Kicking back

The first thing I did Saturday was sleep late. While we have ambitious plans on some vacations, this week was about relaxing. We finally rolled just before 11 and headed off to Fort Macon. Our goal was to see the outer banks and the Fort seemed like a good place to start.  It is not a really big fort, but it was pretty typical of ones from the 1800s that we had visited. Mostly bricks and dirt with cannons on the walls. The views were nice and we enjoyed looking around and getting some exercise.

After the fort we headed off to Beaufort, NC. We had considered taking the Ferry out to some of the Beaches but our late start made that plan less practical. We decided to walk about and enjoy the little town.  I must say parking was confusing. All the spaces are numbered but there were no signs showing how to pay for parking. I looked up the city parking site and found out that in the off season, parking is free. This happened September 24 in Beaufort. It would be nice if when they took down the pay parking signs, they put up some other guidance.

There is not too much in Beaufort but there were some nice expensive yachts and some typical tourist town stores.   After wandering, we headed back and stopped by Atlantic Beach, yes this is the third city name borrowed from somewhere else. I didn’t realize that there is one set of names and all the states have to share them.

Atlantic Beach also had confusing parking and it was also free after August 31. We were getting hungry so we tried to get a table beachside but they were all full. We put our name on the list and went for a stroll on the beach.

It was quite windy and the sand is softer than at home so it was a good workout. After a 30 minute stroll we returned and our table had opened up. After showing up to a busy patio, as soon as we arrived everyone left. The food was ok and we enjoyed fish and chips watching the waves break.

It had been a pretty warm day with highs in the mid 80s. The skies had been clear and blue all day so it was hard to believe that the forecast was for 54 degrees in the morning. When we returned to the hotel it was still quite warm but around 7:15 we picked up some food and by the time we came back, it felt like the temperatures were dropping fast.

Even though the skies had stayed clear, we had watched the radar and a line of rain was coming. The rain stretched from Wilmington to Maine. At the tail end it was just a few miles wide, up North it was 120 miles wide. We were getting a bit lucky in that the weather was coming through and clearing by morning. Right on time around 8 we had some quick rain and then the temperature really started to fall.

Last task was planning the flight to Maryland. I usually file direct but we were starting to enter the busy North East airspace so I figured I better get with the program. I filed PEARS V139 CCV and the computer promised this is what I would get, we shall see in the morning.