CBS: The Elephant Odd Couple

You have to watch this...it'll pick you up even if you're having a sub par day.

Details on the 2010 Carolina Beach Farmer's Market

Here's what I know so far (this post will be updated with new information as it becomes available)

Location: Carolina Beach Lake. Vendors with refrigerated products will be setup at the CB elementary school lot across from the lake.
Dates: April 24th to October 9th
Hours: 8am to 1:00pm (vendors will begin setup at 7:00am)
Rain Policy—will operate rain/sun (unless severe weather creates hazard)

Farmers Market Facebook Page: Go here for the latest information.

Why buy at the CB farmer’s market? (from the PICoC blog)
• obtain the freshest, most flavorful and nutritious produce possible,
• have an opportunity to talk to the people who grow your food,
• increase local employment while helping to keep money in the community,
• reduce consumption of fossil fuels and the resulting pollution from transportation,
• AND help to create and improve sustainable regional economics.

(I’m also hearing that local artists will be on hand to show/sell/discuss their artwork. Stay tuned for updates.)

Note to Area Businesses:

The Carolina Beach Farmer’s Market will be distributing flyers to their visitors offering “10% off with this flyer” for local businesses who wish to participate. This is a great way to draw traffic to your business or promote your service. If you would like to have your name on the listing of participating businesses, please call Janet Knott, 431-8122 or email janetshere@earthlink.net with your business name, address and phone number.

Ho Ho Ho...The Big 2010 Snow

Yeah, I know it just turned to Spring and it's in the mid 70's today but I just couldn't resist posting this wonderful Youtube video. It's a collection of winter photos from Pleasure Island following our 4 inch snow storm earlier this year. As an added bounus, the background music will have you tapping your feet. Enjoy!



Click here for other posts on area snow storms.

14th Annual Pleasure Island Chowder Cook-Off Saturday, April 17, 2010

2010 CHOWDER COOK-OFF CONTESTANTS

•Beau Rivage Golf & Resort
•Fish Bites Restaurant
•Harbor Masters Restaurant
•Lazy Pirate
•RuckerJohns
•Surf House
•Tangerines Caribbean Grill
•Treehouse Bistro

Each year chefs from restaurants of Pleasure Island, Monkey Junction and Wilmington gather on Pleasure Island for our famous Chowder Cook-off.

Your job is to bring the family and your appetite, sample to your heart’s content, and vote on the Best Chowder.

Chowder, Live Music, Games for the Kids and More!

In addition to serving up the area's best chowder, this daylong event includes live music and the Kidz Zone which will have face painting, balloon art, and giant inflatable slide. There will also be hotdogs, funnel cakes, soft drinks and beer and wine for sale. (No coolers, no pets please!).

So come to the beach for the weekend and spend the day with us at this great party! Call 910-458-8434 or email the Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce for more information. Also be sure to check out our Pleasure Island Events Calendar for more fun events at the beach throughout the year.

Photos from 2009 event

Great White Sharks: Taking a Ride Down to Florida

Here's an interesting article about the East Coast migration of great white sharks. Researchers up in Cape Cod tagged five whites in September and were able to track their movements down to Florida. It was the first successful tagging of great whites in the Atlantic using satellite technology.

Here's a snippet from the article discussing the sharks brief visit to North Carolina:

During their southern migration, the white sharks remained on the continental shelf and continued to rise and descend through the water column, on an almost daily basis. By mid to late October, they were off the coast of North Carolina. The first tags to surface indicate that two of the sharks arrived off the coast of northern Florida by early December, and remained in this region until their tags popped loose, as they are designed to do.

Although the sharks moved between the surface and the bottom, they spent more than 90 percent of their time at depths less than 150 feet. One of the sharks exhibited a deviation from this pattern when it entered the Gulf Stream off North Carolina for 10 days in early November and exhibited daily dives to depths as great as 1,500 feet.

Check out the complete article from the Martha's Vineyards Times

Rodeo shark photo credit

Amusement Rides and Water Park Coming to Carolina Beach for 2010 Summer Season

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WECT) – A small waterslide park will accompany amusement park rides in Carolina Beach this summer.

Carolina Beach town council members unanimously voted to bring the popular rides back to the beach for the summer. This year, it will be even bigger, with a second area nearby filled with more rides.

The rides should open around Memorial Day and officials are excited about the boost the park brings to the area...

Read the full WECT article here.

Wilmington Star: Carolina Beach blogs have you covered

Thank you Shannan, your article was most appreciated. And I must add, I've been very impressed with the amount and quality of coverage Pleasure Island has been receiving in the Wilmington Star. There are many wonderful things happening on the island and it's fantastic that you guys continue to stay on top of it all. So again, THANKS!!

