sea creatures make elsa happy

This weekend myself and Companion took advantage of one of Southern Private University's benefits, the Un-Holiday of Your Choice. Last Friday was selected as Un-Holiday, and off the the beach we went. On recommendation from my Boss Hoss we headed past the touristy beaches to seek out Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, a lovely natural beach with dunes, weathered live oaks, a reasonably-priced snack bar (with "the best deal on a bottle of water," said the security guard), and an on-site aquarium. Another great thing about Fort Fisher is it seems to be an enclave of diversity in the blindingly white beach area. You know, the kind of white that fits confederate flags onto every possible item of beach parephenalia, including flip-flops and sunglasses.

Anyone who prefers seeing dunes and open sky to hotels and million-dollar beachhouses from their beach blanket should definitely check out this beach, arguably the closest lovely beach habitat to Small Southern City. And if you're a once-would-be student of environmental policy as I am, you can have the knowledge that you're sitting on a beach that is actually likely to exist in twenty years, since beaches without the dunes, grasses and tress that extend beyond the sandcastle building area don't have the ability to replenish themselves naturally.

However, you will not be able to resist a fit of highly American consumerist behavior at the aquarium gift shop after seeing the amazingly wonderful creatures on display. All of the aquarium visitors seemed to be under the same money-spending spell, compulsively grabbing the extraordinarily cute stuffed animals of snapping turtles and octopi (I am now the proud owner of a fuzzy pink squid named Fred) and other animal emblemed products. All of the gift shop money supports the aquarium, so it's as close to feeling good about compulsive spending as you can probably get. One of the funniest things is that many of the items in the shop featured animals that you couldn't see at the aquarium (which features creatures from the region's aquatic habitats). I put together a gift package for my sister including a candy tube with plastic giggling dolphin cap, highly adorable sea otter socks, and a colorful little plastic poison dart frog - none of which can actually be seen on exhibit.