Outer Banks, North Carolina

March 25th

I had never heard of Outer Banks, NC before I heard Dave and Drusie discussing it.  Apparently it has always been on Dave's "bucket list", but he didn't really see himself ever getting there (it is a bit out of the way!!).  And Duck, a community on the narrow strip of land known as the Outer Banks is a favourite vacation destination of Drusie's - so before I knew it, we were headed to Duck, North Carolina.

What/where the heck are the Outer Banks?

"A 200-mile stretch of barrier islands just off the coast of North Carolina, the Outer Banks is a different kind of place. Beautifully natural, formed by centuries of wind, water and sand blown from the Atlantic Ocean, and home to a rich history, it's a place that inspires a true sense of adventure. From Duck down to Hatteras, each town and island along the banks offers a unique experience not soon forgotten."

It took us about 6 hours to get there and (ultimately) we were so glad we did.  Things got off to a bit of a rocky start when the resort we were headed toward advised that they no longer take pets (apparently the CAA booklet went to press before they advised them of this change in policy Grrrr).  And our good ole standby Best Western was full.  But they were kind enough to recommend a Ramada Inn in Nag's Head that was pet friendly and we happily settled in there.  Karma was restored and all was good.

Pictures really can't do justice to the amazing beaches all along the east coast of the Outer Banks, but I'll try to give you a feel:

(not sure why this dude's smiling - he's washed up and dead, but what do I know??!!??)

(now this guy has reason to smile, he's on vacation and the sun's shining, but he'll have the smile wiped off his face when the police catch him for breaking the laws)

Now, to be clear, Outer Banks is not only about beautiful beaches! 

It is the site of the first powered flight!!  Kill Devil Hills, NC - ever heard of it?  No, probably not and the reason is, another community is credited with the fame:

"Kitty Hawk became famous after the Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio, selected a nearby site to make their first controlled powered airplane flights on December 17, 1903. The site of the flights is four miles (6 km) south of the town, near the sand dunes known as the Kill Devil Hills, a location the Wrights had used for practice with their gliders. Kitty Hawk is often mistakenly credited as the site of the powered flights. After the flights, the brothers walked back to Kitty Hawk, where they sent a telegram from the Weather Bureau office to their father informing him of their success."

Housed on the site of the historic flights is an amazing museum and memorial to the Wright Brothers

Here's to happy trails and soft landings!!

Among many of the other attractions on the Outer Banks are:

1. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (look closely and you will see Dave in the very bottom, left hand corner of the picture).  This is the tallest brick lighthouse in the world

2. Jockey's Ridge State Park, home of

 "... the tallest active sand dune system in the Eastern United States, and the most striking of the remaining dunes on the Outer Banks. Shifting winds are constantly reshaping the dunes. Because the Ridge is always changing, it is often referred to as "The Living Dune."







Honestly, we were more impressed with the sand dunes along the Oregon and California coasts, but have to admit that this one was huge - just less impressive with it's height, breadth and view of the open ocean.  Having said that, it was large enough and the winds are consistently high enough that it houses a hang-gliding school - and that's pretty impressive!!!

On the Road Again: destination Florida via Waynesboro, Va

March 21st

Once again, we've loaded up the car and are setting off on a driving adventure - this time, our destination is Florida.  As with our West Coast Sunsets and Sand Dunes trip, Guinness is along for the ride - and for the same reasons, we don't know how long we'll be gone and I can't stand the thoughts of being without him for too long and kennelling him indefinitely.   Mucho thanks to Dave for agreeing to drag our furry friend along.  As those of you who have travelled with pets know, it makes for a very different sort of trip - a bit more complicated, but very enjoyable if the pre-planning is done.

 Dave has always wanted to make the NS to Fla driving trip, but never had the chance because of time restrictions with a very busy work schedule.  I have done it once (Fla to NS).  It was the year after my Dad died, and I flew down to drive back with Mom.  I won't go into any details about the differences between the two trips - would either bore you to death, or make this a blog that would have to be "X-rated".  Rather I'll tell you the one similarity between the two trips - making Waynesboro, Virginia a destination highlight of the trip. 

