Snow!

It snowed much of the night and when we got up this morning there was about 3-4" on the table on the deck. It was a heavy snow so is sticking to the trees and it's just beautiful outside.


Our poor bamboo that usually stands tall at about 12+ feet is bowing down to the ground. This is the second time this season....hope it stands back up straight and tall again! It's to the left of the steps.

Meanwhile, in the front of the house the crowd has gathered with their sleds, cardboard boxes, or anything that will slide. It's a pretty wet snow, so none of the really great long runs, but alot of fun anyway.

We'll have ice on the road for a week, but it's so much fun to watch and remember back on all the fun times we had with the kids in the snow !

One more day of relaxing and then onto some serious catching up. It was a truly blessed Christmas around here. Hope it was for you too.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We got up to hot chocolate and warm cinnamon rolls and then headed for the tree (small one as we weren't here for much of the time).

Plenty of gifts under the tree and Santa made a stop too. Good thing we put out the reindeer dust. Wanted to make sure they could make it all the way to Hawaii!!

Gretchen got some cute socks in her stocking....along with lots of other cool stuff. Even Mason got cool stuff, even though he was having fun at Tammy's house.

And John got a very special gift from Colin. Colin made the frame too! John asked for Habitat of Durham donations for his Christmas present this year and some lucky homeowner is going to be very happy with his presents! Thanks everybody who sent donations!!

After opening gifts we got cleaned up and headed for 10:00 church. This was the first time we had ever been to the actual Christmas Day service. It was very nice and quite a number of strangers that we got to welcome. Then we set up for the Sunday service and headed home. Had a mini Christmas dinner with Gretchen before she headed home ahead of the predicted snow. She did end up driving through snow, but not much that was sticking to the ground. Mason was delighted to see her when she stopped by to pick him up.

John and Jean picked up a little and then skyped with Jill. It was great to see the boys all excited about their presents. What a great invention skyping was!! Following that we watched the Nutcracker performance by the North Carolina School of the Arts. Very nicely done. Then we watched the Skating Awards program...also very fun. Then an unusual Christmas dinner of Vermicelli with Garlic Shrimp and Pumpkin Pie. It was a different Christmas this year, but I think everyone enjoyed it, even though we missed the Bairds being with us! Just to top it all off, we did have a WHITE CHRISTMAS - very late in the day, but on Christmas Day nonetheless!

Heading Home

Decided to head home today as there is snow predicted. A white Christmas!! Hurray. We packed up a lot last night so only had the last minute stuff to do this morning. We drove through the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge along the way home, but didn't see anything new. Stopped in Rocky Mount for some really good BBQ and got home mid afternoon after a couple of shopping stops and the post office to pick up mail. It was a fun visit down there...very different when it's cold and not many folks around. Nice change for Christmas. Thanks Gretchen for putting up with the old folks!

Merry Christmas to all!

Jockey's Ridge State Park and shopping

Today we stayed in Nags Head and saw the sights here. It was a sunny day, but cold and the wind was really blowing. We headed to Jockey's Ridge State Park just down the road. This 400 acre park features the tallest natural sand dunes on the East Coast. Some are 85' high. Again, we had the place all to ourselves (who else would be wandering shifting sand dunes in a gale?). The blowing sand was fascinating to watch and we were all prepared for the cold, so it was an interesting walk over and between the dunes. It almost felt like we were in Antartica with the blowing snow pictures you always see. Lots cooler than when we were here several summers ago!

Gretchen

We wandered the dunes for about an hour and then headed for some shops that we'd passed that looked interesting. And then to the Outlet Mall to check out a few of those shops we hadn't done yet. Very nice day.

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge

It was a bird watching day for John and Jean and Gretchen had a day to herself to walk to the outlet mall, read (unfortunately, her book was in the car with us), and start the essential Christmas cinnamon rolls (yum!!).

John and Jean headed south to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Pea Island is nearly 6000 acres. There are several paths you can walk along beside the North Pond. This time of the year many of the migrating birds are here.

Whistling Swans - there were hundreds.

Common Pintails - also abundant.

Shoveler

Bufflehead

Back of bufflehead - the red is his foot..

