Sunday, June 15, 2008

My Flag Day Celebration

First I want to go back to yesterday morning. When I went into my laundry room, my first thought was, I have an ashtray fire. I looked and nothing was burning. My next thought was my dryer is on fire. I went out and looked at the dryer vent and nothing. Then the wind blew and the smell was even stronger. As it turned out, we were getting the smell and smoke from the North Carolina fire. Not a pretty smell. I feel really bad for the people in North Carolina.


(what's left of the Concrete Ship)
(This is not haze. This is the smoke that I was talking about)

There is a flag lowering ceremony every night at Sunset Beach. The Flags that are flown are flags that were draped over the casket of veterans. I decided that since it was Flag Day, this would be a nice thing to do. I was at a traffic light and the guy in the car next to me asked if I knew where the liquor store was. I gave him directions. I guess everyone has there own way of celebrating. When I got to Sunset Beach, a ceremony was already taking place for the Elk's.


(This was their flag lowering ceremony.
I like this shot with the concrete ship in the background)

After the Elk's ceremony was over I walked over to the beach. Here are a couple of pictures looking at the beach.

(This is someones idea of celebrating Flag Day)


Sometimes I would see people pointing at the water and I would look to see what they were pointing at. There was a pod of dolphins swimming by. I went on the beach and tried to get a couple of pictures, but by the time I got down to the water and tried to focus, they had past. Maybe next time.


(This guy was looking for Cape May Diamonds.)


The American Flag.
This flag was from a Veteran
(View from the beach.)


(View from the parking lot.)

During the ceremony they play "God Bless America" and as the flag is being lowered, they play "Taps". I'll admit I got a little teary eyed when they played this. After the flag is lowered, they fold the flag and give it to the family member.
Take notice of the lady standing to the left. At one point her cell phone must have rang because she took it out of her pocket and threw it. I couldn't believe it. Why not just turn the thing off. Or better yet, leave it at home.

Imagine my surprise when it turned out she was the recipient of the flag.


I stayed a little while longer after the ceremony. I think this is the Whale Watcher passing by the concrete ship.

A fishing boat. I remember once my dad, our friend Bob and I were out fishing and we decided to go over to the concrete ship. Back then there was more ship but it was split. The tide ran pretty fast through there and there was pretty good fishing. There was also a little rowboat that had anchored up. We were catching some fish, but Bob casted over by the row boat. He starts reeling in and the rowboat kept getting closer. Here he hooked the rowboat. That was the largest catch of the day. They people were pretty cool about this.

(This was taken during the ceremony. I couldn't resist. And true to my form, there is a little dog to the right.)

(I took this before the ceremony. The sunset wasn't this dark. For some reason, my camera made this picture dark like this. However, those are storm clouds. We got a thunder storm later that night.)


(This is the true color of the sunset. Very beautiful.)
After I left Sunset Beach I went for a ride around Lily Lake. There were baby bunnies every where. It has been a while since I have seen bunnies. They are so cute.
(Again my camera took a dark picture)


(Baby bunny and geese)

(Two baby bunnies)
This morning I went to Shoprite for a few things. As I'm walking along, I passed a book display. This is bad. Very bad. I am addicted to books. I have, I'm sorry to say, over a hundred in my closet to be read. I passed by, but I had seen one of my favorite authors. I went back and ended up with two more books. Well what's done is done. Now I have two more books to read. I really need help with this addiction. Oh well, after I left there I went to a fastfood change, you know the Golden Arches, to pick up breakfast. I ordered a sausage biscuit and hashbrowns. Whenever I go, I never leave a window without first checking to make sure I was given the correct change. (They have shorted me a couple of times.) And checking to make sure I was given the correct food. When I opened the bag I said to the girl, this is not my order. She looked at me like I had three heads. She said in broken English, "It's not? You sure?" Yes I am sure. Still she looked at me. I said, "I ordered a sausage biscuit. Not a sausage McMuffin." Still she looked at me. I said, "Here is my receipt. See sausage biscuit." She looked at the receipt and then looked up at the monitor. She said, "You sure." I said, "You have my receipt in hand. Does it say sausage McMuffin. No it does not. It says sausage biscuit." She says, "Oh my. I don't. I don't understand." She goes to retrieve my sausage biscuit, but comes back empty handed. She says, "You mind you pull up please." What else can I do, I pull up. A couple minutes goes by and another girls comes out iwith a bag. She said, "You order pancakes?" Me, "No." She goes to another parked car, which was empty. She comes back to me and says, "You sure. It is big breakfast." Me, "I'm sure. Unless there is a sausage biscuit and hashbrowns in that bag, it's not mine." She shrugged her shoulders and went back inside. Now my girl comes out. She hands me my breakfast. I check again and I got my sausage biscuit with egg. Not wanted to stay any longer, I left. I can take the egg off.
Sometimes I want to go watch the water. I think there is nothing as calming as the sea. But I came home and looked at these pictures. Also taken last night at Sunset Beach.











Well I'm off to read. Have a good day.

2 comments:

Dianne said...

I love the photo of the little flags planted in the sand.

what a wonderful series of photos.

the fast food experience doesn't surprise me. these folks need better training.

thank you for sharing all these photos!

bobbie said...

I love your reference to the guy asking directions to the liquor store and his way of celebrating.

Guess you don't get out at the right times of day to see bunnies. We used to count the bunnies along the Parkway, when we'd get an early start going to visit Grandma, when the kids were little. They appear very early in the morning and in the evening.