Adventure along the Coast of North Carolina is one of the many inexpensive Things to do! Exploring the coastal waters is PURE FUN for the FAMILY & COUPLES when looking for an Adventure and  Things to do! An Adventure searching for living things big and small along the waterway is just one of the many things to do in Southport, NC. Furthermore throughout your Adventure you may find hermit crabs, seagulls, pelicans, and dragonflies! Look Down, Look Up, Look Over Yonder, and Look All Around, something wonderful is surely to be FOUND! Most of all you will have a day full of FUN and best of all it’s FREE!!!

SUPPLIES YOU MAY FIND HELPFUL:

Things to do | Adventure along the Coast

First of all in addition to beginning your adventure,  you may find the following supplies helpful! Comfortable protective clothing are indeed a necessity for any adventure, especially along the coast!
-Comfy Walking Shoes (our FAVORITE walking shoes HIS Style; HER Style)
-Water Proof Sandals (we LOVE Teva HIS Style; HER Style)
We love Zappos for their Easy-Peasy Free Shipping & Free Returns!
-Sun Hat
In addition, you may find the following supplies helpful and fun!
–Fishing Hand Net
–Bucket for Bring Home Treasures
–Treasure Sifter
–Kiddos Explore Set
–Water Bottle due to all of your exploring, you’ll surely be thirsty!
–Binoculars for the GrownUps
–Binoculars for the Kidos
Finally, don’t forget your eyewear protection!
–Sunscreen
–Polarized Sunglasses for the Kiddos (polarized helps with the water’s glare)
–Polarized Sunglasses for the GrowUps

Let’s Go on An Adventure!
Gather the little ones, Grab Your loved one, Turn off the Cable TV, and join us as we explore the Southport, NC Cape Fear River and Intracoastal waterway with all things big & small!

One of Southport’s main features is it’s beautiful waterfront where the Cape Fear River and Intracoastal waters meet. Parking for your adventure along the coast, should be a fairly easy process because Southport North Carolina provides FREE parking for all! One of our favorite parking areas is on Caswell Ave. from here you can easily walk across the street to Bay Street. Right away you will see the stunning waterfront! There will be easy access pathways along the waterfront to start your Adventure!

LOOK DOWN

You’ll enter to find sand beneath your feet and rock outcrops throughout the water as you look down. These rock outcrops is where you you will want to be on the look out for beautiful shells within the water and shallow pools. Pick up each shell very carefully, turn it over and look for life! If you are lucky, there may be a real life hermit crab!

HERMIT CRABS:

The Hermit Crab gets it’s name from that of living like a hermit; due to the term “one without a permanent home.”
Most hermit crabs are found along the coastal and muddy waters. Many hermit crabs enjoy their lives within the rock sandy area along the Southport waterfront.
We will never forget the first time I saw one, we were super excited to find the most beautiful of all shells….when much to our surprise the beautiful shell started walking away!
After picking up the beautiful shell, it surprisingly looked totally empty! Where did the crab go? Hermit crabs withdrawal within their shells due to feeling threatened.

HANDLING A HERMIT CRAB

If you should find one of these fascinating creatures, hold very still with the opening of the shell either in the flat of your hand or away from your fingers.
The crab should reveal himself from it’s shell. Careful, because the hermit crab can indeed pinch! A flat hand or their hole away from your fingers consenquently should help prevent this startling pinch effect.

The hermit crab will live within it’s shell until it can no longer retrieve it’s body within the shell. When time to find a new shell, it will search until it finds the perfect size. Many times other crabs will join in as they switch throughout their shells, almost like a trial basis or trade out of shells. This fascinating process has been called synchronous vacancy chain. These amazing little creatures can live to be 30 years old in their natural habitat, however can only a short life span in captivity. Therefore kindly leave your new friend where you found him, as he has a long life to live!

You may find your neck a little sore now as a result of all of that looking down, it may just be the perfect time to look up!

SEAGULLS:

Almost always looking up you will most likely see beautiful birds soaring above you. In all likeliness it will be a Seagull. Sadly, Seagulls get a bad rap for being parking lot birds, or dumpster divers. We however find them simply beautiful! There are many types of Gulls throughout North Carolina. The Laughing Gull and Ring Billed Gull are the two most commonly seen gulls here in Southport.

A Laughing Gull is a beauty of a bird with it’s black head, red bill, and white crescent shaped moons above and below it’s eye. It’s also known for it’s laughing haha type of bird-call.

A Ring Billed Gull is a little larger than the Laughing Gull. It too is a beautiful bird with a white head, white chest, and a ring around it’s yellow bill. I highly recommend you take the time to look up to see these beautiful soaring birds above the water’s edge.

While you are looking up, you may just glance away to find yourself gazing within the eyes of another beauty over yonder!

PELICANS:

Looking over yonder if you are lucky you will see the oh so poised Pelican!
The Brown Pelican is stunning bird! There’s just something about a pelican’s eyes that will captivate you.
North Carolina’s Brown Pelican is a HUGE bird with it’s wingspan spreading over 6.5 feet and weighing up to 8 pounds! They will typically be enjoying a graceful glide above the water or taking a blasting plunge within the water as they hunt for their dinner which includes mostly of fish. They have a light brown body, white head, white neck and often tinged with yellow. Pelicans are fairly quiet only making a grunting noise when with their breeding colony, however the chicks are very noisy. In Southport, Pelicans can be seen perched upon the posts throughout the water and more than likely you will see one or two perched upon the pier as they patiently wait for fishermen to share their day’s catch with them.

Finally, after you gaze over yonder take a moment to look all around for a bit of magical winged miniature beauty!

DRAGONFLY:

Did you know that the Dragonfly is over 300 million years old!?!
Dragonflies have a magical movement throughout the air; while they are hunting their dinner along their magical moment.In addition their magic dance throughout the air, furthermore they will intercept their prey. Most noteworthy even though the dragonfly has a 95% success rate of hunting their prey, hence they typically will not bite humans. In fact their mandibles are not strong enough to break the human skin.

DRAGONFLY FEATURES

The dragonfly has two sets of wings making them the most agile of fliers.
Dragonflies will fly in any direction, forwards, backwards, sideways and will hover almost as if they are treading water within the sky! One really cool thing about the dragonfly is it lives underwater for two years! It is born underwater and lives as a nymph underwater predator. It’s surprising when people say they are afraid of the dragonfly or find them annoying because the dragonfly helps to control the insect population! This is especially important along the coast as the dragonfly helps to control mosquitoes and biting flies. Consequently fear of these creatures is very much opposite of the love we should express for the dragonfly.

DRAGONFLY SYMBOLISM

Probably one of our favorite things about the dragonfly is it’s symbolism. The symbolism of a dragonfly is change. Most of all change is an important meaning of life, therefore take the time to respect this magical insect. In addition it seems like one should look upon the dragonfly as it guides you along your way of a magical change.

FUN FACTS:

Hermit Crab – one of the smallest hermit crabs is only 12mm
Seagull – seagulls are very intelligent in addition they mate for life
Pelican – pelican’s pouches are used to catch food, opposite of storing their food
Dragonfly – some dragonflies can fly at a speed of 18 miles per hour

In Conclusion, we hope you have enjoyed your adventure along the coast!

Furthermore, what did you find, what did you see, did you bring any treasures home, did you capture any lovely pictures?

Tell us all about it in a comment below!

Thank you for enjoying my Blog!
I sure do appreciate it and would love to hear from you in the comments!
Peace, Love, and Simple Living Friends!
~Erin