Blue Heron

White Ibis

Then we saw what looked like a large flock on the water in the distance so we headed down to the end of the pond and found this....

hundreds of Redhead ducks. And hundreds more in the adjoining small ponds. They got a little nervous with us around and once one took off, the others soon followed...

but usually landed nearby.

As we headed back to the car we saw this Great White Heron as he caught his lunch....

tasty...

arguing swans....

then one more stop at the north end of North Pond...

a hunting Blue Heron...

a snow goose...

and a Double Crested Cormorant. It was a birders heaven.

We headed back to the timeshare and helped finish up the cinnamon rolls, worked on the puzzle more and generally relaxed. Great day!!

Lunar Eclipse

Gretchen woke us up at 1:30 am and we bundled up and headed for the beach to watch the lunar eclipse. What a sight! It was clear as a bell out and the waves were crashing behind us as we gazed up and watched the changing light. This was at 2:40.


And this was at 3:07 when we finally decided it was about as complete as we could handle and headed inside where it was warm to thaw out! It was about 30 degrees and a nice brisk breeze on the beach so we thought we'd done pretty well to last that long. Was great though!

Roanoke Island

Got up this morning and headed west to Roanoke Island. First stop was the Festival Park celebrating the first English settlement in America. We had the place all to ourselves except the interpreters! It was brisk, but sunny. The new Indian Village was first on the path...

This was a mat and basket weaving area where you could try your hand at the skill...

the dance circle...

There was also a longhouse, a planting and harvesting area, work shelters and a canoe making. Fun place! Then on to the Settlement Site...

The Officer's Quarters....

There were two interpretive guides in dress and character that were super! One was an Irishman who had been impressed into service when his ship was taken over by the English. He was a kick! Really did know his history of that era though and made it very interesting.

Gretchen dressed as Joan of Arc. They were quite impressed when they found she was an engineer! No end to the questions they asked her.

There was also a working blacksmith who made John a nail. Then on to the Elizabeth II sailing ship. There were three folks on the decks there to answer all our questions. It was great fun!


After touring the ship we headed to the Museum which turned out to the GREAT! It covered 400 years of Outer Banks history and almost all of it was interactive. Store fronts, ships, Indian villages with costumes you could try on and play the characters. Colin and Ryan would have loved it! There was also a movie, The Legend of Two-Path, about the Indian and English relations from the Indian viewpoint. Well done!!

Lunch was calling so we headed across the bridge to a sandwich store and then on down the walk to the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse.

This one is modeled after an 1877-1955 screwpile lighthouse that once guided mariners along a narrow channel connecting the Pamlico Sound to the Croatan Sound. It has some great exhibits highlighting Roanoke Island's lighthouse and maritime history.

Then on to the Ft. Raleigh National Historic Site, where Sir Walter Raleigh's explorers and later colonists established settlements in 1585 and 1587. It would later become known as "The Lost Colony" after the mysterious disappearance of its 116 men, women and children. Much of it is being renovated right now and not much going on. They do a wonderful Lost Colony play during the summer months.

Time to head back. We made a quick stop at the Elizabethan Gardens, but they were about to close....then on to the Christmas Store.....a huge place with lots of Christmas but also lots of nature art and photography so there was something for all of us. Gretchen and I actually sat and waited for Dad to finish looking....definitely a first for shopping!! By the time we got back the sun was just beginning to set so John raced over the steps to the beach and got these sunset pictures looking west.

then a little later he got these moon shots as it was coming up...

Then leftovers for dinner, some work on the puzzle and pictures and Holiday Inn movie on TV. Another full and fun day!

Ocracoke Island & Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Up and out the door to go visit Ocracoke Island way down at the South End of the Outer Banks. We entered the Cape Hatteras National Seashore within minutes of leaving. Drove through Bodie Island, over the bridge to the Pea island National Wildlife Refuge, then thru a few small residential towns to Hatteras Island and down to the Ocracoke Hatteras Ferry. We only had a wait a few minutes and we were on our way to Ocracoke. This gull flew by along the way.

