Catch Up Post: A Little Of This, A Little Of That

Six weeks of peace and quiet, surrounded by nature made that time feel like it flew by. Ronnie fished a little, we walked and biked to get in our exercise, got caught up on some motorhome maintenance all while spending time in familiar surroundings.  Cedar Point Campground in the Croatan National Forest was home for 14 days followed by 16 days in Charleston, SC and then back for 14 more days of peaceful, relaxing Croatan National Forest camping.  Here's a brief photo diary of some of the things we enjoyed during our time there.

Still waters surround the small boat launch area of the Cedar Point Campground

Calm waters with strewn shells: Emerald Isle Beach

Ronnie's 21" Red Drum caught (and released) from Beaufort Inlet

Ugh...Ronnie's caught (and released) octopus.

Quaint downtown Swansboro, NC.

One of the several views form the Swansboro waterfront.

The first portion of October's weather was unusually hot and humid for this region.  Unfortunately, our time in Charleston was spent trying to keep cool!  Time spent in the shade and near Charleston's waterfront offered a great cooling effect.
Of course we had to stop by and visit one of our favorite trees
Johns Island's Angel Oak Tree.  Estimated to be between 400-500 years old, this live oak with it's heavy, far reaching branches is truly amazing to me.  It has survived hurricanes, a war, modern development and the encroaching growth of Johns Island.  It's impressive size and girth makes you feel small and somewhat overwhelmed when you first walk up to the tree.  Walking around it, the maze of branches seem to reach down and touch your heart.  You cannot help but to know you are seeing something special.

Charleston is a wonderful place to visit and explore. However, Ronnie and I think strolling along it's old streets, admiring the majestic antebellum homes, is best done on cool, low humidity days.  We plan to come back another time and maybe schedule that visit for when it's more comfortable.

Charleston's cool and breezy Riley Waterfront Park.

The Charleston Saturday Farmer's Market was quite nice.  Located in Marion Square, it offers the usual collection of delicious farm-fresh grown vegetables, locally made foods and crafts and an assortment of food trucks with tasty treats.  The castle-like building in the background is now an Embassy Suites Hotel but was originally The Old Citadel Building. 

This pottery was exquisite.

We grilled some of these beauties on the grill later that evening..yummm

And we enjoyed some of these ripe red tomatoes on our salads and sandwiches.

Views of Citadel Square Baptist Church built in 1855-56. 

With daytime temperatures reaching in the upper 80's to low 90's and high humidity, touring this beautiful city was limited on this visit.  These were the only photographs I made of Charleston's splendid architecture.  Because it was so hot, we mostly auto-hiked in the air conditioning.  Hopefully we can experience the cooler side of Charleston another time.

More later from Wilmington, NC.

From Northern Alaska to North Carolina's Crystal Coast

It's 4405 miles from Fairbanks, AK to Cedar Point, NC.  That's a long way to travel by highway and thankfully Ronnie was able to drive from Fairbanks to my Mom's in Coats with out any issues.  In fact, Ronnie drove the entire 10,288 mile round trip drive from Coats with out any major problems with the motorhome.  The Jeep even did well!  We are very grateful for a smooth trip and also thankful that the few complications we did encounter were easily solved.  After 2 weeks at my Mom's to enjoy time with her (and Ronnie spending several days cleaning the "nass-tee" motorhome as well) we're now experiencing some great summer-like weather here at the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. We plan to spend the fall staying in southern NC, being flexible with our schedule as the weather and our notions dictate.

Here's a few animal pictures from our last days on the Alaska Highway.

Tundra Swans

A buffalo herd lounging beside the road in British Columbia

A little further down the road, Stone Sheep licking salt from the pavement.

On our journey back to the lower 48 United States, we planned a four day stop in Edmonton, Alberta to visit the West Edmonton Mall. 
It is the largest mall in North America with an ice skating rink, water slide with wave pool, an indoor lake with a trained seal show, a huge roller coaster and amusement park plus 800 stores!  We walked the entire mall in about 4 hours.  We didn't ride the roller coaster or go to the water park and the ice skating rink was closed.  Instead, we just got some walking exercise that day and stayed in constant  amazement at an enclosed mall of this size.

This large indoor lake offered a pirate ship and a couple of trained seals putting on a show for school kids.

The indoor water park had a multi-tiered water slide complete with twisting tubes.

This is the wave pool section of the water park.

The ice skating rink was undergoing a million dollar renovation.

The indoor amusement park reminded us of the North Carolina State Fair!

We were shocked to see this huge indoor roller coaster and even more amazed to see it in action.  No Way!!

To compliment this unusual mall experience was this Chinese Grocery Store also located in the mall. We had never been in such an establishment, we were just fascinated by all of the different unusual foods and the array of brilliant colors drawing our attention every which way.  There were many different kinds of foods, most we had never seen before!

Here's an entire isle of soy sauces.

Whoa, look at all these different kinds of noodles..

This dessert display reminded me of  American artist Wayne Thiebaud's Cut Meringue Pies.

Who knew you could eat sweet potato leaves?

..and you could eat lotus root??

These must be the longest string beans I have ever seen!

Ahh...there is something soothing and relaxing while enjoying the familiar Crystal Coast of North Carolina and it's secluded, quiet Cedar Point Campground in the Croatan National Forest.  What a great place to wind down from our long distance trip.  We found familiar foods, familiar camping and we also got to revisit familiar friends from our time at Page Place RV Park.  (So good to see Ron&Barbara, Tammy, Johnny, Helen and Dean)

Finally, an all clean and shiny motorhome.

And familiar beaches too..a view of Emerald Isle from the Bogue Pier.

More Later..