Waynesboro (an approx 21 hr drive) is where my Dad's brother Noel and his wife Peggy settled many, many years ago when Uncle Noel took a position as a scientist with DuPont (he was on the team that invented Lycra and Kevlar!!).  Growing up, we only got to see Uncle Noel and Auntie Peg every second year, when they loaded up the car with their 3 boys (Sandy, John and Alan) and drove to N.S.  They were favourites and the summers they came our way were always very special (but I digress ...).  Anyway, Uncle Noel is now just shy of his 88th birthday, still living at 1208 Shamrock Lane and still as sharp as a tack.  I am very glad we got to spend some time with him and look forward to our next visit.  Much thanks to cousin John and his wife Drusie for putting us up for the night - not everyone will take on 2 Canucks and a labradoodle!!!  And thanks as well to Drusie's son Will for leaving VMI to come out to meet us.  Hopefully we've talked them all into coming our way this summer so we can return the favour.

My Uncle Noel

And thanks as well to Drusie for recommending that Outer Banks, North Carolina be our next destination - more on that in the next post.

Random sunsets

So, the weary travellers are back in NS (Oct '11).  We are happy to be home, but somewhat disoriented.  If you have ever been homeless, you'll understand the feeling.  Well, we weren't REALLY homeless - 75 Sunset Drive was rented out (as we weren't expecting to return to NS till April, 2012) - but we were fortunate enough to have the use of Skip and Judy's place next door.  We will be forever thankful to the Oliver's for their generosity.  It allowed us to be in close proximity to Heather and Andy, which came in very handy when Heather was hospitalized and recuperating. 

From the end of October until early January, we resumed our status as residents of Indian Point, Glen Haven.  During this time, I was reminded of why I had such a love for sunsets - because we have some of the most stunning sunsets in the WHOLE  wide world (somewhat biased, I'll admit) every season of the year:

Including the Fall (this one from the Oliver's deck):

and the winter (from our deck):

In mid January, we joined Ria, PJ and the boys in Hawaii, and once again, I was captivated by the immense beauty of the setting sun:

and finally

Oh yes, we encountered some dunes in Hawaii as well.  Well, not really dunes, but I'm sure Finnegan and Teggen will always think of these as very large dunes :)



Nova Scotia please, and don't spare the horses!!!

First things first - if you were a labradoodle, would you prefer 8 long miserable days in the back of a car; or would you prefer one long miserable day with WestJet????  Answer - you are a labradoodle, you don't get to make decisions.  Your humans have decided that you'd be happier hanging out with your cousin Sprout while we scoot across the continent.  We'll send for you when we settle - promise!!!

The camping gear from our West Coast Sunsets and Sand Dunes Tour is now in storage with the rest of our furniture.  We've had an amazing final visit with friends and family, and we're headed east.  Off we go through:

Washington
Idaho
Montana
North Dakota (just days ahead of their first snowfall!)
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois (thanks to CAA for getting us BY Chicago and not IN Chicago!)
Indiana
Michigan
Ohio
Pennsylvania
NY
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Maine
New Brunswick

and finally, NOVA SCOTIA!!!   After 3 provinces and 15 states, we were ready to kiss the NS soil and were so grateful to Lorna and Stewart for giving us a soft spot to land our first night "home".

A few memorable pictures:

The Badlands of North Dakota:

Farmland like we've never seen before - it goes on for-frikkin-ever!!!

Flat farmland:

Hilly farmland:

Many, many "big sky" sunsets:

Evidence of cities (avoided like the plague)

and more Best Western's than I care to mention!!

8 days after pulling away from North Vancouver, my husband delivered me safely to Nova Scotia. Thanks Dave - I love you!!!

