North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland

We left on May 10th and headed to Kure Beach, NC where we stayed for three nights at Fort Fisher.  We took Route 1 most of the way, the scenic route.

 

 We took the Ferry from Southport, NC and just missed the 4:45 pm one by 3 minutes and had to wait 1 1/2 hours for the next and last one.  The time flew though and we were on our way across the Cape Fear River with the RV.  Bill talked to another passenger the whole time while I took pictures. 

Once we arrived at the Rv campground it was almost dark so we set up the RV and as it got dark a hail storm came in...they were close to golf ball size but luckily there was no damage to the RV. 

Ty didn't like it one bit. 

We had some dinner, watched TV and retired for the night. 

The next day we went to Wilmington about 1/2 hour away and had some breakfast at the Cape Fear Bakery.  The French Toast was really good....must have been since I ate it all. 

We then walked along the Cape Fear River on the river walk and Chandlers Wharf taking pictures of course.

This is the North Carolina Battleship

Bill looked up an old Coastie friend and left him a message that we were in his neck of the woods.  He called back and we made plans to meet for dinner that night.  When we got back to the campground I went for a bike ride down to Fort Fisher State Historic Park.  There was a nice path along the water and farther south was the North Carolina Aquarium. 

This duck was actually taking a nap!

When I got back we got ready and left to meet Mike and Patsy for dinner at Michaels Seafood in Kure Beach.
We had a really good meal, especially the Clam Chowder which they had won awards for.  I believe it was the best I have ever had...nice and chunky and the clams were so fresh and good.  Bill and Mike had a good time reminiscing as well as Patsy who knew Bill from the Coast Guards days also.

The next day we drove down to the point of Fort Fisher and walked out on the breakwater.  Bill and Ty walked out pretty far but I decided to turn back as the waves seemed to be getting rougher.  They got a little wet but not too bad.

We then went to the Aquarium and spend a few hours going through and taking pictures. The Albino Aligator does not look real in the pictures but it really was! I had never seen one of those before....very cool.

The next day we left for Elizabeth City, NC where were would stay at the Coast Guard Base RV Park.  We first tried to find the house Bill rented with some other coasties when he was stationed here back in the late 1970's but he could not find it and ended up turning down a road where we could not turn around.  I was not too happy as I was hungry and wanting to get to our destination.  He unhooked the car from the RV, turned it around and loaded the car back up.  We got to the park around 7:30.  It was a really nice RV Park right on the Pasquotank River.

 It was quiet and we hardly ever saw any of the other campers out and about even though the weather was really nice.   We went to downtown Elizabeth City the next day and walked around the historic town a little.

 Bill was amazed how much it had not changed in over 30 years, it was kind of run down except for the park on the water and a few businesses. 

We had lunch at a place called Bob-B-Que, a small restaurant outside of the downtown area that had some really good barbeque pulled pork.   Bill got in touch with one of his old buddies from the Coast Guard and we were invited over for dinner.  George and Pauline had a very nice house in E-City and we had a delicious meal and stayed late talking.  It was really nice meeting them and hearing them all talk about the early days in the Coast Guard.  (Again!  I forgot to take pictures!)

The following day we drove down to Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which was about 2 hours from where we were staying but it was a beautiful drive through Kitty Hawk and Nags Head.

We visited the lighthouse walking up 248 steps to the top where it was quite windy.  Boy was I winded...can't believe how out of shape I am!  They were monitoring the winds and it was getting close to when we would have to got back down and they would close the lighthouse. 

This was a pretty interesting story as they had moved the lighthouse from it's original location down the beach to it's current location because of the beach corrosion.  It took alot of planning to move it but they did it without any cracks in the lighthouse. 



I was at the site where the lighthouse was originally

We then had lunch at a place called Diamond Shoals Restaurant and had some awesome seafood.  We bought some Ahi Tuna filets and took them back to the RV which turned out to be really good and fresh.  Yummmm. 

