How We Spent Our Summer Vacation – Week Eight (The Final Days)

We drove north to Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. We toured the Wright Brothers Memorial which was very interesting. From where this picture was taken, you can see the four markers showing the distance of each of their flights that day.

There would have been other flights after lunch. But they had a lesson to learn. Always tie down an airplane when not in use. A wind came up the flipped and destroyed their aircraft while they were eating. There were many firsts that day.

We spend a quiet Labor Day. It was our last full day on the Outer Banks. We walked and took a last dip in the ocean. We packed up the things we knew we wouldn’t need. In spite of the weather we’d experienced, we were a bit sad to be leaving. It’s such a beautiful area.

We drove about 350 miles to a Wal-Mart in Florence, SC. It rained off and on all day, sometimes hard. After we got to the Wal-Mart and got settled, we had a bad thunder storm come through. Fortunately, it only lasted ten minutes or so. But we got dumped on! It cleared up enough by the time we went to dinner that we could walk to the Red Lobster next door.

The next morning we were off to Hollywood, SC, just outside of Charleston. The park was really nice. They had a nice little lake there. Julian threw in a line and actually caught some fish. He said he enjoyed it even though he had to throw them back.

We saw these birds shortly after getting set up. I’m not sure what they are, but we heard they are some kind of duck. We were told not to feed them as they would become a nuisance real fast.

We went into Charleston and took a harbor cruise and also a carriage ride. Both were fun and informative. I must have slept through a few of my history classes because I had no recollection of all the history in the city. Here’s a picture of Fort Sumter. This is where the Civil War started!

And this is the Yorktown, from World War II.

The carriage tour took us through the old part of town. It was pretty amazing to see the old building, some were pre-Civil War. It was so interesting. Here’s one of the mansions we passed. It looks kinda new, but it’s not. I just thought it was beautiful.

The pink building in this photo is supposed to be one of the oldest buildings in all of Charleston. Looks pretty well kept up to me.

Here’s Julian relaxing after a hard day of sight-seeing. It also gives a nice idea of the park we were staying in.

He needed to relax because the next day we drove nearly 300 miles to Flagler Beach, FL. This was another really nice park.

We spent Saturday morning at the pier fishing. And believe it or not: we caught fish. Here’s one that Julian caught.

OK, it’s not huge. But he did catch some fish, finally. And I caught a couple, too. This was my biggest one. Unfortunately, it wasn’t big enough to keep and eat. Ah, but what a fight he gave me!

We also were in position on the pier to see the Atlantis shuttle launch. It was quite a ways in the distance, but here’s a photo anyway.

After a hard morning of fishing, we spent a really quiet afternoon at the coach. Naps and reading were welcome activities. It was a very restful location, a great place to spend the last afternoon of our trip. We found a great restaurant for dinner – a perfect ending to the trip.

And then, it was over. We arrived home a little before noon on Sunday, September 10. We had been traveling for 58 days, visiting a total of six states. It was a great trip, one we’ll both treasure.

It's good to be home. It's been a lot of work getting everything caught up from being gone for two months. It's been nice to see friends and participate in local activities again.

I'll be chronicling future trips, so check out this space in the future. Thanks for RoVing with us. That's all for now.