After a long time of staying put in one place while our house was being built, we are finally heading out on a much needed month-long trip. We'll be mostly visiting relatives east and north. Hope you enjoy our adventures!
Started our trip in Abbeville, LA visiting cousin Marcel and wife Cheryl and to get our Cajun food fix. Had a late lunch/early dinner at Shucks, one of the many good restaurants in Abbeville.
This is Le Gite, our guest house for the night.
October 5 - Abbeville, LA to Biloxi, MS
This was my first time to eat Shrimp and Grits! Hmmm Hmmm Good!
Our Sunday brunch at the Riverfront. And what a beautiful day!
Leaving Abbeville we headed to Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi and spotted this beauty (the Mustang) heading down I-10. We suspect he is going to Biloxi too where the "Cruising the Coastline" is being held this week.
View outside our hotel
Shrimp boats in Biloxi harbor.
Inside Beau Rivage Casino
Our next stop is Destin, Florida -- the most beautiful beach in the USA!!
October 7-9 - Destin, FL
We only had reservations for 3 nights but had so much fun we decided to stay another night. But what's with all the kids here this week? Well it seems that a good portion of schools across the US go full time and this just happened to be their "fall" break!!! Our luck!! This is the view from our balcony.
Cathy relaxing and reading!
Larry boogy boarding!
Another view from our balcony showing the beautiful colors of the water.
Beautiful sunsets
Notice the height of the wave in front of me?
Having a blast on the boogy board!
Good shot of the wave heights! This almost never happens in Destin. This is our second year in a row when the waves were big.
Sunsets on 2 different nights.
October 10 - Destin, FL to St. Augustine, FL
Next stop -- St. Augustine, Florida to visit cousins Lou, Lin, Elizabeth and Matthew. We enjoyed our visit tremendously and got to meet Lou and Lin's three grandbabies -- Tim and Tavanya's Paisley and Peyton and Elizabeth's Matthew.
October 11 - St. Augustine, FL
Matthew - heading to the Farmers Market
Had delicious apple strudel at the Farmers Market.
Next, we headed into downtown St. Augustine to take in some beautiful sites.
Cochina Shells - used to make a brick wall
Elizabeth and Matthew
Cobble streets
Gorgeous flowers
Then meandered down to the waterfront.
And more beautiful flowers.
This particular bouganvilla is from Provence in southern France and is believed to be the only one of its kind in that part of the state, It is located on Hypolita Street in the Spanish Quarter.
Mosiac of Flagler College
After our downtown stroll, we headed back to prepare dinner. We all took part in this process! Lou and Lin
This is my cousin, June and Larry. June and I met up for only the 2nd time in our lives. She doesn't remember, but I did see her as a very small baby way back when!! June came up to Lou and Lin's to spend the weekend with us. We look forward to many more visits!
These beautiful flowers and plants are in Lou and Lin's yard.
After dinner we headed out bird watching. These are Beautiful Anhingas.
Tim, Tavanya, Paisley and Peyton came over for a quick visit.
Paisley, Matthew and Grandpa
2-week old Peyton
Larry, Lin, June, Lou and Matthew, Tim and Paisley, Tavanya and Peyton
October 12 - St. Autustine, FL
The next day we had plans to go to Washington Oaks SP and a Corn Maze, but before we headed out a few candid shots and the famous "Greco Front Porch" photo.
June and Matthew
Elizabeth and Matthew
Larry, Lou, Matthew, Elizabeth, June and Lin
Cousins Cathy, Lou and June
Some sites at Washington Oaks State Park
I promised June I wouldn't show this, but maybe she'll forgive me since it's been a while! She had a minor mishap at the park!!
Cochina on the beach. Cochina was used to build a lot of buildings and fences in St. Augustine.