Wilmington Star
by Shannan Bowen

I live in Carolina Beach, the beautiful island town on Pleasure Island, so I’m always looking to meet new people and find new and interesting things to do. Thankfully the blogs (in addition to articles in the StarNews, of course) keep me updated on what’s happening.

I’ve read the blog Carolina Beach Today for a while now...

Here's the full article

Carolina Beach Now Has over 14,000 Fans on Facebook

The Carolina Beach Official Tourism group now have over 14,000 fans on Facebook and Wrightsville Beach has taken note. WB is now wortking towards duplicating the social media success of Carolina Beach. Do I see a friendly Facebook competition looming?

This Lumina News article explains what is going on.

If you haven't signed up as a Facebook CB fan, do it today and keep up with the latest happenings.

And for Twitter fans, they have you covered here as well.

Greater Wilmington Business Journal: NC Aquarium at Forrt Installing Interactive Playground

The NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher is breaking ground on a new interactive children’s playground slated to be open this summer.

The new, 1,200-square-foot project, called Adventure Reef, will cost about $165,000 and will be completed in three phases, said Amy Kilgore, the aquarium’s public relations coordinator. The entire project will be privately funded, she said.

The first phase of the project, and the largest, will be the Octopus Garden. This phase, at a price tag of $140,000, will be a hardbottom reef with climbing spaces, slides and caves for exploration...

Click here to read the full article.

Photo from article

Wilmington Star: Carolina Beach’s Sea Witch Cafe is Back in Business

...Fresh paint and a new deck outside have helped revive the spot’s laid-back, beach-house feel.

Still on the menu are old Sea Witch favorites like chili, crab dip and a turkey panini with pesto, sautéed onions and pepper jack cheese, manager Nicole Long said.

New additions include crab cakes in beurre blanc. Additionally, tuna steaks come seasoned with Asian spices, grilled to order and served with wakame seaweed salad, Long said. Menu prices range from $6-$17...

Click here to read the full Wilmington Star article

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This evening, I went to the Sea Witch for dinner with friends and I must say that we were all very impressed. The food was very good but it was the decor that blew us away. They have installed all sorts of decking and walkways and the numerous palm trees are all illuminated with white Christmas lights. The bar area is quite large and it has a notable Caribbean feel to it.

All in all, this is a very cool place to hang out with friends and have a drink. It's obvious that the owners put down some serious money to renovate the property and it is truly a very classy beach hang out and a welcome addition to the island. So if you have some free time, I strongly suggest you check it out! I should add that we dined in the bar area and that they have a separate dining area for the full menu.

Location map

Photo Credit from 2006: Island Gazette

Britt's Donuts is Open for the 2010 Season

Now Open:
Fri 4:00pm-Evening
Sat 8:30am-?
Sun 8:30am-6:00pm
FYI, this is how the hours are posted on their door. When you are as popular as Britt's, you get to have flexible hours ;-)

Summer Hours:
8:30am until 11:00pm
7 Days a Week starting Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day.

WECT: Britt's Donuts is back in business at the beach

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC – Britt's Donuts, a staple of Carolina Beach, is getting ready to open its doors for business.

The shop closes every year in October during the off-season, but promises hot doughnuts as tourist season approaches...

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=12206315

To check out past CBT entries, photos and videos of Britt's, click here.

Snow's Cut Monthly is Back!

Good news for everyone who likes to keep up with the latest happenings on the island. The Snow's Cut Monthly has returned as an on-line 'e-magazine.' This is great news as I have always enjoyed reading their articles. They always seem to be able to dig up stories that you may not have heard about from any other source. So be sure to check them out by visiting their website at http://www.snowscutmonthly.com/.

Of course, the Island Gazette is the island's granddaddy for news and information but it's nice that we have other avenues as well. Here are a few informative island websites that you may not have seen before but are worth bookmarking imo:

• http://www.pleasureislandchamber.blogspot.com/
• http://www.seawatchhappenings.blogspot.com/
• http://www.ncaquarium.blogspot.com/

For other great website links, please check out the (blue) lower left side bar.

.Endangered Listing Eyed for US Loggerhead Turtles

BOSTON (AP) -- The federal government on Wednesday recommended an endangered-species listing for the loggerhead turtles in U.S. waters, a decision that could lead to tighter restrictions on fishing and other maritime trades.

The massive, nomadic sea turtles have been listed since 1978 as threatened, a step below endangered, but federal scientists proposed ratcheting up the designation after reviewing the state of the species.

Researchers said primary threats to the loggerheads include injury and death from fishing gear and damage to their nesting areas.

The joint proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries division and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not a final decision. If approved, it puts loggerheads on track for an endangered listing by the summer of 2011. The proposal now enters a public comment period.

Environmental groups who'd been pushing an endangered listing said the proposal was a "turning point" they hope will lead to greater turtle protections...

Read the full article here.