After the 40 minute ride and some very chilly time on the deck watching the birds, we arrived and headed down to the Lighthouse on the south end of the Island. Along the way we passed the Pony Pasture where there were a few ponies near the barn. We walked across the street and over the dune on the walkway to the beach.

Great long expanses of sand and water...and not a soul in site! We really had the place all to ourselves. Then back on the road to the lighthouse.

Ocracoke Lighthouse, North Carolina's oldest operating lighthouse. It was closed, but great to walk down to. Then a brief walk through a Nature Preserve by the shore and then back up the Island to the Ferry back. On this leg there were hundreds of birds passing in front and behind us.

In this particular area some bait fish were running and the birds were just crazy going after them. There were pelicans, cormerants, gulls, and several other species. It was incredible!

And as we were coming into the dock, this nice pelican dropped in.

When we landed we stopped at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, a new one featuring pirates and many of the ships that have run aground in this area. It's brand new and still in development, but what was there was interesting.

Next stop was the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This is the tallest brick lighthouse in North America, standing at 208' high. It was moved 2780' several years ago from it's original location as the shoreline had eroded to the point that the Lighthouse would soon be in the water. They tried all kinds of dikes, barriers etc. but to no avail so finally did the controvertial move. We had been here while they were preparing for the move. Was nice to see it snuggled in and safe.


We drove down to the old location and found these cute little shorebirds wandering the area.

It was getting late so we headed home. Very fun day! In 2 days Gretchen had driven to the Northern and Southern tips of the Outer Banks!

Wright Brothers National Memorial & Currituck Beach Lighthouse

Gretchen drove to Bahama on Friday and we headed out on Saturday morning for the Outer Banks for a week at the Beach. We left on a cloudy morning and it stayed cloudy all the way there, but didn't start raining until we had the stuff unloaded into the condo. We're at a small timeshare in Nags Head right on the beach...our little house is right next to the dune, but protected from the ocean by that same dune....and this week might be a good thing! We did go out on the beach not too long after we got here and it was VERY WINDY, VERY COLD and rough waves.

This morning we got up to more clouds and wind. We attended church at St. Andrew's by the Sea just down the road in Nags Head. After Church we headed for the Wright Brothers National Memorial. When we got there we drove around the loop drive that goes around the large memorial on the top of the hill. We stopped and walked up to the Monument The 60-foot monument atop Kill Devil Hill honors the Wright brothers and marks the site of the hundreds of glider flights that preceded the first powered flight. It was a very chilly walk.

The Wright Brothers Monument

We then drove on around to the 1903 Sculpture of the flight. That was great!

The replica of Orville's first flight on that historic day. The plane and members of the support team are all there. Orville did the first flight and was up 12 seconds and went 120 feet. Then Wilbur flew for 12 seconds and went 175 feet. Orville then did the third for 15 seconds and 200 feet and then Wilbur did the fourth for 59 seconds and 852 feet!

Gretchen helping Orville on his first flight.

They had actually had a big celebration last Friday commemorating the December 17th historic flight--they didn't look nearly as bundled up as we were!!

The rail the plane moved down before take off. The statue of Wilbur is to the right.

We then headed into the Visitor's Center where they have a full scale reproduction of the 1902 glider and the 1903 flying machine. We were about the only people here so the Ranger there really gave us a great talk about how the wing worked etc. Excellent!!

Replica of the 1903 flying machine.

Anemometer, timer and compass they used to time their flights etc.

Then a quick trip through the museum and then on up the road to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla. There is a wonderful park there. Unfortunately the Lighthouse was closed (as is much on the Outer Banks at this time of the year), but we were able to walk onto the grounds and get some good pictures - and we had the whole place to ourselves.

There is a wooden bridge with some impressive beam work that crosses one of the small streams


that runs into the Atlantic and leads over to the Whalehead Club, a historic hunt club from the 20's, so we wandered over there and then along the coast and back to the car...another chilly walk, but the sun was out by then.

Lighthouse from the park.

We had a pretty sunset on the way back up the Island and when we got home the moon was out so we hopped over the stairway to the beach and got this nice moon on the water shot.

A quick dinner and we brought out the games and played for awhile before we hit the sack. Nice day....good things we brought our woolies!