A TRIP DOWN TO DOWN TO NORTH CAROLINA - PART 2

No Monday Morning recipe today as I have quite a few posts to share with you. I can honestly say we were on the go the whole time we were together, and didn’t make anything except for a very simple meal on Easter Sunday. 

Every day we gave them a few choices as to what they would like to do. We went to the National Air and Space Museum-Steven F. Udvar Hazy, where Gregg deposited me at the cafe for another sit-down. I drank a cup of coffee and Gregg joined me shortly afterwards. We waited for a while until our family had a good chance to walk around and joined us. For me it was fun seeing all the activity, people and families going back and forth. I will share the photos they took eventually.  

We gave them three days to relax and then traveled to North Carolina, staying with Gregg's sister and husband. It took us about 7 to 7-1/2 hours to get there. A good journey considering. It was so kind of them opening up their home to us all and thanks to them, we had a great time.Gregg's sister loves collecting shells and sees the beauty even in the broken ones. I agree as I thought those displayed in this vase were delightful. She has more upstairs, whole ones. She also gave me two conch shells a few years ago that are still treasures on our family room bookshelf.

I found this online. You can enlarge all photos for better detail.

One of the days we found ourselves at Bodie Island Lighthouse.

 Our niece with Uncle Gregg.

Here she is again.

I am including three maps showing the location of the lighthouse.

The current Bodie Island Lighthouse (Bodie is pronounced 'body') is the third that has stood in this vicinity of Bodie Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and was built in 1872.

It stands 156 feet (48 m) tall and is located in the Roanoke Sound side of a portion of peninsula that is the first part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The lighthouse is just south of Nags Head, a few miles before Oregon Inlet.

It was renovated from August 2009 to March 2013, and was made climbable by the public. There are 219 steps that spiral to the top. 

The 170-feet structure is one of only a dozen remaining tall, brick tower lighthouses in the United States, and one of the few with an original first-order Fresnel lens to cast its light. 

You can read a lot more of its history at this website, which is where I got the above information.

On the itinerary? A sunrise! They got up at 0-dark-thirty. I again stayed at home as not only wasn't I able to walk too far at all but walking on the sand in the dark would have been an accident waiting to happen, so I was very happy to get a peck on the cheek from Gregg upon which I slide back under those nice, warm, cozy covers. His sister took them to the beach. I enjoyed the conversation later telling me all about it.

Our dear niece, photo taken by Gregg...

and another he took of the rest of the family watching the sun appear over the horizon.

With Uncle Gregg again.

Brother and sister who always enjoy each other’s company. They are looking forward to getting together with their other brother not too far down the road.

These photos were taken by various family members. Looks like they had a wonderful time.

That's all for Part 2 and more to follow.

Thanks for looking and I hope your day is a great one.

HAPPY 1ST DAY OF MAY - OUT AND ABOUT WITH THE DUCKIES

On Sunday, we drove over to our favorite Vietnamese place where we both ordered a bahn mi. My dear other half was first introduced to Vietnamese food by a colleague when he first moved to Virginia to start his new job in 1990 (navy career first, then this civilian job here and now retired from his last job for many years). Pho soup was the first dish. Our son and I arrived several months later. We delayed our arrival so that he could finish his school year. These little snippets of information are probably repeats, so apologies if you remember them from before. When we arrived, dear other half introduced us to Pho Soup soon after. Years later while commuting back and forth from Washington DC every day, he got super hungry half-way home. He saw this place and we have been going to it off and on ever since. 

It is the best one we have ever had and even though we don't get it that often, as it's quite a trek to get there, we don't go anywhere else for this particular sandwich. Below you will see an old photo just to show you what it looks like. (We had a chuckle later on the same day of our latest trip. This same bahn mi photo popped up on his computer. It said 'here is where you were exactly one year ago', and just by coincidence, here we were again.)

It is a meatball sandwich made out of pork, nothing fancy to look at but take my word for it, it is a taste sensation. Nothing like the Italian meatball because of the seasonings. Those strips of veggies, carrots, cucumber, daikon radish and cilantro (maybe not the cilantro) are slightly pickled. There are also slices of hot pepper, sometimes mild, sometimes not so much. We also always enjoy our car picnic in the shop’s parking lot. It is our special treat. Moving on! 

We have the loan of a truck for a little while thanks to family, and they told us we could use it as much as we liked. Very grateful as we are downsizing and have so many things to take to places where they might make good use of what we no longer use or need. Things that are beyond use, we will be taking to our local refuse center. (We started this process quite a while ago but are now able to gather momentum thanks to the truck.)

In the meantime, I thought I would introduce you to the ducky family. Not real duckies of course, just the ones on the dashboard. I didn't know this before and those of you who have jeeps probably do, but when you are out and about, you might come back and find a yellow rubber duck resting on the hood. The family has accumulated quite a collection, as you will see in these photos, and no doubt they have given their fair share.

Shells also but those are a separate collection.

So, for the next week plus, we have adopted 11 rubber duckies!

