Wilmington, Carolina Beach and Southport North Carolina

Pulling up stakes, we headed down SC Highway 17 intent to spend some time on Carolina Island and the surrounding area. The USS North Carolina, a WWII battleship, now a floating museum in Wilmington, was one destination I didn't want to pass by. We decided to tour the Battleship before going to the RV park on Carolina Island. I suspect that I am not the only person who has a constant interest with anything associated with WWII, now heightened by my Kansas City visit to the WWI memorial this past November.
Of course, each ship we tour dad has to check out the dentist's office.

Yes, there was a lot to see and read, but one of the things I notice are the unusual, like this door latch. What a feat of engineering in itself.

Surgery table, two at once???

I liked Carolina Beach, its island and the surrounding area.

A short ferry ride to Southport was also well worth it. Southport would be good living, charming and friendly. I took my bike with us and I very much enjoyed riding through its streets looking at its historic homes and its sea views. I even came across a boat that sunk, an outline still visible years later.

Carolina Island beaches were some of our best shelling collecting area so far!

I will say "goodnight" with this parting picture. Next entry will take us to Myrtle Beach, New Year bonfire, and who knows what!

Remembering Christmas 2011

Ho, Ho, Ho

New Bern is within an easy drive distance to our next destination, Sneads Ferry with daughter, Sarah, son-in-law, Simon and two little grand-boys, Tristan and Xander. Sneads Ferry lies a little away from Jacksonville, North Carolina, home of Camp LeJeune, a large Marine Corp Base where Simon is stationed. We had looked forward to the visit for months and we were glad it was all working out to spend Christmas 2011 with the young family. The last time I saw the young boys, the youngest was just a week old so I had a lot of pent of grandpa need! Louise felt the same. We were looking forward to some good visiting and a lot of fun, and we had enjoyed both. We went to the beach, the park, a special working farm and, of course, the play ground. Sarah fixed a special Christmas Day dinner which left all very satisfied. Some Christmas gifts caught up to us as well, an extra treat.

Opening Gifts

Xander was very happy for his brother's Christmas gift, a tricycle!

Brother, Tristan, was enamored with his train board set, here playing with his daddy

And a couple more pictures of grand kids, just because...

Leading up to Christmas, we all went out to Mike' Farm, a working farm that also happens to be an attraction including dinner, farm animals, and a Christmas hay ride. It reminded Louise and I of Knotts Berry Farm in South California in its early days prior to it growth into an amusement park. The farm is just outside of Jacksonville.

We enjoyed spending the week with Simon and Sarah and the kids. We miss them already. Here, Tristan taking a stroll on the beach with grandma Louise...

Thank you Simon and Sarah for your open invite to spend Christmas with you. We look forward to our next visit and we love you all! I suspect Tristan's towers will even be greater! Soon he will need two sets of Jinga Blocks.

New Bern NC

My last entry skipped an interesting fact I thought I would now share with you. When we were on the outer bank islands in North Carolina we noticed that the newer construction built homes and businesses up on stilts, up to a full 11 feet higher than ground level. Asking at the information center in the town of Ocracoke why such a height, the man stated that it was based on the last 100 years storm surge flood levels! It is hard for me to wrap my head around such a storm, but even if it covered four or five feet of ground, it would cover practically all the land surface of these outer bank islands of North Carolina. I was told by this same gentleman (and others in subsequent conversations) that the old time locals stay put in their homes during these hurricanes with their storm surges, it's just something you live through. Fine for them; I would go inland myself. The picture above is the port of Ocracoke, view facing east. It gives you a sense of the low flat land. No hills here. Despite its low lying disposition, I found Ocracoke to be a very pretty pleasant town with a rich maritime history. A small section of the old town still have homes that were made from salvaged shipwrecks, like the one pictured below.

New Bern. Heading inland from the outer banks of Hatteras and Roanoke Islands, our destination initially was New Bern, NC. New Bern was one of the earliest settlement of North Carolina, settled by some Swiss from Bern, Switzerland, thus the name. We stayed at a KOA just north of town, a pleasant park with a fishing dock that looked across the inlet to the old downtown. I already shared with you one of its sunsets, but here is another that greated us that evening.

Up to this point, New Bern town holds the cake for the most historical markers along its roadsides and in its downtown area many of the homes have historic plaques of famous people who were residents. Here are a couple of examples, including a picture of an old Episcopal church in the New World, dating back to 1750.

My overall impression was that New Bern would be a decent place to live. It is a bit inland but finger of water allow this town to be also a pleasure boat town with access to the ocean. Next entry, Christmas with family: Simon, Sarah, Tristan and Xander in Snead Ferry. Lots of fun.

History Made - Two Firsts

Let's start this blog with a happy guy, my dad, Floyd. He loves collecting and categorizing his shells! When we beach-comb he spends hours stuffing his pockets with "precious finds."

In my last blog I promised more pictures, namely of our time at the Wright Brothers National Memorial Park and that of the lost colony at Roanoke. Let's jump in...

The memorial, just outside the beach town of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, is located on the grounds where the first power flight was conducted by the Wright Brothers 108 years ago. We happened on the museum on its anniversary date of that historic flight, the one day out of the year the admission is free! How is that for off-season luck?

