One of my favorite events all year in this wonderful coastal town, is the Annual Saint Patrick's Day Festival. Turnout is expected to be around 20,000! The event takes place in the Emerald Plantation Shopping Center, in the eastern part of town. Physical address is 8700 Emerald Drive, Emerald Isle, NC 28594.

The festival is always on the Saturday prior to Saint Patrick's Day, which falls on Saturday, March 14th, 2009. The event is scheduled to occur between the hours of 9am- 5pm.

There is a kid zone, filled with rides for the younger revelers. Children ages 2-5 are eligible to participate in the Little Leprechaun Contest.

For the adults, there is a beer garden, with tables, chairs and great music. There is a midway, with wonderful food and drink, featuring Irish and coastal foods. This year, we are scheduled to have over 75 vendors selling authentic handmade arts & crafts, and their will be three separate stages featuring live entertainment. Be sure to catch Barefoot Wade, and Pamlico Joe. They are two of my favorites!

Island Dave and I look forward to celebrating Saint Patrick's Day with you, so please try to attend this wonderful festival!

This photo is (left to right- Lucy and Flower)
I've read several reviews online about Emerald Isle shops,and the comments about Planet Wear always mention the beautiful dachshund, Flower.
Flower is the canine companion of Sarah (Manager of Planet Wear). Lucy is Flower's country cousin.
Both Sarah and Flower are bright, kind and beautiful! Stop in and say hello!

Make sure and bookmark this blog! Let us know if there are any other people/animals/businesses that you would like to see featured on "Life in Emerald Isle!"

One of our favorite shops in Emerald Isle, is Planet Wear. It is located in the Emerald Plantation Shopping Center, just east of Food Lion. You just never know what you might find. I go in several times each week to chat as well as shop.

Often, I discover something that I've never seen in Planet Wear before! When I ask the shop owners, Linda and Phil were they found a specific artefact, they say, "Tiffiney, it's been here for the last six months!"

I find unique hats, hippie and island clothing, the most beautiful rainbow tie dyes which are created by Linda and Phil in their island studio. They sell purses, fairy and dragon statues, homemade hemp jewelry, body jewelry and some of the nicest sterling silver Irish Claddagh pendants and semi precious stones as well.

They also have a wonderful selection of incense for burning and smudging, as well.

I highly recommend visiting Planet Wear to find that unique gift for your loved ones back home.

While Emerald Isle is primarily a small family vacation town with few shopping centers, the main Emerald Plantation shopping center (where Food Lion is) offers a nice variety of stores.

Two of our favorites in town are both in Emerald Plantation. Compass Rose and Planet Wear offer some of the most unique items you will find in Emerald Isle. Planet Wear is a true hippy shop, with loads of hand-made tie-dyes (made by the Planet Wear owners), as well as more consumer-oriented Liquid Blue tie-dyes, hemp jewelry, gorgeous skirts and dresses, incense and accessories, and all sorts of interesting trinkets and baubles.

Compass Rose (right) is a new age shoppe located behind Planet Wear and across the walkway. This mystical hole in the wall offers an extensive selection of silver jewelry, sun face art, statues, mystical power accessories, books, soothing new age music CDs, tarot items, incense, and much much more. Don't miss the frequent guest readers that frequent Compass Rose.

If you stop by either shop during your stay in Emerald Isle, make sure to tell Linda (right) or Phil that Dave and Tiff sent you!

You can still purchase a copy of the book Celebrating 50 Years of Emerald Isle, 1957-2007. This book is a wonder collection of stories, photos, and history of this great island town.

A supply of the Emerald Isle 50th Birthday commemorative books are again available while supplies last!

"Celebrating 50 Years of Emerald Isle, 1957-2007". Coffee Table Book of a pictorial history of Emerald Isle including local landmarks from the past and present, indigenous recipes, community tales and a pinch of political history.

To place an order please call or email Jeff Walston, Account Executive with VistaGraphics, Inc. at 252.393.6906 / toll free at 800.422.0742 or email: jwalston@vgnet.com

Emerald Isle residents are often newcomers, having arrived in the last 10 years, but the town's history goes back to the 1950s:

The Western most thirteen miles of the Bogue Banks barrier island of the Southern Outer Banks was purchased in 1951 from Mrs. Anita Fort Maulik of Philadelphia. The total purchase price of $350,000, the largest ever recorded in Carteret County at the time, was offered by seven investors from the Red Springs area of Southeastern North Carolina.