 |
| Ocracoke Lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse in NC. |
 |
| Beautiful Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 208 ft, the tallest brick beacon in the U.S. Due to the shifting beaches, this was moved 1/2 mile in 1999 so it is now the same distance from the ocean as it was in 1870. Took 23 days to move. |
 |
| That's our RV viewed from the ocean side beach, over the beautiful dunes. Ocracoke campground - Cape Hatteras National Seashore. |
 |
| sunrise |
 |
| So THAT'S how you surf fish... |
 |
| Our campground at Frisco, another National Park campground in the dunes. |
 |
| Looks like they are moving... |
 |
| The weather here is really hard on beach houses... |
 |
| Fishing pier at Rodanthe |
 |
| Beach houses at Rodanthe |
 |
| Aerial picture of what storms can do to these islands - drill a new inlet right through them. This was 2003. |
 |
| Beach at Waves, NC I love all the colored umbrellas. |
 |
| You carry your fishing rods on your front bumper... |
 |
| There's a pelican watching you eat your seafood lunch... |
 |
| You can compare your size with the skull bone of a whale... |
 |
| You look out the motorhome window and there's a ferry passing you... |
 |
| Great bike ride at dusk through a big salt marsh at Cedar Point Campground |
 |
| Loved this Forest Service campground with big yards, friendly neighbors who play Corn-hole and invited us to a big pot luck Chicken Marsala dinner. |
 |
| Fishing pier at Emerald Isle |
 |
| Beaches here are so BEAUTIFUL! Clean white sand, turquoise water. |
 |
| Carolina Beach |
 |
| That's the swimsuit I would like to wear...neon orange! |
 |
| Trolley tours (we've now been on 7 - Eureka Springs & Little Rock in AR, Memphis & Chattanooga in TN, Asheville, Wilmington and New Bern in NC - in the past month). We love them! |
 |
| Boat tours (our 4th this month - Loch Lomond & Beaver Lake in AR, Tennessee River in Chattanooga & Cape Fear River in NC) That is old downtown Wilmington in this picture. |
 |
| Shopping! Oh, Gregg LOVES it! (He walked right by that sign & didn't even chuckle...) |
 |
| Crab cake lunch along the International Waterway - mostly crab, not mostly bread crumb. Yummm! Fresh mahi mahi for Gregg. |
 |
| Great performance of the musical Legally Blonde at the Thalian Theater, operating continuously since 1855. |
 |
| Incredible tour of the USS North Carolina Battleship |
 |
| The amphibian on board that Gregg wishes he could fly... |
 |
| We got to go into the gun turrets. Fascinating - claustrophobic. I walked onto the ship thinking I could have enjoyed doing service at sea myself. I changed my mind during the tour...what hard work and close quarters! |
 |
| Beds over the desks in some of the quarters. No space wasted... |
 |
| HUGE anchor. There is a tiny white speck above the right side of it that is Gregg's shirt in the background. The ship is VAST. About 2,300 personnel were aboard when at war in WWII in the Pacific. |
 |
| Now, on to New Bern, NC, about 80 miles N of Wilmington. The 2nd oldest community in NC, begun in 1710. This building is the stable and carriage house of the first NC governor's palace, Tryon Palace. This building survived a 1798 fire that destroyed the rest of the complex. About 80% of its bricks are still the originals from 1700's. Amazingly, the rest of the complex was rebuilt and refurnished with authentic 1700's artifacts in the 1950's at a cost of about $3.5 million. The tour of the area is incredibly interesting. |
 |
| Formal gardens at Tryon Palace |
 |
| My camera couldn't capture it, but at the end of this long arbor is a view of the Trent River - gorgeous. |
 |
| Trolley tour in town taught us a lot. That is a walkway for chimney sweeps - not a Widow's Walk as most would think. |
 |
| Cemetery is interesting with grave stones old enough that the 6 pointed star was still in use within the Christian cross, rather unusual. |
 |
| Grand Union flag on one of the houses - the first national flag of the US in 1760's. |
 |
| New Bern is where pharmacist "Brad" Bradham invented Pepsi Cola. It's also the hometown of author Nicholas Sparks. Small community of about 28,000 with interesting old downtown street of shopping and restaurants, rivers, history - loved it there! |
 |
| Maria and I went to dinner one night. The necklace I am wearing is one that she gave me, made by her daughter Perla who is an artist that works with woven glass. It's gorgeous! See her work at http://www.site.perlasegovia.com/ |
 |
| Battleship USS North Carolina across the Cape Fear River from downtown historic Wilmington, NC |
Celebrated the first night here with a fantastic dinner with a fantastic view at Oceanic Restaurant at Wrightsville Beach.
One reason for our being here - visiting our Peruvian family. Maria was an exchange student from Peru in 1966, living for 2 months with Sally's family. They are now NC residents and SO gracious and interesting. We have loved spending time with them.