On to the Corn Maze/Fall Festival/Hay Ride
Tim, Peyton, Tavanya and Paisley
Larry, Cathy, Lou and Lin
Lin, Paisley and Lou
Lin and Lou on the hay ride
Larry and Cathy
Lin, Lou, Tim, Paisley, Tavanya, Peyton, Larry and Cathy
October 13 - St. Augustine, FL to Charleston, SC
Made a quick stopover in Charleston, SC strolling the Market, the Riverfront and dinner at the Charleston Crab House.
October 14 - Charleston, SC to Carolina Beach, NC
Left Charleston driving up Hwy. 17 and crossing on the Southport Ferry to Carolina Beach, NC where we stayed at the Golden Sands Motel. Today was the first day we had rain since the start of our trip.
Carolina Beach
Golden Sands Motel
Double rainbow over the Atlantic Ocean
Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean
October 15 - Carolina Beach, NC
Got up this morning to more rain and dreary weather. First stop, Pop's Diner for lunch.
Our plan was to head over to Old Baldy Lighthouse on Bald Head Island, but the weather just didn't cooperate. Here's the best picture I could get from the Mainland.
Oak Island Lighthouse
On our ferry ride back to Carolina Beach and this was just too cute for me to pass up!!
Ft. Fisher State Recreation Area -- love these trees.
Headed back to the hotel and took a stroll on the beach. The surfers had come out due to the high waves kicked up by Hurricane Gonzalo. Got a lucky shot here!
Sun in my eyes
Footprints in the sand.
Look at these waves!
Love the brown pelicans
Another beautiful sunset!
October 16 - Carolina Beach, NC to Yorktown, VA
We had a beautiful sunrise before we headed out for Yorktown, VA to visit with cousins Carolyn and Ben and their family. Unfortunately, Ben was in the hospital, so we did our best to cheer him up and out of that hospital as fast as we could!!
Atlantic sunrise from the balcony.
October 17-21 - Yorktown, VA
Picture of a picture of Uncle Marcel and Aunt Linie.
David Hancock family -- Morgan, Susan, David, and Ethan with Ben
Cathy and Ben -- I made a good ole Southern dinner for Ben. He wasn't eating too much hospital food so he thoroughly enjoyed my dinner!
Larry, Ben and Lisa -- strolling the halls for exercise.
Cindy and her Dad
October 21 - Yorktown, VA to Winston-Salem, NC
Headed to Winston-Salem for an overnight stay.
October 22 - Winston-Salem, NC to High Point, NC
Next stop, High Point, NC for some furniture shopping. This is located at Furnitureland South in High Point. Then on to Lexington, NC for some more furniture shopping with our final stop of the day at Lexington BBQ -- not Texas style for sure!
October 23 - High Point, NC to Banner Elk, NC
Next stop, Hickory, NC for even more furniture shopping! Leaving Hickory we headed to the closest location where we could hop onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for some "leaf peeping." These are views on and off the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to Banner Elk. Note that we were near the end of the leaf peeping season here in this area.
Larry climbing Blowing Rock
October 24 - Banner Elk, NC to Cherokee, NC
After a chilly night in Banner Elk, we hopped back on the Blue Ridge Parkway in hopes of more leaf peeping!
First stop is a hike to Linville Falls.
Forest floor in the fall
This tree was growing around the rock!
Upper Linville Falls
Notice the ripples in the rock.
One of many tunnels on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Glassmine Falls
October 25 - Cherokee, NC to ?? (I didn't have it written down and honestly don't remember!)
Before we left the Cherokee, NC area we headed into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. As would have it (with it being a Saturday and the leaf peeping time), the park was extremely crowded. Having started off fairly early, we thought it would be ok, but as the day wore on it kept getting more crowded. By the time we reached Clingman's Dome, we barely got a parking spot and had to wait close to an hour to get to that point. (There was no turning around point!) This was when we decided it was just too crowded and vowed that we would be back another time. Here is what we saw that day.
Mingus Mill
View from Clingman's Dome parking lot
Look at the streaming cars coming through the tunnel!
October 26 - ?? to Shreveport, LA to visit my Aunt Charlene and Uncle Danny.
October 27 - Shreveport, LA to League City, TX
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