Southern Yankee Observer: Water, water everywhere

My morning office, for the past several days, has been my laptop perched outside on the patio table, coffee to my right, a bowl of berries or local apples to my left. The past 4 days, while technically autumn, have been more spring-like in their disposition.

This lingering sun and moderate temperature has urged a great number of locals to enjoy the outdoors more than ever. Miraculously, I have even managed to tear my teenage son away from his new World of Warcraft online expansion and join us on family walks, bike rides, Frisbee golf…

As I write these blogs and wax lyrical about this beautiful area, I must admit there is something I dearly miss about Long Island: The proximity to the shore…any shore, be it the sound, the bays or the ocean. I miss the gulls, even their incessant squawking. I miss the sand, even the grit and chaffing of it. I miss the lapping waves and the changing tides, even the sometimes rancid wafts of a low tide.

The argument of the Raleigh triangle locals, which I have taken up as well, is that our unique location gives us a 2 hour proximity to all of the following: The Atlantic shore and famous locations including the Outer Banks (and Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers first took flight),

and......

The Mountains

including Blue Ridge, Smokey and parts of the Appalachian trail, which also includes the beautiful town of Ashville, where you can find

The Biltmore Estate, America's Largest Home.

While these 2 hour trips are lovely mini vacations, it clearly isn't the same as being able to walk to a beach on Long Island. LUCKILY, my island roots acted as a kind of divining rod finding one beautiful lake after another to satisfy my need for recreational water. Right here in the Raleigh triangle we have the following major lakes: FALLS LAKE, JORDAN LAKE, LAKE WHEELER, SHELLEY LAKE, LAKE CRABTREE, LAKE JOHNSON, BASS LAKE, LAKE BENSON and BOND LAKE. In addition there are numerous smaller lakes.