Land of cotton

Sunday morning, bright and early, I hopped on an airplane and flew to North Carolina to visit my sister and brother-in-law. My parents were also down visiting, so I got to see them, too. Our first stop was a restaurant where we ate pulled pork with Carolina style barbecue sauce. That was tasty. We then headed out to Morehead City and Beaufort on the coast. That evening we took a walking "Ghost Tour" of Beaufort, the third oldest town in NC. The tour included a lot of stories about people who died and now supposedly haunt the town. The famous pirate Blackbeard was a regular of the area and they believe they found what is left of his shipwreck just off of the shore. There were a lot of 17th century homes in town, one that still has a working outdoor kitchen. Since it was a ghost tour, we naturally had to visit the cemetery. The Old Burying Grounds has graves from the 18th century and later. We went back he next day when we could actually go inside. I find old tombstones very interesting. Many of the names seen all throughout the cemetery were names on the outside of the old homes all around it. This town, a tourist retreat for us, is where generations of families lived and died. The whole area was rich with history.

On day 2, we also took a ferry out to Shackleford Banks, a short little boat ride away. 400 years ago a ship was caught in a storm and dumped its cargo to lighten the ship. That cargo included ponies and ever since then there has been a herd of wild ponies on that little island. We spent almost two hours on the island and my parents and I did not see any ponies. My sister and brother-in-law have a better sense of direction than I do and were able to find a few of them. We all enjoyed looking for seashells along the shore on the island. Growing up on the West Coast I never saw such beautiful shells in such good condition and I never actually liked looking for them. This time was different, however, and we collected quite a few that we left with my sister at her house.

Dinner that night was seafood. I like seafood in moderation. That is to say that I like to eat it a few times a year. I felt adventurous and wanted to try a lot of different things, so my sister and I shared a two course seafood feast. It had tuna salad, shrimp salad, shrimp, clam chowder (Carolina style, which is different from any that I had ever had before), soft shell crab (the whole thing, no less), fried fish, fried oysters (I don't recall eating oysters before in any manifestation, so that was new) and fried scallops. The restaurant was called Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant. We all found that amusing. The food was fantastic.

Day 3 included a trip to the maritime museum, a little bit more shopping, and the drive back to the Raleigh/Durham area. On that ride home we took a slightly different route than we did getting to the coast and enjoyed a scenic drive. Along the way there were several cotton fields. It reminded me of how very different the economy of the South was from anywhere I have ever lived. They still grow the cotton, but harvesting is nothing like it was and the large plantations are merely hinted at today.

We stopped by my uncle and aunt's house on our way to my sister's house (they live quite near each other) and visited with them for a few minutes. Their daughter and her family live down there as well, so we watched her son's baseball game and then went to her house for some dessert and social time. The kids played on their Wii and we enjoyed watching them. My sister and I boxed each other on it. After a close encounter with being knocked out, I kicked it up notch and just did defeat her. That was a workout. I think I'm going to use the Wii I am babysitting for a friend as an exercise program now!

Wednesday was primarily the trip home, and what a trip it was. Weather all along the coast was a little bit stormy and that caused airport delays. Part one of the trip was Raleigh to Philadelphia. The airplane was late arriving in Raleigh and we boarded about 30 minutes late. Then we sat on the ground for an hour because they were backed up in Philly. As we approached Philadelphia, they were still backed up, so we got to circle for a bit. When all was said and done, we were 2 hours late arriving. My connecting flight to Binghamton was actually cancelled (I would have missed it anyway), so I got to go talk to customer service and get a new flight home. The only way they could get me into the area that night was to fly me into Syracuse (that's 80 miles away but where I tend to fly out of most of the time). I got home nearly 4 hours later than anticipated, very tired, but very glad to be home.

Since then it has been back to work and life as typical. The fall colors are here but starting to go away. Right now they are still beautiful. It makes being back from vacation that much more bearable ;).