It snowed heavily along the north-eastern seaboard the day before we were supposed to take off, so we decided heading south would be a better choice than mucking about in the snow up in New York during the holidays. As it turns out, Liesl has some friends down in South Carolina that she hadn’t seen in a while, and it was right on the way to Charleston, which I had not yet been to.
Decision made, we left Lizzy with Sharon and Duane, loaded the car, and, Tuesday 28DEC10 we headed south on 95 toward Bishopville, SC to meet up with Liesl’s friends. I had yet to meet John and Hope, and Sheri and Sammy, but Liesl had talked about them extensively and was really looking forward to seeing them again.
Upon arrival to their farm, John ambled out of the house to welcome us, and then brought us inside where I was introduced to Hope, Sheri, Wilson, and Katie. We sat for a time chatting before Sammy arrived home. By that time, dinner had finished cooking, so we ate some delicious lasagna, and topped it off with pineapple cake for dessert. After dinner, we sat around discussing our plans, and they all helped find information for the trip and a hotel for the night.
It was getting late by that time, so we said our goodbye’s and headed into Sumter, SC to our hotel. On the way, the oil light came on. Oops. After checking in, we went across the street to the local Walmart to purchase some oil, and came out with some other stuff as well, go figure.
The next morning, we were headed toward Charleston, South Carolina, after having eaten breakfast, scraping ice off the windows, and checking out of our hotel. The most notable part of the drive was all the Piggly Wiggly trucks and supermarkets.
Charleston is a bit of old and new. Old buildings and carriage rides clash with new stores like Gucci and Louis Vuitton on King Street. The architecture throughout was pretty inspired, with quite a bit of wrought iron decorating colonial buildings painted bright island-esque colors.
Eclectic is a pretty good word for the place. We spent most of that morning wandering around enjoying the collection of buildings, and tottering across cobbled streets. During our walk around town, we made our way to the waterfront park, and while taking pictures of each other, Liesl spotted a fin in the water. Who would have thought we’d spy dolphins from shore! From there we walked down Rainbow Row, went hunting for a coffee shop, and found one in Charleston Coffee Roasters. After sipping our cappuccino and gingerbread latte, and snagging some beans to brew later, we wandered though stores, picking up a couple of kitchen niceties, then up to The Market.
The Market is a series of old brick buildings that once was used as a slave market, but has been since converted into a craft and souvenir market. There we spotted metal dragons, jewelry, shirts, and nick-knacks being sold, while local folks hand wove sweetgrass baskets, the cost of which would have been our first born. Liesl had asked one of the weavers if she could take their photo , but was met with some sort of unintelligible jumble of 'words', so she decided she would just move on. Later, Liesl found a decent deal on pashmina scarves in multiple colors, which she couldn’t pass up.
As we had already spent a few hours meandering, we decided it was time to get back on the road toward Myrtle Beach. On our way out of the area, we stopped off at the East Bay Deli for some lunch. While Liesl sat eating her Turkey burger on GF bread, she noticed an old Montana license plate hanging on the wall amidst a jumble of other memorabilia.
We hit the road again, stopping shortly for information at Myrtle Beach State Park, which confusingly, is south of Myrtle Beach nearer to Surfside. During the drive up we noted the many brightly colored, lighted, and gaudily displayed beach wear shops. This would not change until we left the islands and beaches behind.
We made it to Myrtle Beach around 4pm and drove down Ocean BLVD trying to determine which hotel we should crash at. We had pretty simple expectations, a swimming pool, King size bed, and an ocean view. Liesl noticed the Hampton inn, which is 13 floors directly on the beach.
After a short bit of dickering with the clerk, a little bit of hemming and hawing, we got a room on the '14th' floor (they are still skipping 13? What year is this?) Splurging on a top-floor room was a great choice, which is fully contributable to Liesl. 
