North Carolina

We stopped in Wilmington for a few days as we traveled north.

The first day we went to Wrightsville Beach.  It is a great area but once again, hard to park in a truck.  So we decided to look for a place to eat that had a parking lot - that's being creative!  This place fit the bill.

Not just a parking lot but a beautiful restaurant.

We decided to sit out on the deck overlooking the beach.

We had a few who were very interested in what we were eating.

We ignored them and enjoyed our lunch.  I order fish tacos any chance I get and these were outstanding.  Ron had a shrimp salad.

Oops, then we had a delicious key lime pie for dessert.  Don't judge.

The next day was our only planned activity - a get-together with a high school friend and her husband!  They spent years living in Wisconsin and moved to North Carolina a year or two ago.  And now here we were all together nearly 50 years after high school!

After time reminiscing, we headed out to dinner.  Another meal by the beach - I could get used to this.

And some more time on the deck.  We were so happy that Greg was able to join us after an incident with a student he was certifying on a motorcycle - his left shoulder took the brunt of it and boy could Ron sympathize.

And more birds watching and waiting for crumbs.

But there was more to come.  As we were reminiscing at their house, Ron described the wonderful peaches we'd had and they explained that they were both working at a family owned farm and they had peaches!  So Kathy called the owner and asked her to leave some peaches out and "put it on her tab".  So off we went to pick up 10 pounds of peaches.

And there they were just waiting for us.  

What a wonderful way to cap off our short stop in North Carolina.  Thanks for everything, Kathy and Greg - hope to see you again soon!

Charleston - Middleton Place

We had one more place to visit during our stay in Charleston - Middleton Place.

Note that he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence

We opted to skip the house tour and we took our time visiting the gardens.  I'm sure hours and hours are spent each day on maintaining these beautiful gardens.

These two love their home.

A formal garden is a garden with a clear structure, geometric shapes and, in most cases, a symmetrical layout.  Usually, low perennial plants and flowers are planted in borders where the main criteria is not the bloom but rather the shape and effect produced by the color of the leaves.  If lawn is used, it is usually a closely cut ornamental lawn.

We continued our walk and saw some beautiful old trees.

And just like that, we entered the area with graves of the Middleton family.

Arthur Middleton, 1742-1787, signer of the Declaration of Independence

We continued our walk and had a beautiful view of the river.

And then we were in front of the house.

I looked around and Ron was out of view.  I found him here.

Taking a photo?  Of what?  Fortunately I stayed where I was once I realized what was so interesting.

Hard to see it but it's a GATOR!  And not a small one, either!

We kept walking and saw the chapel.

We headed toward the stables.  These sheep are just a small portion of those that have free range of the grounds.

 

This guy wasn't fazed at all by me coming close to take his picture.

We then visited the animals.

A different looking pig

These are some mighty big horns

This guy was noisy, noisy, noisy.  He must get irritated when visitors pay more attention to his barnyard friends so he bangs his hoof on this plywood floor.

He looks very irritated

Not animals but the carriage house was very interesting.

The blacksmith shop was in use as we walked by.  I'm not sure what he was doing but he was very busy.

We found our way to Eliza's house.

Bedroom

Kitchen

And then the exhibit I was waiting for - the horses!

It was hot and this guy looked very anxious to get out of the sun.

This was a great walking tour of a beautiful plantation.  And with that, it was time to leave the Charleston area the next day.