Out and About

Last month I took a trip up north. It's taken me a while to get pictures up, for which I apologize. It was a lovely weekend. I left Buxton and headed first for Manteo, NC, and Fort Raleigh. The crape myrtle along the side of the road up to FORA (in NPS lingo) was gorgeous. It made me a bit homesick for Texas.

I was able to wander through the visitor center, did my junior ranger booklet and got my badge, and made it out to the fort. This is where the lost colony of Roanoke was fabled to be. This is also where the first English-American child, Virginia Dare, was born. Hence, I live in Dare county. Pretty cool.

This was the earthen fort. Not going to lie, a bit anti-climatic. For one of my junior ranger activities, I was supposed to go out to the fort, and describe where I would be during an attack. I said I'd be outside the fort up a tree.

Next, I headed up to the Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills villages to Wright Brothers Memorial (WRBR in NPS lingo). What an amazing place and what a cool part of our history as Americans, and as humans for that matter, took place here. I had goosebumps almost the whole time.

I was able to attend a flight room talk. They have a reproduction of the first Wright flier. It was awesome and I learned a bit about aviation and how a lot of what the brothers discovered is still being used today. Pretty cool. The picture is the replica of their first flier.

There is a nice memorial up on Kill Devil Hill. I hiked the hill and had a wonderful view of the area, and just how far those first few successful attempts at powered flight were. Incredible place.

As I was leaving, I saw this plaque. The letters state the piece of cloth and wood are original pieces of the first Wright flier and they successfully landed on the moon, taken by Neil Armstrong in the Eagle module. Wow.

I grabbed a bite to eat and was headed back to Manteo to the waterside theatre to see the production of "The Lost Colony". It is basically the story of the lost colony of Roanoke. It was cool to see, but I wouldn't make the effort to see the play again. You could tell the actors had been doing this all summer. The costumes were beyond fabulous, the set was pretty amazing, and the backdrop was a beautiful sunset.

It was a lovely day and it was so good to get out and explore the Outer Banks.