I am normally far too miserly to spend that kind of money. However, once we had unpacked and taken in the view of the beach and ocean, it was well worth the expense. With the relatively warm temperatures we were able to take a comfortable walk on the beach that evening as the sun was setting, allowing us time to really relax and take it in.While checking in, the hotel clerk had recommended several places to eat, so we tried to find a Thai place he had mentioned, but ended up finding a different, small Thai restaurant who's only sign said Thai Cuisine. Places like this always seem to catch me off guard with how well they make their food. Liesl ordered Panang Curry and I got my usual, Pad Kra Praow, and satay and spring rolls for appetizers. As is par for the course, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, and we ended up with left overs for the next day. Back at hotel, we took a short swim in one of the two pools followed by a dip in the hot tub before going to sleep.
Thursday morning, Liesl woke me up and told me to enjoy the sunrise. I would have preferred enjoying sleeping in, but the sun was already coming in and warming up the mattress, so who am I to argue with mother nature. Still a bit groggy, we pulled ourselves out of bed, and helped ourselves to the continental breakfast downstairs. After dishing up, we idled into the opposite dining area, which was not serving until the summer season, which gave us most of the room to ourselves to sit in a quiet area and enjoy.
As a quick aside, I am still a bit confounded by the total lack of pride that hotels take in serving ‘breakfast’ in this country. How difficult would it be to cook an egg to order, or maybe make an omelet?
Following breakfast, and a quick packing, we had hopes of reaching the ferry to Ocracoke Island and possibly making it up to Hatteras. If you recall, the decision to make this trip was rather haphazard, so the there wasn’t much in the way of planning. It came back to bite us in the butt this time, but who cares, we were on vacation.
We stopped at a visitor center on the way to the Cedar Island Ferry and were given some useful info. The first bit of info was a ferry schedule. The ferry had very select times and during tourist season, requires reservations. We also grabbed another map. We initially thought we could make it to the ferry by 2pm. The drive north was slow however, passing through lots of little bergs, including Wilmington, NC.
Wilmington, NC, is a neat little historic area, filled with old mansions and big trees canopying the road. I think it would be enjoyable had we had more time to explore down there, perhaps next time. As it was we were beginning to realize our time line wasn’t panning out.
By the time we got up to the Camp Lejeune area, we realized there was no chance we were going to make it to the Cedar island ferry by 2PM, and didn't want to take the 5PM ferry, as it would be dark during the crossing. 5PM was the last ferry crossing of the day as well. So we took our time on the drive, allowing us to make some stops which really made this whole trip much more enjoyable.
After a quick scan of our map and atlas, we made the decision to stop and pick up some lunch, then continued on until we found one of the numerous beach accesses on Emerald Isle, crossing a boardwalk between a couple homes and eating on its steps before wandering the beach for a few and collecting some shells.
Following our lunch break, we spotted signs for the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, Atlantic Beach, NC (http://www.ncaquariums.com/pine-knoll-shores), and determined that we had enough time to stop for a while. I was fully expecting a blue swimming pool stuck in cement with some half dead fish. The aquarium was surprisingly enjoyable, with great displays including a mock up of the U-352, which had sharks, fish, and eels, which were common to the popular dive site. We also happened to arrive during the evening feeding and were able to listen as one of the aquarium personnel spoke about the critters. Each tank seemed to be themed for an area around the outer banks. They had a pool where you can interact with rays (as in stick your arm in and let them slink across your hand.) There were other displays of jellies, lion fish, snakes, otters, turtles, frogs, turtle hatchlings, etc. All of the displays were enjoyable and well maintained! And I found them to be highly informative should we ever decide to come down to do some diving.
Unfortunately, we had arrived at the aquarium just before closing, so we had to cut our visit short. But further up the road, we took another side trip up to the tip of Harker’s Island. It was early evening, and we enjoyed the coastal drive. At the end of the road, we watched the sunset and spotted the Cape Lookout lighthouse across the bay.
