Day 24 – It was 28 degrees last night, quite cold this morning at 8 a.m., but sunny. We don’t have electricity at this campsite which means the girls don’t have their heated pads. Two of them slept with us; the other two cuddled together on a chair. We do have heat, propane instead of electric. It’s not that bad!
We’re supposed to get rain tomorrow & Sunday, both days windy, too. So today, even though cold, was the day for us to be out & about. With this weather there probably won’t be biking or kayaking here. But we did want to do some birding and maybe take a hike today. We left at 10 a.m. and went about 10 miles south to the end of the peninsula at the town of Kure. We drove by the Fort Fisher State Historic Site & their interpretive center and grounds. Soon thereafter we arrived at the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher, one of three Aquariums on the Atlantic Ocean in North Carolina. And lastly, at the end of the road, we stopped at Fort Fisher Battery Buchanan, grabbed the cameras, and took a walk around. We had no idea historically how much of a role this area played in the Civil War. To protect the large port city of Wilmington, Fort Fisher was built to defend the area along the Ocean & the Cape Fear River. After walking around where the River meets the Ocean, we decided to visit the Interpretive Center & Museum at the Fort Fisher Historic Site to learn more. It was quite interesting, and we recommend this area to anyone who visits Carolina Beach.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
It was past lunch time when we finished the Site tour and walk on the boardwalk, so we drove north to Michael’s Seafood near the campground. It was recommended by the Ranger as having Seafood Chowder that has won international awards, and it was his favorite place. Starving when we got there since we’d worked up an appetite walking around in the cold weather, we were disappointed to find they were closed for renovations, re-opening this weekend. Luckily we were near the campground, so we just went back to the RV and had sandwiches.
It was still sunny & had reached a whopping 44 degrees, so we went for a little hike on the Flytrap Trail at the State Park. We’d been particularly interested in this trail out of the 9 trails available, because the Venus Flytrap plant is native to this area & can be seen on this trail. Both of us put the close-up lenses on our cameras. It was a nice, pretty walk, but no Flytrap plants were seen. Off-season for those, too, we presume.
Back at the RV, Rob put together a loaf of bread to bake. Something went wrong with it, so he threw it out and started another loaf. Third time’s a charm, we hope, because loaf #3 is baking right now. Loaf #2 failed also. Maybe the flour was bad? Can flour go bad? Oh, life’s little problems. We’ll write tomorrow about how loaf #3 did.