Wilmington, NC

Today we arrived in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is a very historic town on the river leading to the sea.

This is the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington. This building was finished in 1928 after 3 previous buildings were burned down. It is a beautiful gothic building and we were able to get a great tour of the sanctuary. Beautiful stained glass window and fabulous wood work. Woodrow Wilson's father was pastor of this church from 1874 to 1885 and the president considered this his home.

This was one of the windows in the First Presbyterian Church. We also were able to go into St. Mary Catholic Church. It will have it's 100th Anniversary next year. The brick building of this church was incredible.

Happy Birthday Kaye

We are in Raleigh, NC for two days and we went out last night for dinner to celebrate Pam's sister, Kaye's birthday. They live here in Raleigh. We had a great dinner at Shucker's.

Mount Mitchell & Crabtree Falls

In the morning we took a hike to Crabtree Falls.

We moved on from there to the top of Mt. Mitchell. As you can see it was just a bit cold up there. This really is not snow but frozen moisture on the trees. Check out the picture below and you can see this is the highest point east of the Mississippi.
We returned to our cabin in the afternoon and played with the dogs in the meadow next to the river by our cabin. We went on to the barn and helped the owner feed the horses, goats and donkeys.

Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina

We are just north of Asheville, NC in a cabin outside of Burnsville. This is a view east of the parkway as we traveled north to Blowing Rock and Boone. It has really turned cold today and we actually drove thru snow even though it was not sticking to the ground.

This is the river near Linville where we hiked to the falls.

This is Moses Cone Park. This house was built in the mid 1890's by Moses and his wife Bertha as their summer home. There are 25 miles of carriage roads here and the house has become a place for local crafts.

ACE Basin / Cuckolds Creek

Today we went to the ACE Basin which is the largest protected fresh water river basin in North America. We saw Bald Eagles, Osprey and Great White Egrets among others.

This is the group in front of what was an old rice plantation, now someone's home.

After lunch we took a loop on a small tributary river. Beautiful...and this part of the trip has come to an end. Everyone splits tomorrow except for the Frazier's and us who will be going up to North Carolina for another week.

Wambaw River

This is Hampton Plantation. One of only two remaining as it was built. All of the others have been reconstructed. We got a tour by the new park ranger. The plantation was donated to the state by the last resident, Archibald Rutledge. It was originally a rice plantation.

We then went kayaking on the Wambaw River. This is our guide, Chris. He has done an incredible job for us.