As this side trip had taken us about 10 miles off the beaten path, and it was fully dark now, we decided to head back to I-70 and drive the rest of the 30 miles to the Cedar Island ferry terminal, with hopes of finding a hotel for the night nearby. Not knowing if there was actually an Inn or motel available was a bit of a risk, and we continued to feel we had made a mistake as we got further along. Cedar Island was populated, but most of the area businesses seemed to have closed up for the season. About half way along, we finally spotted a sign stating there was indeed a hotel at the landing. We kept our fingers crossed that it would be open when we arrived.
Around 6:30ish we finally arrived at the Driftwood Motel (the name should have been the first sign that we should turn back). It was a seedy looking motor inn style motel. The kind of place you see in horror films. We’ve stayed in worse…I think… So, we stopped in, talked with the lady at the counter, and checked in to a room. That night, rather than spending more money at the hotel’s restaurant, we ate the rest of our Thai food, punched the power button for the TV and settled back to watch a Back to the Future marathon. After dinner, we had a desire for some dessert, so Liesl went to the restaurant to check out what they had. True to southern hospitality, she was gifted some Apple cake by the proprietor! We gobbled that up, and realized we still had some of our rum cake we had brought along, so we ate that too.
Sometime during Back to the Future II, we heard a raucous, and stepped outside to find a group of 3 kids and 4 adults directly outside our door, decked out in hunting gear and yelling for 'Buckshot' the dog. The dog was only about 15 feet away (second sign). We soon turned in for a night spent on a rock hard bed, but at least it was another king.
The morning of New Years Eve we were awakened bright and early (430ish) by the kids in the hunting group telling the parents to get up, and they were going for breakfast. The restaurant didn’t open until 6am. Good thing they woke us early though, we might have been late for the ferry. Oh wait, it didn’t leave until 7:30. I could have thrown them into the sound. Liesl and I moped around for a while longer before getting up to prepare for a very long day.
The two and a half hour ferry ride on the Pamlico across Pamlico Sound was nice and flat, fairly uneventful, though quite enjoyable. The only real excitement came while we were nearing Ocracoke Island and I spotted a small pod of dolphins ahead of the ferry. I pointed them out to Liesl and she ran to the front of the boat. By that time, they were already behind us, but she was able to get back and take some pics.
Another passenger, whom I took as a local, was not even interested, but instead was trying to find ducks to take pictures of. Ducks, really?! It’s a highly intelligent mammal that lives in the ocean, and he wants to look at ducks?!
Anyway…
Upon landing we discovered several hotels and promptly kicked ourselves in the butt for staying in seedyville. As we had yet to eat anything for breakfast, we stopped at the Creekside Cafe and ate a greasy meal. I do mean greasy. Not so impressed but, hey, we’re on an island so what’s it matter. Following breakfast, we drove north up Ocracoke and found a beach access point across from the pony corrals, stopped and played for a little while, then headed north to the second ferry which would take us to Hatteras. Ocracoke Island is connected to Hatteras by a free Ferry ride which took approximately 40 minutes.
Once on Hatteras we spent time enjoying the sites of the homes, and odd construction habits such as decks on roofs, and homes on stilts.
Being here, we pretty much HAD to stop at Hatteras Lighthouse and take a ton of pictures. I think it is a law, and very much worth doing.
The thing is a marvel and well cared for. Just the story of how it was moved from its old location to the new one is awesome.
Unfortunately, we were a bit worried about time as we intended to get home Friday night, so we headed north, enjoying the scenery, and passing the Bodie Island Lighthouse without stopping as it was undergoing construction.
One last stop to make on our way through the Nag's head area: the Morning View Coffee Roasters which we spotted as we were driving by. Good coffee in a pleasant surfing theme.
One of the things which had by this time really impressed me is the beach access. Though there were private homes facing the beaches, there were no fences and plenty of access points available, as well as activities such as horseback riding, hang gliding (further north), driving on the beach, kayaking, etc.
During the long drive back home, and while we were ending the year with our friends, Peter and Marissa, I couldn’t help but continue to remember everything we had done over the past few days, and think this is how you should spend a few days off work.
