We had never been to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, so back in the spring we decided to check out the place. I started doing some searches on the Internet and suggested to stay in bed and breakfasts rather than hotels/motels. So after studying the map book (we actually have an atlas) we came up with an itinerary.
We left early on Sund
ay morning taking I-20 East, then we took I-95 North. Our first stop was Tarboro, North Carolina. This town was established in 1790. It was a really nice town. We stayed at The Main Street Inn, which was extremely nice. The Innkeepers were Denise and Stewart Sanderson. When we made the reservations Denise told us they would not be there when we arrived, but the key would be in the box and just go on in. I said, "you must be kidding!" Oh no, she said it would be find. So when we arrived our key was waiting and we made our selves at home. We sat on the porch in the swing and greeted the people walking down the street. We had a really nice room on the second floor. The Inn was built in the late 1800s and had been restored to the historical standards established by the town. Many of the houses in the town are on the National Register of Historical Places. It was late Sunday afternoon and we wanted to have a good meal, but it didn't happen in Tarboro. There were only fast food places, so we drove b
ack to Rocky Mount for vegetables at the Cracker Barrel. It was about 20 miles, but worth the drive.
The next morning Denise prepared the most delicious breakfast for us. We also had a wonderful strawberry smoothie. This was definitely a five star B & B.
We were out early headed to the Outer Banks. It was only about a two-hour drive. We were on a four-land highway for most
of the trip. Once we reached the Outer Banks we headed south towards Hatteras where we were going to take the ferry over to Okracoke Island. This was the short ride from Hatteras to Okracoke, which was only about 30 minutes. A
nybody wanting to take the ferry has to line up, so we had to wait about 20 minutes before the ferry came. Once on the ferry everybody gets out of their vehicles and just walk around and enjoy the boat ride over. Some people washed their windshields and headlight, others went up to the second deck and most just roamed around watching the water and birds. Guess who's working the crowd on the ferry? Hubby down there with the yellow hat is talking to the NCDOT employee. He was on his way to work on Okracoke, he grew up at Hatteras, moved to San Diego, but didn't like it in CA, so he moved back home. His entire family has lived on the Outer Banks all their lives.
Once we arrived on Okracoke we drove to the town part. It is only 12 miles of paved road on the island. We found our lo
dging for the night. It was adequate, it was clean, but it certainly was not the grand lodging we had the night before. It too was an old home which had sustained damage from hurricanes, but it had been repaired. We were on the third floor. That was rough with all our baggage we thought we had to bring along. There was no TV and when you walked around the bed you had to lean sideways because the ceiling was slanted. This 5' 1" person had to lean because the ceiling was so low
. Fortunately, it was cool and we opened the windows and had a really nice breeze through our room.
We roamed all over the island. We visited the lighthouse, had lunch on the water and went to the beach. As you can see there wasn't a crowd at the beach. We did see about six or seven people. Hubby flew his seagull kite and I walked the beach picking up shells. There are no hotels, houses are structures of any type on the beach. It is part of the National Seashore and is protected from any type of construction.
There was a British cemetery not far from our B & B. We roamed around the cemetery for a while then ventured to some of the shops around the island. There were people walking all over and there were people riding bikes and some people were riding gold carts. It was busy, but not real crowded.
Next morning we left, headed back north, caught the ferry back to Hatteras. We stopped at the Hatteras lighthouse and had a great tour of the tallest lighthouse on the east coast of the United States at 198 ft high. Back in 1999 the lighthouse built in 1870 was moved about 60
0 yards because the sea was eroding the foundation of the lighthouse. This is part of the National Seashore and is part of the National Park Service. There was a young Park Ranger that gave a great talk about the historic lighthouse and how and why it was moved. Basically, the lighthouse was jacked up and placed on rollers to move it the 600 yards, which is approximately one-half mile. Two houses occupied by the keeper and staff were moved first, which was basically a piece of cake compared to the moving of that lighthouse. It took six days to move the structure to the new location. It was a major engineering accomplishment. This lighthouse is brick and not one was lost on the move. Amazing.
Going north we traveled through Nags Head. There were lots of houses and all sorts of commercial development. The houses were right on the beach here, so obviously some parts of the Outer Banks is not part of the National Seashore.
Our next stop was Kitty Hawk. We loved it! There was a great volunteer at this national landmark. Inside the Park Service building was a replica of the first plane the Wright brothers flew with great narrative from the volunteer. The Wright brothers were geniuses. The same principle of flight is still used today on modern planes. They figured out this method with a kite.
