Tar heelin'

Even in a king bed I had no room last night. Here's why:

We caught the 8:30 ferry from Southport to Fort Fisher on the Cape Fear River.  This is Southport:

And the ferry:

By the way, the ferry cost only $5, way cheaper than a Washington state ferry, and there was no long ferry line.

Our first stop was Wilmington, another delightful town with much history. 

We stopped for a coffee at the most dog friendly coffee shop ever.  The owner and patrons couldn't have been nicer. 

This guy brings his dog to the shop every day.

They were filming the movie "Max Steel" around the corner from the coffee shop, so we snuck a couple of pics. 

They film lots of movies and tv shows in Wilmington due to its beauty and generous North Carolina tax breaks.  We were told it is the "Hollywood of the East".  "Three Tree Hill" and ""Under the Dome" are filmed there now.  They just wrapped up some Robert Downey Jr. movie too.

Continuing on route 17 we passed Camp Lejeune.  I felt right at home when I saw a P.E.T.A. bumper sticker.

Oops, wrong P.E.T.A.

Next stop was New Bern, famous for two things:

Tyron Palace, the Colonial Governor's palace.  Spectacular.

And even better, New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi!

From New Bern we detoured off hwy 17 to Bath, the oldest town in North Carolina.  It's in the middle of nowhere, but definitely worth seeing.

Final stop was Edenton.  I had been to Edenton 35 years ago for a long weekend after graduating from college and wanted to see if it is still as beautiful as I had remembered.  It is.

We hit significant rain outside Elizabeth City.  We kept Vanna under the carport in Florida, and we had not encountered real rain on either of our trips until today so we didn't know if Vanna leaks. She does.  Like a faucet.  Paper towels now hang from her skylight to soak up the water. I'm mopping up the rest of the water that doesn't drip on poor Daisy.  Oh well.  At least her windshield wipers are working, for now.

Tonight we are staying with our good friends and Florida neighbors Angelo and George in Virginia Beach.

We walked the beach at Angelo's house and saw dolphins. This is the sunset over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.