Happy Birthday to James!

James turned forty-something on the 16th, and we did a road-trip to celebrate!  We headed through Richmond, VA, in order to provide James with a wonderful birthday dinner…

After which we headed to and through the Great Dismal Swamp.  Though it was less dismal than expected, the tick warning dissuaded us from doing a very long hike.  We stuck to an elevated walkway that shows off a bunch of the trees and types of ground.  There were turtles.  I like turtles.

It’s also part of the ICW – the Intracoastal Waterway.

We got as far as Hatteras and stopped dead.  Wow – we needed a vacation!  We ended up staying there for days because, well, it was a really comfortable place with a great bed and a full kitchen.  We did a lot of sleeping, smooching, and eating.  For example…

We stopped in Kittyhawk on the way down…

And lighthouses!  Oh my, did we see some lighthouses!

Big lighthouse, little James.  And now for the reverse…

I can hardly make out the lighthouse there.  We drove down a little farther and then took a long, long walk on the beach.

The weather was strange – just when we started feeling more energetic, it fogged us in!  We had made arrangements to take a 21′ Carolina Skiff out on the Albermarle Sound, but that didn’t pan out.  Our plans the next day fell through too – the ferries weren’t running because the fog was so thick!  So we didn’t get to Ocracoke Island, but I’m not that sad when it comes down to it.

The picture above?  That’s what we did instead of boating.  Walked around, took some pictures, ate some food, and enjoyed having nothing to do!  My best photo of that same pelican…

We stopped some more on the way back, including this strange environment.

We saw a sign commemorating Fessenden’s first musical broadcast, which quite amazed me.  Mostly because I would have thought myself one of a select group who know who the man was!

Fun, for sure, but next trip will be by boat!