Make you Feel My Love

Day 3: Make you feel my love

One year ago today, we began our cross country adventure in a very special place.  We started it at our dear friends Rob and Elizabeth’s wedding.  What a treat to be able to be with them again a year later to remember that special day.  Although the titles of the blog posts are usually pretty random song titles that remind me of that day, this one is the song that their friend Mary sang and played at their ceremony, which was a treasured moment in a beautiful day.

I got up early and wanted to do something special to mark the occasion, run and get a special breakfast or flowers, something along those lines.  So went down to the car to run out quickly before anyone got up and discovered the car dead.  Fortunately, it was not that way on its own.  Unfortunately, our car was parking Rob and Liz’s in.  I settled on some lovely flowers picked from the back of a bush in the property.  Not the splash of celebration I was hoping for, but somehow if the flowers are beautiful and fresh picked, they are always perfect. 

The positive side of this debacle is that Rob and Josh, Captain Tinkerer and his trusty sidekick, got to do a project together.  Liz and I stepped back and chuckled at them, clearly enjoying the process of figuring out how to get the cars close enough together to jump our car.  Against the tinkering power of Captain T and his trusty sidekick, our van had no choice in the matter, in no time it revved to
life and we got ready for the beach. 

Ft. Raleigh with Buddy the Bison

In our to do list of things was Manteo Island, home of Ft. Raleigh and the Lost Colony.  As we left for Ft. Raleigh, the skies darkened and we found ourselves driving into a storm.  One of the most dramatic and beautiful things in the Outer Banks is watching the weather roll in from one place to another.  The rain falling on Manteo Island was dramatic and beautiful.  The rain and cloud cover was welcome although short, by the time we got to Ft. Raleigh, the rains were done. 

Working on Farreldubeneil sc. hunt @ the Elizabethan Garden

Amazing pinks!

We went into the Visitor Center and the kids began their Jr. Ranger badges.  We went to a Ranger PowerPoint and video on the mysteries of the Lost Colony.  It’s interesting that the first settlement is so shrouded in mystery, but life in a different land must have been difficult.  John White feel in love with the new land and convinced people to move there, including his daughter, Eleanor, and her new husband, Ananias Dare.  His daughter gave birth to the first English person born in this new continent, she was named Virginia for the colony.  John White was encouraged by the colonists to return to England for supplies.  He returned and because of England at war, couldn’t get back right away.  When he was able to get back to Virginia, in the spot that the colony was, the settlement was gone with only a sign that said Croatoa.  It’s a mystery what happened exactly to the colonists. 

Hitting the beach for sunset

Badged and knowledged up, we headed out to explore the Lost Colony.  The battlements were still in existence and were small, it was hard to imagine all 116 people fitting into them.  We then went the Elizabethan Gardens.  The Gardens were beautiful but expensive.  At $8 a head for adults to walk through, even the garden lovers Elizabeth and Virginia could not be persuaded to fork over the cash.  After looking through the beautiful wrought iron fences at the garden, and seeing a butterfly play through the flowers, we headed back to Kill Devil Hills, stopping at the Sugar Shack to get clams and shrimp. 

Rob and Liz worked magic in the kitchen and made delicious shrimp scampi and a garlicky wine steamed clams.  Afterwards, we headed to the beach to watch the sunset.  The sky was an intoxicating pink and a perfect end to a wonderful day.  We pulled out the trick kite and although the wind wasn’t quite strong enough, Michael got a good flight out of it.  

Kite flying sunset!