Vacation 1

I'm always trying to make my vacations longer. So at the last minute-the night before we were leaving-I spent about an hour re-figuring our route to the Outer  Banks.  I thought a couple hours at Monticello would break of the trip nicely and we would definitely avoid any delays onto OBX. 

Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy/rainy and we decided not to go the alternate route and take the chance of it being soggy at Monticello.

The further south and east we traveled the better the weather became and I, of course, started second guessing our decision.  

About 2 miles before we crossed the Wright Memorial Bridge onto the Outer Banks it started to drizzle and then the deluge.

It's a good thing Paul has super 'eyes'.  

The worries over traffic were unfounded.   Sunday here it was still drizzly so we drove down to Roanoke Island and toured The Elizabethan Gardens.  I enjoy it tremendously.

We also went through the Ft. Raleigh History center, which adjoined the gardens.  It was quite interesting.  The next time we come during the summer season, I do want to see The Lost Colony production.  

It's very quiet here now that summer season is over.  We spent Monday at the beach, our new Sport-brella is fantastic.  We saw a couple families with them last year and thought it would work for us.  

It's very windy here now so this is perfect-keeps us out of the wind and sand.  I think our regular umbrella would have been inside out in two minutes or half way to Bermuda by now.

I had fun boogie boarding.  

The waves are crazy big.  

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On Tuesday morning while taking my morning long walk on the beach, I found these.

The one on the left is a whelk of some sort.  I could not believe when I saw it just sitting there in the sand!  I bought a book later that day on sea shells.  There are over 140 varieties in North Carolina waters!!  I wouldn't have guessed there was that many in the world.  wow.