Stanford Inn

Normally, an Inn or Hotel would not warrant it's own blog post - but this place was pretty special.  I found it on-line and was curious about it - it sounded amazing!!  Organic garden, fireplaces, waaaay pet friendly, rescue llamas/donkeys, bikes for all guests ...  So, needless to say, every place we looked at simply didn't interest me.  Eventually we "stumbled" across the Stanford Inn.  Dave was very impressed with the lobby - double faced fireplace and an impressive wine list at the bar; and when we balked at the cost, they dropped the nightly rate significantly.  I really can't do the place justice - you have to go look for yourself: www.stanfordinn.com.  But the best part of this entire story is a tiny bit of information I withheld from Dave - the restaurant, Ravens, is vegan!!!  You should have seen the look on his face - he was studying the menu and I was watching out of the corner of my eye (trying sooo hard not to laugh!!).  He finally said, "I don't recognise a thing on this menu."  That was when I had to admit that the restaurant was totally vegan, and that I knew it when we checked in.  He wasn't annoyed - just paid me back by having the biggest burgers EVER at all meals off the resort!!!  OMG - it was sooo worth it, if you could have seen the look on his face ...

www.stanfordinn.com  (check out Ravens menu - I had the Sea Palm dish - picture to follow - it was delicious!!)

A visual of the rain that caused us to be held up:

We looooved the lobby! It felt like a big hug.



Our room

The most dog friendly place ever!!  They had two dining rooms - the one closest to the lobby fireplaces was totally dog friendly, the only requirement being that your dog be "of the best behaviour".  Guinness passed and we were thrilled to have him join us for meals (for him it was a spectator sport :)

revival of S&S

Hello friends!!!
We are again on the road, and one of the first things Dave asked me was if I was going to blog the trip.  Initially, I said "no", but as I thought about it - staying in touch with everyone while we're away, and my love for writing, I thought why not!  But I can't commence my narrative of our East Coast trip without concluding my narrative of our West Coast trip.
I had some enquiries about the abrupt cessation of my Sunsets and Sand Dunes blog entries - we last left you all in Mendocino, California back in September - I was looking forward to sharing with you our stay at the Stanford Inn.  We took shelter there for a few days waiting for the rain to pass over so we could resume our tenting.  We were looking forward to touring the Sonoma and Napa wine regions and making our way to San Fransisco to meet up with Jane and Chris Spitiri.
I won't go into much detail, but while there we received a phone call from Dave's daughter, Heather, informing us that she had a health issue that would require major surgery and a long recuperation period.  After we got over the shock, we both nodded our heads, packed up the car and booted it back to BC, where we repacked the vehicle, gave a teary fair well to our BC based friends and family, and set out driving to Nova Scotia (chose to go the US route for speed and financial reasons).  I will share with you a bit of our cross continent trip (no sand dunes, but a lot of beautiful sunsets), but firstly I'm thrilled to share with you that Heather is doing wonderfully and all reports are benign. 
So, we'll take you back in time to September, 2011 to Mendocino, California - see post" "Stanford Inn"

Rain Delay

Oct 4th

We holed up in a hotel in Eureka to sit out the rain, we searched the weather stations to find sunshine in the state of California, we even contacted our timeshare company to check on availability around the state - all to no avail :(

We are really wanting to get back to the simplicity of tenting, where boiling water and making campfires are the highlight of the day.  But tenting in the rain is just no fun, so we have to be content with some more hotel time - at least it will be in a very beautiful little town with a huge New England feel.

Mendocino, California

Settled by New Englanders in the 1850's this town is now an artisans utopia.  But even more important (at least to me) is the fact that it is "Cabot Cove" of Murder She Wrote fame.  Any of you who watched that show as faithfully as I did will recognize Jessica's (aka Angela Lansbury) house:

Amazing, eh??  I was soooo excited to find it.  Not that it took much effort - it is now a B&B, the Blair House.  I absolutely loved the show and was tinkled pink to find myself right there - right at the scene of the crime!  I could practically feel Jessica and Amos at my side  :)

And as with my previous posts, I'll the you decide for yourself on the magnificence of this beautiful section of the coast:

Notice the blue sky??  and the reflection of the sun on the waves???  Oh yes - we did find some sunshine.  Day one in Mendocino was pretty wet (nasty actually):

Day two was partly cloudy with occasional showers and DAY THREE????  Clear skies - yeaaaaaaaa!  It made a very special place absolutely amazing!!  More details on the Stanford Inn to come.