The day before going home we had our little drama of locking ourselves out of the house! Luckily I had my cellphone and $10 with me. So I took a cab to the real estate agent, it was after hours but they did have the emergency number at their office (why couldn't they have it as an option on their main number?). Antway it all got sorted out.
Mum wanted to see some sights in Washington, DC, so we went there, arriving at around 5pm. It seemed a good time to arrive as we actually found a parking spot near the Jefferson memorial. We had a lovely time seeing the sights, during the summer they have park rangers around till 11.30pm so we went around the National Mall seeing the memorials:
Jefferson,
FDR,
Korean War Veterans,
Lincoln,
Vietnam Veterans &
World War II. By this time we were starving so we asked a nice security guard where to eat and he told us about the MacDonalds nearby. This happened to be near the White House so we got to see the outside of that. Next time Nanny comes we'll make bookings so we can do the tour of it and the Washington Memorial.
We stayed that night in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and the next day went on to Orange where we visited
Montpelier, the home of the 4th president, James Madison. Then we dropped Pam off at Sweet Briar College, where she attended a Math-Bio workshop. Meanwhile, Nanny, Donnie and I went on to spend the night in Jackson, Ohio. The next day, by Donnie request, we continued on to Newport, Kentucky, to visit the
Newport Aquarium. Newport is across the river from Cincinatti and the Aquarium is in a nice mall, the Newport Quay. We had a yummy seafood lunch and Nanny opted out of the Aquarium experience and went to see a movie instead, Killers. She should have come with us! Back on the road we got past Indianapolis and we went for Donnie's favorite meal, at Steak 'n Shake! We finally crawled into Decatur, Illinois for our well-earned night's rest.
The final day saw stop at Springfield, Illinois where we went to the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library. Which we were impressed with. Donnie was given a history detective handout for going round the museum. He found all the answers to the questions in the exhibit and got his prize!
Donnie with whale skeletons, giant sloth, megladon and Acrocanthosaurus (the terror of the south). The dino by itself is Willo, the fossil of a small, plant-eating Thescelosaurus, was found with an odd, iron-stained lump in its chest cavity. Medical imaging devices revealed this lump to be a fossilized heart with four chambers and a single aorta.
Last time Mum was here we had a great visit to De Smet, South Dakota, and the Ingalls homestead. So we decided to go down to Mansfield, Missouri, to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum where she wrote the Little House in the Prairie books. Spent Saturday morning doing that and then when we went back to Mansfield, we found some kind of fair in the town square so we had a nice lunch from the volunteer fire department. After lunch we did a cave tour at Ozark Caverns in Lake of the Ozarks State Park. It was cool as we had our own lanterns and we found cave salamanders, blind grotto salamanders and bats!
The day before going home we had our little drama of locking ourselves out of the house! Luckily I had my cellphone and $10 with me. So I took a cab to the real estate agent, it was after hours but they did have the emergency number at their office (why couldn't they have it as an option on their main number?). Antway it all got sorted out.
The first reason I had for wanting to come out here was to see the Wright Brothers National Memorial where they did the first flights. It doesn't look now like the photos I've seen. To stabilize the sanddunes they introduced plants, so it now looks more parklike.
The other famous historical site is that of Fort Raleigh where the English tried to make their first colony in 1587. This now known as the Lost Colony since when they came back for them they had all disappeared (it was a long time since the English were otherwise engaged with the Spanish Amada). So there was lots of interesting things to see associated with that, Festival Park, a history park, and the Elizabethan Gardens.
Here is the house we rented for the week, "Sea and Sound". Our bedroom was on the top floor on the right and Nanny's was on the middle floor in the middle. It was a really lovely beach house. Our friends cam the next day, the Millers: Jason, Nancy, Hallie & Anna; and Tom Tegtmeyer. We sure did eat well here. We found a good seafood place, Whalebone. A good trick was to get scallops, prawns and crab legs and get them to steam it for us. Another time we got Mahi Mahi, Tilefish & grouper and grilled it ourselves for a fish taco meal.
It was fantastic inside and Mum liked the gold leaf roof. Then on to Winston-Salem, North Carolina where we met up with Mum'm friend's friend, Dorothy. We met her for dinner at Little Richards BBQ for some real North Carolina BBQ, the sauce was different, thinner and more vinegary. Donnie fell for cheerwine which is a local specialty, a type of cherry soda. We spent the night in Winston-Salem and the next morning met up with my friend from Berkeley, Simon, who lives in Chapel Hill. It was great meeting up with him and his lovely wife, Kate. It had been too long! After that we stopped at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. That whale skeletons hanging from the ceiling, pretty awesome! The night of the 5th we finally made it to Nag's Head and our house!
