Hi y'all, the photo album of 08/17/10 was not suppose to post, so the first 29 pictures are from previous times that were not good enough to place on the blog, so just don't pay attention to them. And the rest of them, I usually go thru and delete the bad ones. Sorry.

Good Morning,

Southport was just a stop over to wash clothes and get fuel. The town was a little to far to walk. We didn't even eat out that night. (auhhh). Oh well we are happy just sitting in the cock pit chatting. The next day we had to pass by Fort Lejeune, which took us in the middle of where they practice maneuvers. Thank goodness there were none going on. We would have had to sit and wait(pics). We ended up stopping at Swansboro. We went walk a little and looked at old homes. We also saw a statue someone carved from an old tree.(pics) We ate at a little waterside restaurant and enjoyed. We even saw Elvis.(pic) Who said he was dead?
The following days we stayed at Oriential, which is a retirees town. There are not many children, only alot of friendly old people. Everyone you passed greeted you. There is a natural spring that sits next to a 200 year old tree(pics). The citizens built small cement benches so people could go sit in it. The house next to the tree has a church steeple bird house that I thought was really cute. (pic). We passed by a house that painted pictures on individual bricks that we also liked, it has a green door and pink roof(pics). On our way to Great Bridge, NC we anchored out and there were 2 fighter jets that kept passes. (videos, some should have been deleted, but remember I uploaded before I looked them over). Dixie and Dicky took the Dismal Swamp route, while Lu & Mike took the Virginia cut route. From what I hear from Dixie it was awesome!!!!! They walked trails and even took a canoe ride. We met up at Norfolk, VA. Dixie and Dicky went to the movies and saw Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Lu &
Mike went see Eclipse. The city mascot is mermaids. There we walked the historic district & visited the mall. Dixie and Dicky toured the USS Wisconsin, while Lu & Mike took a city bus ride to a West Marine and then to Virginia Beach. That was a new experience. Well we are at Hampton, VA, just up the river from Norfolk. It is raining outside, so we will tour tomorrow.

OK people this is getting harder and harder, lol
We left St Simons island and headed to Savannah by way of the ocean, (pic & video), it was GREAT. The ocean way took us maybe 11 hours compared to 2+ days via ICW. Once we reached Thunderbolt(Savannah) Dicky and Dixie were waiting with refreshments in hand to greet us. We visited a while, then headed into town for supper. The next day was wash day then that afternoon had a few drinks(pics) and took a ride upstream to Turner Creek to bring Chrisjen back to the dock where we first layed eyes on her.(pic) The marina was a shambles. That was disappointing. Headed back to Hinckley Marina to gear up for departure the next morning.
We decided to stop early this day at Hilton Head, BIG mistake. It was one of those 100 degree days. It was so hot. Left early the next morning and head to Beaufort, SOUTH Carolina (pronounced like the 1st syllable in the word beau-ti-ful)beau-fort. I bring that up, because the city in Beaufort, NORTH Carolina says in different. We enjoyed walking thought the shops and trying their food.
Made our way to St Johns Island Harbor Marina (Charleston). We rented a car and did some sightseeing. and of course shopping. They have a market very similar to the french market in New Orleans.(pics). Their historical district is very beautiful. Old churches with tall steeples(quite a few pics) and old buildings. One was the US Customs Building. man, if those walls could talk what stories we would hear. (pics). We grilled some steaks the night before we left to head to North Myrtle Beach.
We stopped before we reached Myrtle Beach, right off the ICW at a little pier belonging to an oil company. We hired a diver in St. Simons Island to scrub the bottom, but Mike wanted to check it out, so off into the water he went.(pics).
Made it to North Myrtle Beach the next day and stayed at the Barefoot Landing Marina. The owner (Mark King), brought Mike & I to West Marine and told us a little bit about North Myrtle Beach. The marina is part of a shopping complex (whoohoo), what a surprise, it has shops, restaurants, alligator farm, tiger shows, and a concert theatre. We ate at Wild Wing the first night, nothing special, but the second night we ate at The Flying Fish. We all enjoyed the food and the drinks were great. I tried The Hammerhead which was good, and Mike got Rummmm(roll your tongue) Punch, that was GREAT. In fact I ordered one after the hammerhead. They were 32oz. mugs. yumyum. Last night we stayed at Southport, North Carolina. We were tired, so we washed clothes and hung around the boat. Today we have stopped at Wrightville, but on our way we passed quite a few pelicans just sitting in the water. Looked like a sea of pelicans. (pic). And also, the US Coast Guard Eagle passed by us. It is a training ship for the guards.(pics). OK, I have caught up. Will try hard next time. Love Lu&Mike, Dixie&Dicky