These two brothers owned a printing business and a bicycle shop. They were self-taught and actually built their own engine to propel the Kitty Hawk. The next two pictures show this replica from different angles. There is no original surviving Kitty Hawk we learned because after the fourth successful flight, while trying to put the plane away in its hanger, the wind picked it up and tumbled it into a rubble heap. Indeed, this was a bitter-sweet days for the Wright brothers.

What most impressed me about studying the replica and hearing the lecture was how complicated this simple craft really was. The controls were ingenious, the construction was strong, but lightweight. These two brothers would build very small models and they built a compact wind tunnel unit to test their models. They chose the outer bank island because of its constant wind yet temperate climate.

Modern day kite flying on the same grounds just outside of the museum. I just may have to take up the hobby; it looked like it was good exercise and a lot of fun!

I would highly recommend a stop off at this memorial, it is educational and inspiring. These two brothers dared to do what no one thought possible.

Upon leaving the outer banks of North Carolina we decided to stop off on Roanoke Island and visit the site of the Lost Colony. Complete with a visitor's center and self-guided tour of the grounds, we gained a sense of the history of the area, and what a risk it was for those brave souls, men, women and children who ventured into the New World. At the Visitor's Center I picked up my next book, A Kingdom Strange, The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, by James Horn. This book published in 2010 promises to be an up-to-date read on not only the history of the failed colony, but also what they are discovering about the missing folk, the colony of less than three years in the making and all of its inhabitants gone without a trace - until recently, perhaps. It appears that those original inhabitants may have joined local tribes of the area. Hints of such lay in early accounts of light-skinned blue-eyed natives found and one tribe that a hundred years later spoke a form of English. Modern day genetic testing is now being performed to connect the dots.

This is the site of the first English settlement on the North American continent.

The Visitor's Center displayed a number of reproductions of drawing and painting made during the time of settlement. Many of these drawings hung in a room that was once a part of Heronden Hall in England around the 1580s. Well-to-do English lived in homes much like this one so well preserved; wood paneled and a colorfully decorated ceiling. A far cry from the first Indian settlement encountered near Roanoke Island of the same time period.

The subjects for the next blog will be New Bern, North Carolina and Christmas the family at Sneads Ferry. Upcoming blogs will include Mytle Beach, South Carolina on New Years Eve and the largest bonfire I have witnessed, two visits to a delightful sculpture garden and zoo called Brookgreen Gardens, and Pawleys Island. Tomorrow, we head for the charming southern city of Charleston, South Carolina, where we plan to stay for a full week exploring its rich history, museums, architecture and culture. I will end with this picture of a sunset over New Berne. We arrived just in the nick of time to catch the site.

Cape Hatteras, Ocracote Island and Further South

A Happy New Year's greeting!!!

Yes, I did take that picture! A Happy New Years greeting to you'all from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Today, January 1, 2012, marks my one year anniversary of retirement, and the day could not have been better. It almost reach 70F here and the beach was perfect for a long bike ride. Louise and dad walked the beach twice during the day and collected various seashells. We started the day with a campground church service under the pier and finished up the evening by going out and sharing a pizza celebrating a new year.

I hope each of you will have a special year ahead, and I want to thank all of you who have encouraged me in my writing and photography. I just need to figure out how to make some money doing it, to help defray the costs of such a traveling adventure. Perhaps a good bike ride will clear my head and I will come up with more concrete ideas! I am serious, sort of.

Well, let's get caught up on our travels. The three of us were due at our daughter's home for Christmas and had a few days to enjoy the upper coast of North Carolina. We chose to go to Cape Hatteras Island area for those days. While there, we took in a ferry and road trip to Ocracoke Island to the south, visited the Wright Brothers Memorial museum and site of their world famous first motorized flight, to the north. We also visited Roanoke Island and toured the site of the first english speaking settlement (albeit short-lived) in the Americas.

We stayed at a KOA RV park on this outer bank island which was offering a post-hurricane Katrina special rate while they reconstructed the majority of their park. Wood cabins had floated off their foundations, facilities needed to be rebuilt and all the electric connections replaced. They had 20 sites open and hundreds closed. The little town of Rodanthe was hit especially hard. The beautiful community has suffered and several of its homes were damaged beyond repair, mainly due to erosion to their sandy foundations. These outer bank islands are made of sand, several miles out in the ocean and just a few feet higher than normal tides. They are a hardy sort out here. Undaunted by the destruction, we beach-combed, biked, and did a lot of sight-seeing, and oh yes, laundry. One evening, upon our return from Ocracoke Island we caught a sunset to remember, so pink that it colored the waves! It had a chill in the air, but the beauty warmed our hearts.

Dad walking the beach. Something her very much loves doing.

Little protects the island from storms, but they try.

The storm breached the island. Here is a picture of the temporary bridge.

We asked a Canadian man from Nova Scotia to take this picture of us.

Lighthouses were critical in early years navigating the treacherous waters; much shoaling takes place in waters east and west of the islands. Many a ship were lost, its crew and its treasure.

The blue house is leaning. Before the storm it had been behind an artificial sand barrier, but now the island is giving way to the sea

Well, it is getting late once again so the rest of the pictures will need to wait. Stay tuned for the Wright Brothers and the Lost Colony of Roanoke. And then there is Christmas! I need to run off now!