June at Sunset Beach

 

Schools Out!!!
Written by Monica- 13 year old Sunset Beach island resident
 and all-around incredible daughter!
 
        School is finally out!! I couldn’t be happier. No more homework, no more teachers, no more anything!!! I can do whatever I want, whenever I want; well, as long as I don’t disobey my parents. When summer break comes around, the island comes alive! The flowers come out, the animals come out, and the people come in. The many businesses and homes on Sunset beach have come to life. Flowers are being planted and grown everywhere. The squirrels are running around and the deer are here and hungry. Warning! If your flowers aren’t protected, they will be eaten. The flowers make the island shine with colors.
        People are starting to come from all over to see our beautiful island. Saturdays are our “Check In/Check Out” days for renters and traffic gets heavy in the afternoon. My parents try not to leave the island on Saturdays and always grocery shop before the weekend! During the week the line going off the island doesn’t get all that bad until everyone starts leaving around 5pm and stays that way until dinner traffic clears. Don’t forget, the Bridge opens on the hour, every hour for boat traffic and takes about 15 minutes. But soon enough (too soon for me) that problem will be solved. The bridge construction is coming along great! It should be up and running by December of 2010. The construction workers are working hard. Sometimes it feels like they never leave. The columns are going up fast. They’ve gotten far enough to where they are working on the third giant column in the water. The drilling is done!! All the massive drills have left for good and they were cool, too.
        The beach is starting to get extremely active. Every way you look, there are beach loving people, umbrellas, radios, beach chairs, and sand toys. The water is getting warm and so is the sand. All the radios are entertaining to listen to. When people start turning it up and listening to different music it gets kinda weird. All the kids playing in the water can be especially fun to watch. They dance & jump & dive through waves and are guaranteed to make you laugh. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you will see dolphins. Last summer, 2 or 3 of them swam right up to the pier. Everyone got out of the water and we watched them swim between the poles of the pier. The birds flying over your head waiting to be fed and the crabs popping out of their holes when you’re not looking make great pictures. Occasionally, you will see jellyfish or skates. The skates I’ve seen look exactly like a stingray but were smaller and brown. They might scare you (they scared me out of the water the first time I saw them) but they didn’t hurt me. Like any sea creature, just don’t mess with them and they won’t mess with you!
        The rental houses are getting filled and so is The Sunset Inn. People are relaxing and taking advantage of the summer vacation. There is a big vacant lot beside the Inn that is now home to few Killdeer birds and their new babies. They are adorable. They are extremely small and make their nest on the ground. To learn more about our amazing island, come and see it all for yourself. I guarantee that you will have a blast.
 
Side note regarding traffic: As of June 11, according to the Town of Sunset Beach, Barnhill Const. will be closing Shoreline Drive East from Azalea Circle to HWY 179 near Bill’s Seafood. The closing will be within the next several weeks and will take approx. 6 weeks to complete.  Traffic will be routed to Park Road.