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Last week we finally hit coastline at Virginia Beach. We spent a day cruising around and had a great time. With everyone back at school and work it was a little like a ghost town though. The beach was nice, and this King Neptune sculpture was pretty impressive. It stands about 6 metres high and is made of bronze.

The next day we cruised south… passing through some pretty amazing towns along the Outer Banks… for example, Kitty Hawk was the location for the Wright brother’s first flight. We also passed Nags Head – a town I’ve heard about many times over the years – known to be a great location to kite surf, drive dune buggies, do some beach combing or check out a ship wreck. We drove a little further south and crossed a massive bridge, to arrive at Rodanthe. FYI, here’s a map of our road trip so far.

We took an early morning walk up the beach to see if we could find the house used in the Richard Gere film, Nights in Rodanthe. [If you're interested, this is where Seredipity is] Along the way though we came across something pretty crazy….

This house seemed to have fallen off it’s stilts during a storm! I can only imagine the sound it would have made as it went! After asking a few of the locals what happened, we discovered that two weeks ago during a storm, the waves crashed against the house and brought it down. All the locals were going on about the fact that they built it on 8 foot stilts instead of 18 foot. Makes sense but apparently it costs a lot of money to bring in really long stilts… would have been money well spent in hind sight I guess! Thank goodness insurance covers the damage and nobody was hurt.

How often do you get a chance to lift a house???

The Rodanthe Pier also featured in the film a few times I hear.. for a seafood feast as well as being the convenience store they used. We chatted to the owner of the pier as we took a walk out on it and asked him whether it was always this wobbly. He tells us that it’s designed with a lot of give to withstand the storms. It totally makes sense but doesn’t reassure us much as we stand at the end, shifting left and right about a foot with each wave passing underneath. You wouldn’t find me out there during a storm though!

It gave me opportunity to grab some pretty cool angles on the waves below. This one above reminds me of the feeling as you’re paddling out for a surf and you crest the wave and look back over your shoulder.

Needless to say, my reptile hunt continues… I finally found a snake – I think – it may be a species of legless lizard, but Charlotte wasn’t too keen on me trying to identify it. If anyone out there knows what species it is, can you let us know? Thanks

We spent three days in Rodanthe, with our RV parked about 10 metres behind the first dune – we were all in heaven. It turns out the dogs love the beach.

When it finally came time to leave, we headed south again (searching for that elusive warmer weather). Cape Hatteras is another famous historic location along the outer banks. The lighthouse there has an awesome barber’s pole swirl painted around it.

As we drove out of the lighthouse parking area there was a big swamp area next to the road and I caught a glimpse of what I thought was one or two turtles… We pulled over and after rustling through some bushes we found that there were literally dozens of turtles hanging out, sunbathing and generally just being turtly. How cute is the little guy in the front row!?

Upcoming posts… Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head Island & Savannah.

After a couple of very cold nights up in Shenandoah National Park, Charlotte and I decided it might be time to head toward the beach and thaw out. (I must digress to warn anyone who plans to take a road trip, that you should check the night time minimum temps, not just the daily highs).

We got our maps out and plotted a course for Virginia Beach. Seeing that it would take as right through Charlottesville, I immediately knew we had to spend a day there checking out Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

You see I’d heard about Monticello during my road trip down in these parts last year, but hadn’t been in the right area to check it out.

We spent the night in a gorgeous little spot nestled by a lake. There were birds, squirrels and we came across a big buck during our evening stroll. We both woke rested and ready to take on the world! On the way to Monticello, we were told we should stop in at Michie Tavern and grab an old-style southern lunch. This tavern is over two hundred years old! (in fact it was built a few years before Australia was even discovered!) The food was actually pretty good… deep fried chicken, bbq pork and the veggies were all cooked like my grandma makes ‘em – that’s to say, rather squishy.

Next on our list was Monticello. To set the scene, it’s a mansion designed by Thomas Jefferson. It sits atop a cute little rounded hill, rising out of open forests not unlike those we see around Toronto’s rivers. For some readers of this blog not from America (perhaps most?!), you may only know of Thomas Jefferson as being the man who wrote America’s Declaration of Independence. Well let me tell you, he was many more things… The third President of the United States, an architect, gardener, scientist & botanist, inventor, plantation owner, and founder of the University of Virginia.

As we arrived on “the little mountain” (Monticello translation is little mountain) we were struck by the grandeur, serenity and natural beauty of the location. It was one of those sun-drenched but crisp days.. you know, where the sun is on your face but your butt’s a little chilly!

We decided to wander on the southern side of the mountain where the sun was a little warmer. This was where Thomas spent each evening, sitting in a small (20”X20”) window filled brick building amidst his garden, no doubt pondering his many ideas (we’re standing in it for the photo above – and yes, I need to shave). Charlotte and I sat there for some time soaking up the atmosphere. The gardens are still used and the produce gathered is shared among the staff to this day.

