8:03 Purchased all day parking pass at Wrightsville Beach
Walked on the island side of the waterway for the Inter-coastal Waterway and took the picture below.
(Click on All Pics to enlarge)
8:30 Jumped in the car and headed to one of the many public access parking areas (this was #2 on the far north end) on Wrightsville Beach. As you walk up hill over the dunes, the view below awaits you … I like it. :)
Then this one. ….
9:00 AM approximately, I began intermittent exercising. Here was my routine … it’s a favorite.
20 push ups, 20 sit ups followed by running into the ocean, jumping into the waves followed by a rest period. Completed 203 push ups and 203 sit ups in about an hour…. it was Father’s Day and I was on the beach…
10: 30 AM Left the beach to go pick up my wife, Tammy.
11:30 AM Arrived back at the beach … we swam, fought the ‘sud heads’ as my grand dad used to call it when he and I would pretend to fight the waves….. and we sun bathed for awhile. I can’t sit still for long so we decided to walk. At this point the wind was fierce and at ground level the wind would ‘sand blast’ anything in it’s path.
You can get a feel for the wind by watching this video. See the wind driving the sand on the beach?
If the video link disappears, click here.
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The extreme North End of the Island is the Shell Island Bird Sanctuary. Quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen… at least as far as beaches are concerned. At low tide there are many small ‘islands’ or sand bars easily accessible by foot.
These types of places have 100’s tidal pools to entertain children … of all ages….even kids aged 50+. :)
Here is an Arial view of our trek. We started at the Green Dot lower center of the picture and walked to the Red Dot in the upper center of the picture. (Click to Enlarge)
The picture below is looking out over the inlet you can see in the picture above.
The picture below is a large ‘pond’ at high tide … we could have stayed here all day …. <sigh>
2:30 PM Tammy and I pulled ourselves away from the beautiful scenery and made our way back to the room. We cleaned up and headed back out for a Father’s Day dinner with Brad.
4:30 PM Arrived at my NEW … favorite RESTAURANT in the whole WORLD!!!
Located less than a block from the Wilmington, NC Riverfront … Dock Street Oyster Bar … very ‘low key’ … walk in wearing a T-shirt and flip flops …and you’ll fit right in. :)
Their steamer selections were excellent…. here are some of our ‘samplings’ … we also had clams but that picture did not turn out well. (Click on picture to enlarge!) … these foods were so tasty and very reasonably priced.
The first picture on the left is Mussels … those REALLY stole the show. Brad and I ended up eating an “all steamed” assortment of seafoods:
1.5 lbs of Mussels, 1.0 lb of Shrimp, 1/2 dozen claims and 1/2 lb of Crawfish… no bread, no fried batters… just ‘sea meat’ and butter. :)
Afterwards we took a walk along the Waterfront /Riverwalk. We were treated with an aerial display thanks to 4-5 Pelicans. They performed several diving maneuvers … sadly none of the pictures nor videos were of decent quality, except these two pictures…. none of Pelicans. :(
Lastly … but certainly not least is this picture of ‘the guys’ playing basketball. It was a great workout (my 2nd of the day in addition to MUCH beach and inland walking) … it was as good a day as I can remember.
Thanks to Tammy and Brad for participating.
Special thanks to Spencer for inviting me to play basketball, I loved it!!! :)
Summary
As noted earlier … I squeezed every bit out of this day, I left nothing on my plate. :)
Go ‘low carb primal’ … and start thriving … not just surviving.
Here is my Diabetes Warrior Info:
My Diabetes Meal Plan ( a true diabetes diet,not like most of those promoted by American Diabetes Association)