We then came to the town of Rodanthe and right from the road you could see the house they used in the movie "Nights in Rodanthe" with Richard Gere and Diane Lane.

On our way back there were alot of wind surfers out here and we stopped and watched and took pictures for a few minutes before going to the Bodie Island Lighthouse. 

We did not go up in the lighthouse but we did walk across the boardwalk through the marshes to an overlook.  There were lots of birds and the scenery was awesome. 

We headed out the next day,  May 17 and headed to Williamsburg, Virginia to stay at the bases RV Park.  There were only 16 sites and we had only booked two nights  We set up and Bill went and rented a bike at the MWR.  We took a bike ride around the base and then over to the trail around the lake, however we found out a little later that we were not on the trail but on the dirt road used for vehicles. 

We went back to the campsite and decided we would do the right trail the next day.  It was a nice day on Wednesday so we biked on the trail.  I saw a turkey and when it saw me I scared it so much it kept trying to fly out of the trees and I was afraid it was going to break its wings!  I kept riding on down the trail to get away from it and as I looked back it was okay and walking on the trail. 

Turtles on the Lake

We had been to Williamsburg before so we did not do any of the normal sightseeing touristy things

.  We wanted to stay an extra night there and Bill was able to get a sight that they said the prior occupant had left early.  We moved over to that sight and set up and had dinner.  About 9:20 pm when we were watching TV, we got a visitor at the door.  As it turned out the occupant had not left but had a Camper Van as his only vehicle and he and his daughter had gone sightseeing for the day and was just returning.  Boy was he mad when he found out what happened.  Luckily there was one sight available and he ended up going there for the night. 

 We left on Friday and headed to Fredericksburg, VA where we stayed at Lee and Ruth's house for two nights.

They have an awesome house on the Rappahannock River nice and secluded with a very large piece of property.

 Their dog Sebastian liked having Ty around and they followed each other some of the time and others just ignored each other.   He did not know what to think of Lucky.

  We went downtown and had dinner at a very good Italian Restaurant and went to a local bar to  listen to music and meet a few of their friends. 

 Lee took us to a local brewery where we did some tasting and he filled several of his grawlers with different beers for the weekend.   Lee made breakfast for us on Saturday and Bill made dinner on Saturday night and we ate out on the deck overlooking the River.   The weather was great, a little warm during the day but nice that night.  We went downtown to listen to some friends of theirs who were musicians playing at an Irish Pub.  They were very good and it got very crowded at times while they played.  We stay until after midnight after they stopped playing and talked for a while. 

We left Sunday morning to head to Annapolis, MD to visit Bill's brother George and Julie for 11 days.
 We arrived in the afternoon after dumping the RV tanks at the base.  Julie was the only one there as George and Kelly Jean had gone up to Long Island for the birth of their Grandson/Nephew.

 Bill made Gumbo for dinner and we just hung out at the house for the evening.  The next afternoon George and Kelly came home and Bill made his Churasco and black beans and Rice.  As usual it was delicious and they all raved about it.   The next night we went out to dinner with George at Cape St. Claire at The Broadneck Grill where Bill really enjoyed his dinner.....can you tell?

Wednesday we went to Julie's Grandma's Funeral Service....we were trying to figure out the last time Bill had a suit and tie on and we think it may have been my nephew Anthony and Chrissy's wedding in 2008!

Afterward we went to Ellicott City with Jeano and had a few drinks instead of being stuck in traffice to get back to the house.

 On Monday Memorial Day we had a party with many family and friends...boy was it hot that day.  A heat wave was upon us as we drank, ate, played Golf Toss and Wiffle Ball and sweat alot!  There was so much food we had to eat it for the next two days and there was still alot left. (I forgot to take pictures!)

 Julie did a good job picking out some plants with this pretty Bouganvillea on the left and some hanging baskets of annuals.  I really liked the bird birdbath. 

We left Thursday, June 2nd and headed to Colts Neck, New Jersey.