In Manteo

10/27 - After a delicious breakfast at the Magnolia Grill we headed out for a walk. We crossed the bridge and headed for Roanoke Island Festival Park. This is a complex that features, among other things, the Elizabeth II, a settlement site, art gallery, museum store, outdoor pavilion and lots of trails. It was very interesting and we spent an hour or so just wandering the trails/boardwalk along the waterfront.

The main complex at Festival Park

Along one of the waterside trails

A shot of the marina (and Monk's Vineyard) from the bridge

One of the reasons we decided to make the side trip to Manteo was because we have friends that live (part time) in Kitty Hawk. They planned on being in the area until the first of November, so we made plans to get together while we were in the area. Early in the afternoon they picked us up and we went back to their home. They had done quite a bit of remodelling since we had last seen it and their current renovation involved adding an elevator. We had a nice visit, walked to the beach (they are only a block away from the ocean) and then we went out to dinner at the Black Pelican. We had a great dinner and great company. It was a fun day. Thanks Chuck and Jan.

A shot of Chuck and Jan at the"tree" in front of their home.
They said it was tradition to take a picture of all guests
in front of the tree .. so here is one of us below

We took a short walk on the beach

Back at the boat, we tried to decide our plan for Thursday. At one point, we had thought we would travel down Roanoke Sound and then across Pamlico Sound to the Neuse River. However, the weather forecast was still calling for strong winds and we (anyway, Linda) just weren’t comfortable with the idea of being on either sound in heavy wind. We decided to wait until morning to finalize our plans.

10/28 – We woke to strong winds, but they seemed to subside after sunrise. The weather forecast appeared to indicate the day would be decent, but the following day showed strong wind with a small craft advisory. We decided to head out, but backtracked a bit and headed to the ICW on the Alligator River. Even though it was longer, it was a more protected route. We traveled 8+ hours arriving at our Pungo River anchorage around 5:30.