Our tour of North Carolina began from our new homesite in Shawboro, located near the beautiful Outer Banks. This area is in the far eastern section of the state and consists of a string of sandy, narrow islands that form a barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and two inland waterways- the two largest land locked sounds in the U.S. Along the Outer Banks we visited Kitty Hawk, Jockey's Ridge State Park & Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Kitty Hawk is of course home to the first "successful sustained heavier-than-air powered" flights by Orville & Wilbur Wright.
On the morning of December 17, 1903 (after 4 years of experimentation) the brothers made four successful flights in the Wright Flyer. This granite boulder marks the lift-off point of these flights. Next to the marker was the 60 foot monorail they used since the soft sand prohibited launching with conventional wheels.
In front of the boulder, these four numbered markers show each flight's terminating point.
The 60 foot monument marks the place where the Wright brothers conducted their glider experiments.
The visitor's center included exhibits like a reproduction of the Wright's first wind tunnel and reproduction of the 1903 flying machine (though we saw the original in D.C.) and nearby was the beautiful life-size bronze capturing the historic moment.
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| Just as Orville left the ground, John Daniels from the lifesaving station snapped the shutter on a preset camera capturing the historic photo of the Flyer in air & Wilbur running alongside. He had never even seen a camera before taking this shot and later said that he was so excited by seeing the Flyer rising that he nearly forgot the Wright's instructions to squeeze the bulb triggering the shutter. |
We visited the Jockey's Ridge Sand Dunes, tallest natural dune system in the Eastern U.S. for an afternoon of just pure fun.
We raced,
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| Whew! Steeper than it looks! |
made sand angels,
made ourselves dizzy,
used the sand as our canvas for tic-tac-toe & messages,
and just enjoyed the beauty!
We spotted Currituck Beach Lighthouse on our drive, so stopped for the 158 foot climb.
Our campground was situated right by a fishing pond, which Alayna & Jim enjoyed, but the mosquitoes were THICK. Each night we were obsessed with smashing as many mosquitoes as possible that had snuck into our home. Hundreds, I'm sure!
Cape Hatteras National Seashore was lined with beautiful beaches.
Our 7-hour trek took us across the state to Asheville. The beauty of traveling in our home is that we can accomplish so much while on the road. The girls have access to all of their school books, supplies, and internet; I can blog, fix meals and navigate, and Jim gets lots of work calls taken care of. And best of all- no need to stop at rest stops!
We were told Biltmore (America's largest home) was a place not to miss, so we planned for a full day there. Nestled on 8,000 acres of breath-taking landscape this 250 room mansion was certainly a site to see. Built by George Vanderbilt, it opened in 1895. To preserve the estate during the Depression, his daughter and her husband opened the estate to the public and it is still a family run business. Here's just a glimpse of its enormousness (again, no photos allowed):
~Today, 1,800 employees are needed to run the estate
~A 90-foot long room, just for afternoon tea & music
~A library containing half of Vanderbilt's 23,000 volume collection
~43 bathrooms throughout the homes (most homes didn't yet have one!)
~One of the nation's first bowling alleys in a public residence
~A 70,000 gallon heated swimming pool complete with multiple changing rooms and call buttons for poolside service
~Exquisite portraits & paintings, fine tapestries, and elaborate statues & artwork throughout the home
~Separate servant quarters with their own dining room, walk-in refrigerators, pastry kitchen, rotisserie kitchen, main kitchen, laundry rooms, and bedrooms. Each servant even had their own small, heated bedroom.
So grand was this estate, that it took 6 years to build and had its own brick factory, woodworking shop, and six miles of railway to transport materials in. We took a special candlelight tour, seeing the home at night beautifully decorated for Christmas. The girls had fun counting the 59 Christmas trees:)
During the day we meandered through the rest of the grounds... gardens galore, a winery, farm, and village with lots of shops & restaurants. We stopped for lunch at the french-country Bistro and had dinner in the 19th-century transformed stables.
Thanksgiving fell during our time in North Carolina, and we decided to put all work & homework aside for the day, watch Christmas movies & the parade, play games, enjoy the gorgeous day running & fishing, and cook up a feast in our tiny little kitchen. Since our oven is only big enough for a mini-sized cookie sheet, Jim smoked the turkey outside:) We even thought about joining in the Black Friday craziness by shopping at midnight, but decided to avoid the crowds & get the same deals online.
We actually left our RV in North Carolina a few extra days as we took off in the jeep toward eastern Tennessee, which will be blogged after we tour the western portion...
A) Shawboro (campsite)
B) Kitty Hawk (Wright brothers)
C) Jockey's Ridge State Park
D) Currituck Beach Lighthouse
E) Cape Hatteras National Seashore
F) Asheville
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