Welcome to our family duckies. We will take good care of you!

This is the day we went to the garden center so I will share more of those photos soon.

I have my eye on a Dogwood tree, but we are still trying to figure out what would thrive in the spot we want to put it in. It remains to be seen what type of tree will end up there.

That's all for today! Thanks for sticking with me to the end of my ramble. Happy First Day of May to you all, and have a wonderful month!

A TRIP DOWN TO COROLLA AND SEASHELLS, LOTS OF SEASHELLS...

and one Horseshoe Crab.

 We have been in Corolla on the Outerbanks of North Carolina for a few days, spending time with Gregg's sister.  One of the things we have in common is that we both love to look at seashells, and she found many to show me on her early morning walks along the beach.  I was absolutely delighted with them.  Those I will share another time.

 This exhibit was found at a visitor center on one of our rides around the area.

 I have always found the Horseshoe Crab fascinating, and prehistoric looking.  Unfortunately I have never seen a live one, just the one in this exhibit and one or two on the beach over the years.

 The other thing I found fascinating and don't remember ever seeing them before, or maybe I have but thought it was seaweed or something, is the Whelk egg case.  In each section of those 'discs' there can be up to 99 tiny whelks.  This is also commonly known as a Mermaid Necklace.  You can read more at this link.

 If you enlarge each photo you can see them in better detail.

I found an interesting video on YouTube which I embedded below.  If you can't see the video you can find it at this link.

Added note: with thanks for Martha Ellen's comment, that the Horseshoe Crab is not actually a crab. Forever curious I found more information at the link here where it says that these fascinating creatures are closer related to spiders and scorpions than to the crab.  Thank you Martha Ellen!   

And thank you for looking. Have a great week!

COROLLA NORTH CAROLINA TRIP - 5TH DAY - 9-5-17 - PART 1 - SUNSET

Corolla, North Carolina Trip - Fifth Day - Part 1

Sunrise 
Wright Brothers' Memorial
Lost Colony

Tuesday, September 5th, 2017

It is now 6.50 p.m. and I am back at the house.  I got up today for the sunrise. Gregg almost had to see it on his own as he left before me, with me mumbling some poor excuse about being too tired.  I mumble things incoherently when I am almost all-the-way asleep.  However, after he left I could not bear the thought of him seeing that sunrise on his own.  I heard the door close and I had immediate regret, so I kicked my lazy butt out of bed and dressed faster than I usually do, literally throwing clothes on, raced down to the beach without any thought of twisted ankles - I have a history - had momentary panic when I couldn't see him, but looked and looked and there he was.  

I snuck up behind him and gave him a big hug, experiencing a few seconds of thought that I might be hugging a complete stranger.  I have been known to rush up to someone - rarely thank the powers - pat them on the back, chatting away for what seems like an eternity,  thinking it was Gregg - that happened not so long ago - only to be greeted by a  strange face in complete shock at being accosted by, whomever he thought I was.  I don't blush too often but when I blush I am my own sunrise, and it was a wee bit dark that morning.  I needn't have worried.  Gregg saw me coming as he had a big smile on his face and he wasn't surprised.  He knows me better than I know myself at times.  A few minutes later here comes the sun.  Surreal!  

"Sunrise offered a very beautiful spectacle; the water was quite unruffled, but the motion communicated by the tides was so great that, although there was not a breath of air stirring, the sea heaved slowly with a grand and majestic motion."

~George Grey~

These are all Gregg's sunrise photos.  I have some of my own which I will share at a later date.

It was a lovely time at the beach in that very special light. There were a few other sun worshippers.   

As it got lighter we could see a familiar figure approaching.  It was Gregg's sister.

We had a nice time chatting for a while....

  

and watched as these two cute dogs trotted by. 

They were certainly enjoying their walk.

Gregg and his sister took a walk further up the beach and I meandered back to the house, taking lots of photos along the way,

 finding a few shells,

I thought this was some kind of seaweed and was very surprised to find that it was an egg casing for a skate.  I would like to spend more time at the beach to improve my knowledge of such things.

I came across the following here and here which gives more information.



I came across the remains of a horseshoe crab earlier.  I look forward to the day when I can see a live one.

I see traces of those ghost crabs again...

and occasionally see them scurrying down into burrows as I walk along the path back to the house.  

The dunes are high and you can't see the ocean when you reach the bottom level.  It is very private and incredibly pretty.  

There is a row of sea oats on the top of the dunes, and I believe this pink flower, quite tiny, is a perennial sand bean.  These and the other fauna keep me well occupied.  I am not sure what the spiky plant is.

I believe these are pokeweed berries.  There is an interesting article at this link.

We have a private entrance and there is no one else to disturb my thoughts, and no one awake in the house yet.  Once I had finished searching for wildflowers and ghost crabs, I found a comfortable chair and sat outside for a while enjoying the peacefulness of it all, looking up at the dunes and the pretty glow that still filled the sky.  It was a perfect time of the day to do this.  I stayed there for a half hour or so, before going in and getting ready for another day of sight-seeing.