Day in Gatlinburg

Monday, we headed to Tennessee to visit that side of the Smokies but first had another great breakfast at Everett Street Diner.  Driving through Cherokee, Sandy pulled over next to a gas station.  What at first appeared to be statues were actually elk.

We watched them for a few minutes as they crossed the street in a crosswalk and then continued grazing.

We entered Great Smoky Mountains National Park and soon had to stop for a mother elk and her fawn in the road.

We continued all the way through the park to Gatlinburg and took Cherokee Orchard Road to Roaring Fork Motor Trail.  Right near the start of the one-way road, we parked at the trailhead for Baskins Creek Trail.

There were a good number of wildflowers blooming along the trail.

The trail gradually headed up for a short ways to a ridge.

Even in summer, there were nice views along the ridge here.

After this, it went back into the forest and started to descend down to Falls Branch.

There were more wildflowers blooming and we saw some mushrooms too.

The giant ironweed was really pretty.

In just over a mile, we came to a split and went left on a spur towards the waterfall.  The last part of the trail was very steep heading down to the base of Baskins Creek Falls.

Although the water was low, I thought it was a really nice waterfall.  And unlike the nearby Grotto Falls and Rainbow Falls, we didn't see anyone else along the trail.

I climbed up the side to the base of the upper drop.

Harper splashed around a bit in the shallow water at the base and then we headed back.  We took the spur to see the little cemetery.

Then we made the climb back up to the car.

Roaring Fork Motor Trail is one way so we had to drive the rest of the way.  Near the other end of Baskins Creek Trail, we spotted a bear sniffing around just next to the road.

The road ended back in Gatlinburg and we parked to visit the aquarium.

It was very crowded and rather over-priced but they had a lot of cool exhibits and Harper enjoyed seeing all the fish.

There was an upper and lower level with exhibits from various aquatic and marine environments.

Harper seemed to really enjoy watching the jellyfish.

The fish and sea life were really beautiful.

A moving walkway led through a tunnel in the shark lagoon with sharks, turtles and rays swimming about.

The sawfish was really cool.

After cruising through the lagoon, there were a few more exhibits to check out.

The snake-like garden eels were really cool.

The scorpionfish was well camouflaged and looked very much like a rock.

Mudskipper is fish that can breath air.

The sea walnuts were really cool.

The last exhibit we visited was the penguins.  A keeper was giving out toys to the penguins.  Harper and I crawled through the tunnel so she could pop up for a closer view.

After this, we took off and headed to Gatlinburg Brewing Company for a late pizza lunch.  Then we started making our way back to NC.  We first stopped for a roadside view of Chimney Tops.

Then we stopped again at Ben Morton Overlook.

After crossing back into NC, we pulled over again to see a bear foraging along the side of the road.

Finally, we stopped at Mingus Mill.

We took Harper for a short stroll along the mill race and got come pictures of the mill.

Then we headed back to Bryson City for the evening.

Aquarium on a Rainy Day

Sunday morning was rainy and very windy, so we had a relaxing morning around the house. We ate breakfast and chatted with D for a while and then took showers. As lunch time came around, we headed off to Manteo on Roanoke Island and went to the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. A very good activity for a rainy day at the beach. The wind was so strong, our car was actually getting blown crossing the bridge on the bridge.

We toured around the aquarium for a couple of hours checking out all the exhibits.

The focus of this aquarium is diversity of life that lives in the Outer Banks and surrounding waters, from the freshwater lakes and rivers, to estuarine sounds, to the open oceans.

It's a rather small aquarium and doesn't have exhibits of fish from every corner of the world.

But by focusing just on native creatures in nearby waters, it provides visitors with a deeper appreciation for life close to home.

And the diversity of life in this small section of the world is absolutely amazing.

We saw frogs, toads, lizards, venomous snakes, alligators, river otters, and an amazing number of beautiful fish, including wrasses and sea horses.

They even have a "touch tank" where visitors can pet a few sea creatures, such as stingrays and horseshoe crabs. Towards the end, we watched a fish feeding in the Open Oceans exhibit, with the largest collection of sharks in North Carolina.

The sharks are fed separately – this was a feeding for the other fish. But of course, you can’t really stop a hungry shark. After the feeding, we browsed the gift store and then headed back towards Nags Head. For dinner, we stopped at Outer Banks Brewing Station. This brewpub is wind powered. And on a windy day like today, it looked like the turbine was going to take off. I had a burger and a Yuletide IPA to drink and Sandy had crab legs. Any time we go to the beach, Sandy has to have her crab legs. She really liked them from the brewpub, so this was somewhere we’d have to come back to. After dinner, it stopped raining and the sky finally cleared up a bit. We headed back to the house and watched movies and drank beers with D and his dogs.

