Tribute To North Carolina

Southport, NC

It may seem to you that we have been dawdling in North Carolina. It's true but only because we had so much fun here. What a nice state, and what nice people it had. There are blog articles on each place (the article on Wilmington and the battleship is not posted yet.), but here's my review of the state.

• The Great Dismal Swamp canal. Wonderfully peacefule. Great Nature.
  
  
• The North Carolina Welcome Center. Unbelievable hospitality.
  
  
• Elizabeth City and the Rose Buddies. We stayed three days there, and would have gladly stayed longer. They made us feel right at home.
  
  
• Oriental. We stayed there 40 hours, then went away, then came back for another 48 hours. Oriental is billing itself as the best sailing spot on the east coast. I'll second that. It is a wonderfully unspoiled small town with 2500 sailboats, and great sailing weather and great waters.
  
  
• New Bern. If it hadn't started to turn cold here, I might have voted to spend the entire winter in New Bern. It's a very nice place.
  
  
• Nags Head and the Outer Banks. I don't know what it would be like to live there, but it sure is a beautiful place to visit.
  
  
• Bald Head Island. A little too yuppyish for Libby and I, but a wonderful island. Only golf carts on the roads, no cars. Salt marshes. Peace and quiet.
  
  
• Wilmington looks like what Schenectady would like to be. Prosperous and bustling. They have the battleship North Carolina there and I spent a whole day crawling over it.
  
  
• Southport. That is where we are today. The last stop in NC before entering South Carolina. Last night we bought shrimp and crabs from a fisherman two slips away. We gorged ourselves on the seafood last night. It was a gastric orgy. Today, we're just walking on the sidewalks of the residential and downtown areas. Southport is like Scotia, but nicer.
  

We've been to a lot of places in the past months and had a lot of fun, but North Carolina takes the prize as the most fun place we've been to. We are very glad that we didn't skip it and sail south on the outside.