After getting some good rest (we slept till 845) we started the day with a great breakfast at IHOP located "steps" away from the Hotel. The girls had wanted to go to the breakfast bar downstairs but we informed them that most often that if you dont go down when it opens it is either A) crowded or B) picked through. In our case it was sort of well stocked but completely crowded in fact there would have been no place to sit. So IHOP it was, the girls are dedicated to get up at the annointed time (did we tell them its 630 on Weekdays?) and try it out.
We are headed back tomorrow and stopping along the way to collect photos from the Aunt of a friend of Chucks she lives a few miles off the freeway on the way back, so its great. We are doing a DVD for a party and the aunt has her hands on all the photos of the Friend before college. After she started college we are doing fine (provided pictures come in at a similar pace that they have been). Anyhoo, off to the Aquarium we went, we found it fine today and it wasnt crowded at all, very small but well priced and there were alligators and such, and things on Hurricanes that had hit the local Area (Isabel, Floyd). Julie finally got an otter softy, and Cilly finally got the Dolphin softy. Reasonably priced at the gift shop, marked down even! so signs of the recession are everywhere. After leaving we went to a 7/11 and got slurpees, and decided--literally doing a U-turn to go to Cape Hatteras. Its about 60 miles away from where we needed to turn, but the outer banks seemed deserted to us so we decided to give it a try.
We drove through ROndanthe (some famous place) and Waves and Avon, stopped for Lunch and drove the last 20 miles, but guess what? it was only 50 miles to the lighthouse, not 60. And so we parked. THe girls were scared to go up, Tina was reading to them how high it was and such, and finally when we told them we were going to walk up inside, they said yes, they had thought we were going to "climb" up ropes on the outside of it. It was fun, their thighs and calfs were burning but we made it to the top, and the view was great, you could see the position on the beach (now almost underwater) where they had moved it from 10 years ago. The original position of the first lighthouse in 1803 is out to sea now. The position it is in now will be safe for 100 years. The point we were at today was referred to as the "graveyard of the Atlantic" and the position off Hatteras Lighthouse is also famous for the Site where the Monitor sunk in the Civil War, where Billy Mitchell tested his Bombing theory in the 20's, and where the German
U-85, partrolled and finally sunk in 1942, after having sunk 20 or so boats.
Back to the Hotel for a dip, which was refreshing again, a little blogging now off to Golden Coral.
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