Beach & Blast 2013

For the third year in a row now, we headed to the Wilmington area to celebrate Independence Day. Due to Sandy's works schedule, we couldn't camp out at the beach this time, so we just headed down for a day trip. We left the house just after 6 and arrived at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area right at 9. We met with up with John and Heidi and set up our stuff on the beach. It was still early and the beach wasn't too crowded yet, and I wanted to stretch my legs after the long drive, so I went for a short walk down the beach.

After a bit, there was no one else on the beach in front of me, except for a group of sandpipers and some pelicans flying overhead. So I stopped here and enjoyed listening to the sound of the waves crash, before heading back to the group.

More and more people trickled into the group as time went on. By late morning, it was getting quite hot, so it was a good opportunity to cool off in the ocean. The waves were surprisingly strong today, as was the current. Heidi warned me getting in that the waves were strong so hold on to your bathing suit! Sandy was having a wardrobe malfunction with her bathing suit, so she never got all the way in. But I went out to about the sand bar and got knocked around by some strong waves. A little later on, I went back in got caught in a rip current, finding myself getting pulled out. I got myself calmed down and started going parallel to the shore until I got out of the rip current, and then started going to the beach. By the time I got out, I was exhausted. The current was a lot stronger than me. Later on, I heard that the lifeguards had to rescue a woman caught in the current, but luckily they got her and she was OK. I headed back to our spot and rested under the shelter for a bit. Then, Sandy and I headed to the aquarium to get a break form the sun and the heat.  The NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher is one of three NC aquariums and has some really interesting exhibits and programs. There are two buildings; the first is the Conservatory, focusing on freshwater plants and animals, and the second is the Marine building, with ocean life.

We started in the Conservatory, which has exhibits on many of the creatures and ecosystems along the Cape Fear River.

A lot of the animals on exhibit here are not fish, but reptiles and amphibians.

One of the most unique critters here is Luna, an albino alligator. She would not survive in the wild. The melanin pigment that she lacks acts as camouflage and protects her from UV light. And being cold-blooded, she needs to lay in the sun for warmth.

So the aquarium provides her a heated environment protected from sunlight. We also enjoyed watching a cute baby box turtle try to eat a cricket. The bug was much too big for him to eat, but he was giving it best shot. He finally cornered the cricket and managed to take off a leg before the cricket got away, so he'd have a snack for now and the rest would be easier to catch later on. When we were done in this section, we headed over to the Marine building.

We saw a young loggerhead sea turtle who was growing up at the aquarium, but would be released into the sea when he grew up and has a better chance of survival.

I also really enjoyed seeing the octopus who was particularly active, popping in and out of his hiding spot and the moon jellyfish were beautiful.

I also enjoyed the Pacific Reef tank, with clownfish, moon wrasse, and other fish I recognized from our honeymoon in French Polynesia.

When we had finished checking out the exhibits, we stopped in the gift shop and got a couple of little turtle souvenirs and had lunch at Sharkbites, the aquarium's restaurant. After we ate, we headed back to the beach and enjoyed the sand and waves for a little while longer, before packing up and headed into Wilmington.  The drive into the city was pretty bad. Traffic was really bad and a wreck had caused major backups. And the hot sun was making it all the more frustrating. Today had been the first actually hot day of the summer. We've had so much rain and stormy weather, I hadn't been out in the sun much yet this year. But it was beautiful today, although sitting in the car stuck in traffic, it didn't feel so beautiful. Once we got into the city, I found my ideal parking spot, at the corner of Grace St. and N 4th St. If we run to the cars here after the fireworks, we manage to mostly beat the traffic and can get out of the city relatively easily. We headed down to our favorite spot on the river to watch the fireworks, across from Quince Alley. John and Heidi stayed to protect the spot while we headed out to find some dinner. We tried a couple restaurants, but all had over an hour wait. It definitely seemed more crowded than usual. So we ended up getting some BBQ from a food truck vendor; it wasn't too bad. But Sandy and I were both wanting a drink, so we headed to an Slainte, an Irish pub up the street and had a couple of drinks while we waited for the fireworks. This year the fireworks were shot off from another location. They weren't over the battleship and didn't seem as impressive this year. The angle from our usual spot wasn't the best either. But it was still a fun time. As soon as the last fireworks were shot off, we took off running back to the car and were able to get out ahead of most of the traffic. Once we got to I-40, it was smooth all the way home.