WALK ABOUT BUBBIE'S: At the Beach with Bubbie!

Hi kids,

I'm happy that this trip was actually with my grandchildren, Jacob and Missy. We camped at the KOA in Wilmington, NC and had a blast. The cabin was nice with bunk beds for the children, a kitchen and bathroom. There were places for tents if you wanted to rough it. At night we roasted marshmallows over the campfire. Every day we went to the beach which was a few minutes car ride from the campsite.

The beach was awesome. We watched surfers riding the waves and Jacob was brave enough to body surf. The water was cold because it was just after winter and the summer sun hadn't had time to warm the water, yet. The air temperature kept us from getting too cold. I still think Jake must be part Eskimo because he never did complain about being cold.

Anole

The campground had a pool that we enjoyed during the hot part of the day, after being on the beach of course. The kids had fun chasing the Anole's that were sunning on the fence. Missy actually caught one! Anole's are very fast so I was surprised when she brought it over to show me. Missy thought it would be funny to let him go on my leg. I like lizards so it didn't bother me until he decided to run right up my leg, all the way to my head, where he hopped onto my nose before leaping to the fence! Yes, I screamed and everybody had a good laugh.

Can you find the frog?

One day we had time to fit in the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher, just a short ride from the campground. I thought the best part was the first of the tour, which was a walk through NC wetlands and woodlands. Birds, like quail and wood duck, roam free and there are lots of native plants along the trail. It was just like being in a giant terrarium. There were also turtles, snakes, frogs, fish of all kinds and an albino alligator!

The kids liked the handling zoo where they could touch animals like starfish, anemone's, horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs. There was a baby sea turtle, too but no touching!

Missy loved the seahorse tank. They were hard to see at first because they blended in so well with the rocks and plants.

We were lucky enough to be there during a SCUBA diving show. Some of the caretakers went into the shark tank and talked about the different animals that live in the tank with the sharks, like eels and many different fish. Can you believe the sharks don't eat them? The keepers said the sharks are well fed with their favorite foods so they don't bother with the exhibit fish. Or the divers. Good thing...

Lobster

The coral tank was nice, too. There were many types of corals with anemone's and clown fish that actually swam through the anemone's tentacles! Anemone's normally eat fish but certain kinds of clown fish are resistant to the anemone's sting and swim around in the tentacles of the anemone. Follow this link to watch Clown fish and anemone's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEGoEBaTHVc&annotation_id=annotation_549715&feature=iv They also had the prettiest fish in the world in this tank. At least I think so. It's the Mandarin Goby, a small but intensely colored fish that hides in the live rock and corals. When it swims it moves its pectoral fins quickly, like a hummingbird and its blue and green coloring is so stunning, it does make me think of it as the hummingbird of the sea.

Follow this link for goby pictures: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=mandarin+goby&qpvt=mandarin+goby&view=large&FORM=VBCIRL#x0y0

I can't leave out the jellyfish. They were really pretty with the different colored lights shining on them while they swam about. The jellies looked as though they were part of a slow, eerie dance as they bobbed and glided around one another.

On our way out, there was a trail with different plants, ponds and animals in the wild we could view. We saw all sorts of birds, turtles and even an alligator sunning on the bank.