Outer Banks - Roanoke Island

On our second day in the Outer Banks, we went across more bridges to Roanoke Island, where the first British landed and settled in 1585. At least they think so. Like I said, what really happened is a bit of a puzzle. We went to the Victory Park display where they have a tall ship, the Elizabeth II, so my Dad finally got to see his boat! :-)

Ships life ring

Elizabeth II

 The tour guide on the boat annoyed me a little. I was asking reasonable questions and he was very patronizing. Still the ship was good and I got the information I wanted from someone else.

Annoying boat guide

We also had a look around a mock up of an Indian village.

Indian Chief's house 

Dancing circle

Blaming my Dad for this one! 

Canoe, hollowed out with shells

The best part of the Victory Park was the Settlement where there were two guys dressed up and showing people around the way of life of the English settlers. And you got to try some of the things, which I jumped at. So did my Dad! :-)

Using the lathe

Dad with the carpenter's knife

Dressed in Amour 

Dad in the armor.

Losing the battle :(

The smith

They were both really good and very informative. And the black smith presented me with my very own traditionally made nail which he made in front of us. Which made me very happy. :-)

My nail.

The only problem with this place was it was in a marsh-like area and I got bitten loads of times! :-( The bites are huge. In the Med, I have never really had a problem with bites. Apparently I am more allergic to the bugs here. :-( Though I did see some little lizards too which I much preferred.

Little lizard on the path railing

We had a look around the museum (which did include me and Dad trying on some of the dress-up clothes because we could!) and I brought a couple of books from the museum shop on the island and local history which I am reading at the moment and are really interesting.
After the museum, we got back in to the car and went to the top of the island to the Elizabethan gardens. The smell around the gardens was amazing! And there were loads of butterflies, so Dad and I continued our photo war.

Butterfly

And more!

Daisies

Statue of Virginia Deer, first British Child born in the US

I love this bench

Trees in bloom.

Statue of Elizabeth I.

We were hoping for a cafe in the garden to get a drink but there wasn't anything. So we headed back to our hotel for something to eat and drink and then down to the beach again. The water was just as fun and I love my little water proof camera!

Playing in the waves

Caught

:)

Dad not paying attention

And getting dunked.

Mom and Dad's shadow in the sand.

For out last night in the Outer Banks, we went to a nice restaurant called Stripers (though I keep calling it Strippers) which promise an ocean view from every table. And we got a lovely view. And the meal was one of the best I have ever had. I decided to go with just the 1/2 lb of snow crab legs and really wish I had gone for the full lb. They were amazing! 

Snow crab legs.

Dad enjoying this BBQ ribs.

 On the way out (with our half finished wine), we found a little frog who Mom saw climbing up the wall, sitting not top of the sign for the restaurant.

Back at the hotel, we sat in Mom and Dad's room and finished our wine before I went back to my own to pack.

Outer Banks - Day 1

First thing Monday we packed up the car again and headed into Williamsburg for a while to do some shopping. Which meant going back to the Gourmet candy place. :-) I got some little things as well as some chocolate dipped crisps/chips. (I had to try them! Apparently they are popular in Japan.) And they are actually really nice. They taste a bit like wafer biscuits.

Chocolate covered crisps.

Then we started the trip to the Outer Banks, North Carolina. I was expecting the trip to be a little stressful as we had to go past Norfolk and Virginia beach which are really big cities. But it beat even my expectations. It didn't help that the GPS was having an off day and not being very helpful at times. The worst was when I was happily driving along in the slow lane of a 2 lane highway and suddenly I am in the 5 lane of a 6 lane road with everyone suddenly changing directions and lanes! And mine exit was of course the other side. I really didn't like that!

But we made it alive (to my great surprise!) to the Outer Banks. And we all decided that we had crossed some of the longest bridges we had ever seen! Very impressive. The Outer Banks are a group of islands just off the coast of North Carolina. They are really thin and have lots of beaches and lighthouses, which I really wanted to see. They also have wide ponies on some of the beaches but they were further north than we were so we didn't see them this trip.

