Day 1 - Island Scenes

We made it to our house with enough time and energy to explore. Then enjoyed a sunset over Silver Lake (which is neither silver, nor a lake, but who's counting?). The old phone booth is at the old Community Store. The ducks were camped out under our house. We decided they were "Ocracoke Mallards", since they look like mallards, but have those distinctive blue patches.

Also, Clara couldn't wait and just had to jump into Silver Lake after swishing her feet in the water for a while. She swam around the docks a bit before getting her fill.

[posted 8/29/2018]

On the Road!

Thursday, we hit the road at last!

We saw piles of coal in Newport News:

And Parent, Pet, and Kid signs at a fruit stand:

And a beautiful sunset in Manteo:

Harpers Ferry

We ended up with an extra day and used it to skip over to Harpers Ferry. Molly wondered where the apostrophe went in the name. Zach dove into the John Brown history. Clara became a Junior Ranger. And I explored the Appalachian Trail (and remembered how I missed the big class field trip to Harpers Ferry in elementary school).

Wild Thyme

On Tuesday, we prepped for the trip with a Costco run, then Clara and I headed over to Ann's shop. The heat and humidity really got to Clara by this point and she was having a little trouble breathing. So, unfortunately she didn't enjoy the shop as much as she would have liked.

Busses (and Trains) to Lucketts

The plan had originally been to take the Amtrak train to Union Station, then the commuter rail out to Ann and Warren's house. When we went to buy the Amtrak tickets, though, the already expensive tickets had gone up in price so much that we decided to find a different way. A little internetting later, Zach found a newish bus company (Our Bus) that would whisk us to Union Station for just a fraction of the cost. It was. a smooth and relatively easy ride, and just a little longer than the train would have been.

We still hopped on the MARC train out to Ann and Warren's. The kids got a big kick out of our final train station name: Point of Rocks (or, as they affectionately called it, Pile of Rocks).

Molly Photographs New York

We brought along my old analog camera and Molly and I started using it in New York. We even found a photo store that would develop our first roll in just a few hours! (remember One Hour Photos?).

Birthdays

We were on the east coast for Mary's birthday. Just the second since she died. Definitely different than the first one. This one we were on the move—from New York, to Northern Virginia/DC area. In a way, it was an echo of part of her life. She met Dieter in New York, and ended up in the DC area with him. And we were even going to stay with Ann and Warren, two of their long-time friends. 

I was less surprised to find myself extra emotional this year. And just as happy to remember the amazing person she was. 

By the time my birthday rolled around a few days later, we were down in Ocracoke.