We headed further north to Elizabeth City, NC for a Bed and Breakfast found on the Internet. The Pond Inn. We had to circ
le the city a couple of times, but we finally found the place. It was in an old area of town right across the street from the sound. It was beautiful. Another five-star place for the night. This was a 5,000 sq. ft. house built in the 1930s with all traditional furniture and an elevator to the second floor. The library was heart of yellow pine with beautiful crown molding. The ground of this house were finely groomed with a beautiful lawn and gardens all around the house. There was a row boat available to putter around in the pond.
That evening we had a wonderful meal at the Cedar Tree right on the water in downtown Elizabeth City at the recommendation of the Innkeeper. This is another small town that we would like to visit again.
Next morning we headed further north to Norfolk, VA, then on to Williamsburg, VA, our favorite place. We stayed in a guest home that we have known about for years. Again, the key was in the mail box with a two-page handwritten letter to us from the owner of the house saying she was in Charleston, SC for the week visiting her daughter, but we were to make ourselves at home and her son, who lived around the corner, would check on us. We had the run of the house with more antiques and traditional furniture. This was a great place to stay
right at the edge of the restored area.
I took hundreds of photos of Williamsburg, like we don't have any photos. We met friends that live in Williamsburg part time for dinner and lunch. It was great to see them. They too have a love for the place just like us. They are volunteers at Colonial Williamsburg when they are in town.
We have been going to Colonial Williamsburg since 1967 and we have never grown tired of the place. We love the buildings and gardens, but I must admit my favorite thing to do is just roam through the gardens from yard to yard.
This was a great trip. We want to go back to the Outer Banks and stay longer. This trip was more of an exploratory trip to see if we wanted to spend more time there, which we do.
odness! That will be a major project which will involve building shelves requiring power tools. I can operate the tools, but I want Hubby involved in that project. That might be like moving Stone Mountain.
of special gifts for special people in our lives. Hubby has been busy in his workshop making some tin pieces. The large sconce was a gift for someone at the Docent's party at Stately Oaks, where he volunteers.
nown for many years, but moved to Florida. She has a beautiful home that the exterior is a typical Florida-looking house, but once you step inside you are surrounded by beautiful antiques. It's amazing that someone would depart from the beach-type decor in exchange for the wonderful traditional antiques. She is getting a hand-made tin sconce.
alter (Emily) Spivey. They left the money, but they both died before the construction of the hall was completed. Mrs. Spivey, who was an organist, designed the hall. It was sad, because they both had lung cancer from the asbestos in their home.
we stayed in a bed and breakfast, The Pond House Inn in Elizabeth City, NC and it was a beautiful traditional house with lovely furnishings. The room we stayed in was very comfortable, except I couldn't get in the bed because it was so high and required a chair to get up in that beautiful four poster bed. I loved the coverlet and bed skirt on our bed. The 
bed skirt was white and the coverlet was yellow. I knew that was what I wanted to do in our circa 1987 guest bedroom. The innkeeper was very innovative when she couldn't find a bed skirt for her very high bed, she used a coverlet and it worked well and looked really nice.
dy for our next guests, hopefully our friends from Tennessee or Virginia. Don't know who will be our first guests, but we will be ready, unless I go to jail for removing the tags off the new pillow. Oh, that does say, "...tag is not to be removed except by the consumer." So I'll be here awaiting our guests.
Alive News, Britt Bagwell from Cool Ray Heating and Air and Jeff Guthrie from TMC Iron and Steel Company.
heir community service and contribution to the non-profit organization. Afterwards two of the docents gave the honorees and their families a tour through Stately Oaks.
ery pleasant evening. The weather was perfect. It was fun just talking and watching all the activities at ATL, the world's busiest airport. Kenny provided a wealth of information about all the activities on the ground and the goings on at the airport since he works directing airplanes around the airport all day long.
I thought this would be a great reminder of the warm summer days which are now history as the gray cold days are here for a while, even a bit of sleet and snow yesterday and it is only the end of November.
y are slabs. Oh yeah, they were fishing with cane poles, not fancy rods and reels.
We installed this programmable thermostat 18 years ago and it STOPPED working. I don't get it. The air conditioning came on, but would not turn off. I pushed every button on that thermostat and nothing happened. The only way it turn off was to flick the switch on the electrical panel. Fortunately, it was on it's own power source, so I didn't have to cut the power to the entire house.