Below his garden the vineyard begins and falls down the slope deep into the valley. We wandered among the vines and then found ourselves amongst peach trees. When we returned to the top of the mountain we were ready for our guided tour of the house.

The tour took us through each room of the main floor, with all wall dressings, paintings, artifacts and maps being pointed out and explained to us by the guide. The main floor was packed with fascinating relics from America’s early years. We both found the tour fascinating and a very powerful way to be able to step back into the days of when the home was lived in.

As a bonus we thought we’d include some photos we took at a winery the following day… More about our road trip soon… coming up is “Nights in Rodanthe”.

I’m going to travel back in time about a week, to last Saturday… After Jerry’s workshop finished on Friday, Charlotte and I decided to take a day to spend the next day checking out Washington DC. I have to say, if we were to do it again, I  should have let Charlotte convince me (which she tried to ) that we should take a segway tour of the city… ala G.O.B. Bluth of Arrested Development

Washington is BIG. I know it looks like a few buildings surrounding a lawn on a map, but as we soon discovered, maps are deceptively not to scale! haha.

Our first stop was Capitol Hill. We then checked out The Botanical Gardens, The National Museum of the American Indian History, The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum (A Must See), then crossed the “lawn” and headed up to The National Portrait Gallery. I tell ya, if you only do one thing in DC, I suggest you check out the Portrait Gallery… it was full of photographs, paintings, sculpture and designs depicting, well, portraits. Duh.

By the time we’d done all this, we were getting a little peckish, so decided to hit Chinatown for dinner. I have to say I was a little underwhelmed… about 5 restaurants and not much else. Either we didn’t actually find it or I’m just used to the bustling markets of Toronto’s Chinatown.

On the way back to our car, we passed Madam Tussauds Wax Museum… Well worth the money to check out… we got to hang out with JLO, Bradgelina and have a laugh with Obama! It’s actually pretty cool to “look into the eyes” so to speak – of some of the great men and women of history… Malcolm X, JFK, Mohamed Ali and so on. It’s unbelievable how real they all look – kind of eerie.

With a very long day behind us we got home to our very waggy dogs… Fritzi and Greta make arriving home a real joy each day. More bog posts to follow soon… We’re catching up!

After reading “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson last year it’s become a dream of ours to set foot on the Appalachian Trail. Bill Bryson’s book was a big reason why Dave and I decided to treat ourselves with a month long holiday after this busy wedding season. The book is filled with side splitting humour and hilarious anecdotes but also allures readers with the visual descriptions of the beauty of the trail. So being in Washington for this workshop last week seemed to be a great excuse to jump right into our road trip, beginning at Shenandoah National Park.

When we decided to attend (and model in… photos to come!) Jerry Ghionis’ awesome photography workshop in Washington last week, it made perfect sense to turn this dream into a reality. We started planning and after a week in our Washington hotel suite, we moseyed on down to pick up our fabulous new accommodation…. an RV!!

On our first day we drove straight to Shenandoah, an unbelievably breath-taking park constantly dazzled us with expanding vistas and dramatic rocky peaks. When we cleared the gates of the park I honestly did not think that we were going to make much distance on this road trip, we wanted to stop at every look out to take in the jaw-dropping landscapes. Virginia hosts the longest chunk of the Appalachian Trail so we’ll be able to see a lot more of it in the time we’ll be here.

We reached our camp site in about two hours (should have taken us 1/2 an hour! lol) and as soon as we pulled in five deer greeted us at the entrance. I was totally shocked, they were everywhere! I know I live in the city but I’d never seen anything like this. They were soooo peaceful, we didn’t get too close but when we took a few photos they didn’t even seem phased… awww Bambi.

The hiking so far has been fab, fresh air and sunshine!! The only thing that’s freaking me out a little is Dave’s fascination with snakes. He flips over every flat rock he can find in hopes of discovering a sleeping reptile. For his sake I hope he doesn’t find one because I know I’ll either pass out or forget first aid for snake bites. The leaves are all gorgeous, red, yellow and orange tones and rustle lightly in the wind reminding us why on earth we decided to hike so far down the rocky slope when we know were gonna have to crawl back up, oh well it beats the climbmaster at the gym right .

The dogs are in having the time of their lives out here in nature. Fritzi is great to have on walks, he’s like a little tank and gives you that extra pull you sometimes need. Greta however, works on her beauty sleep and makes sure no one in a 15 mile radius approaches our motor home. She only likes walking on her own terms so we have learned to let her have her way.

We’ll be checking out the Monticello (Jefferson’s homestead) tomorrow and then, who knows…. Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, Miami, Key West and beyond!!!!

Kristin, our booking consultant, emailed us with the weather report today… SNOW in Toronto, already??!!