outing. It's been a great friendship ever since. We've been through ups and downs together and have always come out stronger.Dan & Debbie moved to Birmingham, AL in August of 2004 and then, upon Dan's retirement, have recently moved to Winterville, NC. No matter where they have lived, they always welcome us with open arms and guest room. Our friendship is one of those rare ones that allow us to be completely comfortable in their home. No need to entertain us, we just fit. Isn't it great to have friends like this?
We got here late on Friday night after driving 14 hours from Summerdale. It was an uneventful trip for which we are always grateful, but we were glad to get off the road. After visiting for awhile with Dan & Debbie and their adorable granddaughter, Skylar, who they were babysitting, Randy & I were ready to hit the bed. We knew there would be more time to catch up during our weekend here.
Saturday was a beautiful day! It was forecasted to be in the 70s!! Can you believe it - December 8 and we were walking around in short sleeves. What a gift! Dan &
Debbie had been living in a campground in Washington, NC while searching for a home in the Greenville area. They took us over to show us their camper and the campground (they now live in a stick built house - we told them they needed to stay full-timers!). The campground is very nice, sits along a river. It's Tranter's Creek Campground in case anyone is interested.Then we ventured into the quaint town of Washington. It's historic and it claims to
be the "first Washington," named for George Washington before Washington, DC. The first thing we encountered were carolers on the main street, dressed in vintage 1800s costume. Felt like we had walked into "A Christmas Carol." It has many buildings and houses dating from 1780 and the entire waterfront is on the National Historic Register. It is this waterfront that drew us on Saturday.
A boardwalk has been built along the Pamlico River and it is a nice walk from one end of town to the other. Being that this is a small town, it's not a long walk. We saw some black ducks with stark white beaks - I've never seen those kind of ducks before! While we were there, boats began lining up for the annual Christmas Boat Parade. At dusk the boats were going to sail up the river, unfortunately, 
we were there too early and couldn't stay long enough to watch it.Along the streets were various crab statues. They were painted in different themes or careers. Quite good. Baltimore has done similar things at the Inner Harbor. I felt like we were home when I saw the first
crab! We had a great afternoon just strolling along the streets and riverfront of Washington.We spent the day today just lounging around. We had hoped to get over to New Bern, another historic town nearby, but were unable to do so. Oh, well. We'll just have to impose on Dan & Deb's gracious hospitality another time. We are coming back in a month on a way back to Summerdale . . .
As usual, it's been too short a visit. The four of us can always find something to talk or laugh about. We leave tomorrow morning and head for my folks' house in Ocean City, MD. Looking forward to seeing them. We'll spend a couple of days with them, do some Christmas shopping and then head home to Lindsay, Jason & Reagan. OOOOHHHHH!! Can't wait to get my hands on that Reagan!!!
Until the next time . . .
I love the picture of you and Randy walking, and holding hands.
ReplyDeleteLou :)