, and I can't find anything when I'm looking for a specific tool, so I just created my own tool box. I finally checked my basic little tool box I keep in my sewing room. This one only has a few little tools in it, but it was exactly what I needed to get the job done, I thought. (I won this little box at an office Christmas party many years ago.)
lades used to scrape paint off windows. Now, those little things work well on lots of jobs and I should have used that little first and saved a lot of time sanding and creating all that dust.
e old one was."
allowing Mr. Dean to keep his open pit. The pit is now covered in the screened room to the right of the original building. At any given time you can see all those hams over the hot flames from the hickory wood fire.
you know when you eat at Dean's. Everyone from lawyers, dentists, judges, vets, doctors, law enforcement officers, neighbors, pastors, teachers, local business owners, and many, many life-long residence of the area, all of which are frequent customers at Dean's. We have even encountered the owners of Chick-fil-A and their families enjoying the barbeque (you can't eat Chick-fil-A EVERY day). This is also a favorite place of NASCAR participants and fans.
counter when you place your order.
We were able to take a day to get away, so we decided to head for Lake Oconee. It's a beautiful lake about 75 miles east of Atlanta. Our neighbor used to have a place on this lake, so we became well acquainted with it when we would spend time at his place. So, we love going out there to fish. 
This is what six quarts and 21 pints of green beans look like before they are put in the jars. All of these are out of our garden. I think they about stopped blooming. However, the squash are still blooming as are the cucumbers and the okra has just started producing.
oved wife has passed away!
r I decided I had to get cracking on that clothing for him, especially since he needed it by mid-July and my Mom was having her hip replaced and my time was about to be consumed by taking care of her.
ay morning taking I-20 East, then we took I-95 North. Our first stop was Tarboro, North Carolina. This town was established in 1790. It was a really nice town. We stayed at The Main Street Inn, which was extremely nice. The Innkeepers were Denise and Stewart Sanderson. When we made the reservations Denise told us they would not be there when we arrived, but the key would be in the box and just go on in. I said, "you must be kidding!" Oh no, she said it would be find. So when we arrived our key was waiting and we made our selves at home. We sat on the porch in the swing and greeted the people walking down the street. We had a really nice room on the second floor. The Inn was built in the late 1800s and had been restored to the historical standards established by the town. Many of the houses in the town are on the National Register of Historical Places. It was late Sunday afternoon and we wanted to have a good meal, but it didn't happen in Tarboro. There were only fast food places, so we drove b
ack to Rocky Mount for vegetables at the Cracker Barrel. It was about 20 miles, but worth the drive.
of the trip. Once we reached the Outer Banks we headed south towards Hatteras where we were going to take the ferry over to Okracoke Island. This was the short ride from Hatteras to Okracoke, which was only about 30 minutes. A
nybody wanting to take the ferry has to line up, so we had to wait about 20 minutes before the ferry came. Once on the ferry everybody gets out of their vehicles and just walk around and enjoy the boat ride over. Some people washed their windshields and headlight, others went up to the second deck and most just roamed around watching the water and birds. Guess who's working the crowd on the ferry? Hubby down there with the yellow hat is talking to the NCDOT employee. He was on his way to work on Okracoke, he grew up at Hatteras, moved to San Diego, but didn't like it in CA, so he moved back home. His entire family has lived on the Outer Banks all their lives.
dging for the night. It was adequate, it was clean, but it certainly was not the grand lodging we had the night before. It too was an old home which had sustained damage from hurricanes, but it had been repaired. We were on the third floor. That was rough with all our baggage we thought we had to bring along. There was no TV and when you walked around the bed you had to lean sideways because the ceiling was slanted. This 5' 1" person had to lean because the ceiling was so low
. Fortunately, it was cool and we opened the windows and had a really nice breeze through our room.
0 yards because the sea was eroding the foundation of the lighthouse. This is part of the National Seashore and is part of the National Park Service. There was a young Park Ranger that gave a great talk about the historic lighthouse and how and why it was moved. Basically, the lighthouse was jacked up and placed on rollers to move it the 600 yards, which is approximately one-half mile. Two houses occupied by the keeper and staff were moved first, which was basically a piece of cake compared to the moving of that lighthouse. It took six days to move the structure to the new location. It was a major engineering accomplishment. This lighthouse is brick and not one was lost on the move. Amazing.
le the city a couple of times, but we finally found the place. It was in an old area of town right across the street from the sound. It was beautiful. Another five-star place for the night. This was a 5,000 sq. ft. house built in the 1930s with all traditional furniture and an elevator to the second floor. The library was heart of yellow pine with beautiful crown molding. The ground of this house were finely groomed with a beautiful lawn and gardens all around the house. There was a row boat available to putter around in the pond. 
right at the edge of the restored area.
