Friday- Some Touring, Some Traveling

We decided to take advantage of the rest of our car time by going back to Wilmington first thing this morning. We caught the very first trolley tour of the day, and it was a winner. Our guide/driver was fantastic. He had his route memorized, but he did not deliver it as though he were just reciting. He was not one of those guides who has to tell a joke every minute. Instead, he was pleasant and professional. We really enjoyed our 45 minute tour through historical Wilmington.

In honor of Linda, we tried to get some shots of one of the church steeples. This church has a rooster on top of its spire! We thought that we finally could take a chicken picture for Linda. No such luck. Every time the trolley got close, trees blocked the view. So, I am forced to drop back to my standard photo. In this case, I had to take a picture of a postcard. Oh well....

Not our best chicken shot. But, what can you do if Linda is not with you to capture those moments?

We then went off to the Cape Fear Science and Arts Museum. It was another gem. The exhibits took you on a tour of the history of the area. You could guess at some of the exhibits-- wildlife of the area, climate, industry. But, there were some surprises, too. My favorite was a little display of handbags! They had handbags dating back to the early 1900s. And, the explanation of the exhibit had some great old photos of women with their handbags. There was also a Michael Jordan Discovery Room! It seems that he was born and raised in Wilmington. An interesting factoid for all you sports fans-- Michael Jordan did not make his high school team the first time he tried out. According to our trolley driver, he is an example of the power of perseverance. The Discovery Room, BTW, was actually a large hands-on science area. There were lots of fun things to do. I personally spent some time with the exhibit that let you hear the sounds of animals in the area. There was also a great display on hurricanes. My favorite part of it was a large wall photo of the eastern seaboard from space. It showed the run off from the land into the ocean after a major hurricane. I had never thought about that aspect of a hurricane. So often, we only focus on the devastation to man made structures.

But, finally it was time to go. We first had to return the car to Enterprise. We just keep finding out that it takes forever to do anything with those people! We finally got taken back to the boat just in time to make the 2:00 bridge opening. Talk about timing. We had 7 minutes to get on the boat, off the dock, and moving toward the bridge. Lucky for us that it was really close, huh?

Now, we are back on the ICW. There has been lots to see on the water. This area is full of recreational boaters, so we have been swarmed by jet skis. We've also had our share of small powerboats pulling floats with children or adults on them. But, the best for me was the pirate ship.

It looked like one of those tourist pirate ships. But, this one only had ONE boy on it! What a great day to be the only one! You get to do everything. I was suitably jealous!

So, we are just cruising along. We'll stop somewhere soon for the night. Then, it is on to Beaufort in the morning.