The hotel was right on the beach though the rooms were really small. I didn't care as I didn't intend to spend much time in them when the beach is so close! After dumping stuff in the rooms and getting changed, we went onto the beach and had a swim. Well, dad and I did (mom paddled). It wasn't as cold as I though it would be and the waves were great though a little too rough at times. It was fun just jumping the waves.

Caught by surprise

A little cool

:)

While we were sitting reading and soaking up the sun, a man not far from us decided to feed the seagulls. It was like something from The Birds! The woman who had been sitting right near them was NOT impressed. And they came a little too close for comfort to us too.

Crow

Attacked!

We also had a the crow mafia watching us which was a little unnerving. 

Crow mafia.

Bodie lighthouse

We didn't see any.

On the walkway 

There were lots of crabs in the water

View across the marches form the deck

Mom and dad! :) x

On the deck

Lighthouse at sunset

Pretty sunset

We tried to get into Awful Arthur's for dinner but it was going to be an hour to way for a table. We were all starving so ended up at the Black Raven where I had some tasting steamed clams while Mom and Dad had pizza. And for the first time we all managed a desert! :-)

Jamestown

As the apartment doesn't have a breakfast included (and we were too lazy to make breakfast), we found a pancake house which served gluten free pancakes! :-) They were great! Though once again my parents were once again a little shocked by the size of the portions.

Mom about to drown them in syrup.

Big portions.

 We went to Jamestown on Sunday which is the site of the first permanent British settlement in the US though not the first time the British came to the States. Who and when that was is very confusing and no one really knows. (Or more specifically a lot of people "know" but they all "know" different things! I am reading a book about it now so I will hopefully figure it out soon.) We got a little confused as there is Historic Jamestown and Jamestown Settlement. We decided on Historic Jamestown (though this was not an informed decision - more which was in the prettiest place). We were really looking for the tall ships which were at the settlement. But the Historic was probably a better choice. It actually on the site on the original colony.

They had 3 different tours. The first was a woman who was acting as Margaret Gates, the wife of first the governor of the settlement (I think). She talked about life in the settlement. How they lived and worked.

Momument to the settlement

Actress of Margret Gates

 I didn't know much about the history before we went. It was settled in 1607 and the starving years were in 1609-1610. There was a recent discovery announced in May this year of proof that during this time, which was pretty much as it sounds, the colonists resorted to cannabalism to survive. They also arrived during a 7 year drought so the Indians couldn't help them. They were only attacked by the Indians a few times, and not at all while Pocahontas was married to John Rolfe. Until she died and they killed the leader of one of the tribes (Pocahontas' Uncle). They didn't take that very well! And it was pretty much war after that.

Battlements

Statue of Captain John Smith

Second church, possibly the oldest building int he States.

 They also had an archeology museum which is built on the site of a mass grave. But it "floats", no part of the building touches or disturbs the graves.

Me with Pocahontas.

The second tour was by the park ranger and the third was an archeology tour. They were all really good. We were a bit disappointed we couldn't see the tall ships as it was too late to go into the settlement but we still had a really good time.

On the way back we stopped at a glass house and watched the glass blowing demonstration. I thought about buying a few of the wine glasses as they really really pretty but they were a little too expensive.

Fire. 

Excess dripping in the bucket.

Vase

 On the evening we went to a seafood restaurant called the Seafarer, which we had a discount voucher for. It was so posh! We didn't expect it to be that upscale and I was really glad I got changed.

ready.

On the deck before heading out.

The waiter pulled my chair out for me and placed my napkin across my lap. They were all wearing tuxedos. The decor was from a cruise ship in the 80s with even the cheesy 80s elevator music playing, like you see in an old film. It was brilliant.

We decided to celebrate with a bottle of Prosecco. And I finally had some soft shell crabs! (I still haven't eaten mine. But at least I have an idea how to cook them now. I am going to cook them for mom and dad when we got back to Blacksburg.) 

Soft shell crabs

It was a great meal and the food was lovely. Me and Dad even shared a desert called something like Flaming Cherries which our waiter flambéed at the table. :-)

Flambeing our desert