We're on a slow crawl.
We're not looking for anything in particular. Sometimes we just relax by the water.
If we see something we think we might like, we dip our toes in before taking the plunge.
We found a nice park in Jacksonville, N.C. that held our interest for a few hours.
Any park with a labyrinth is top notch in our book!
The Richard Ray All American Park also had neat little informational boards to read along the trail. In each 'region' they had laid out a garden plot with plants native to each area.
This Mockingbird provided us a very verbal description of the Northeast Region,
while this curious Eastern Kingbird simply followed us around and kept a slight distance.
And, this Mourning Dove provided an afternoon serenade.
Before we left, we partook in some Seagull acrobatics.
We then moved on and wound up traveling further than we had planned due to an unexpectedly full black tank. Whose been using our bathroom?!
Just across the sound from Mann's Harbor, N.C. is a welcome center with a free dump. We had planned to visit it the next day but... someone had been using our bathroom. Sheesh.
We returned to Mann's Harbor where we rested for the evening and awoke to many a crab trap and a few very large Gulls.
This young Great Black Backed Gull (one of the largest with a 29-30 inch wing span)
and this beautiful Herring Gull (with a 24-25 inch wing span) were new for us.
Leaving Mann's Harbor in the afternoon we crossed over the
Purple Martin Bridge.
The Martins that roost under this bridge from June - September eat enough insects to sustain them for their yearly migration back to Brazil.
On this day, they were all hunkering down as it started to rain.
We crossed over to the Outer Banks as the bottom started to fall out. It was o.k. with us though as the area was a bit too touristy for our tastes. So, onward we went through the downpour and crossed into Virginia.