Shrimp Tacos for Dinner

After an exhausting day of eating and relaxing, I took a nap this afternoon -- it was one of those things where I just conked out and was dead to the world. It's such a luxury. Mary took these of the beach as the day waned:

Michelle made the shrimp tacos -- which contained shrimp, pineapple, cheese, angel hair cabbage and then she made pico de gallo and guacamole to go with it. Yum. Oh, and a bit of ranch dressing to make it (Michelle's words) Oooey-Gooey.

out of focus pico de gallo

The drinking began in earnest as both Mary and I downed one of these 7 ounce bottles of Corona. Hit the spot.

Apple Uglies for Breakfast

Mary and Michelle were true to their word, and got up and drove 40 minutes to the bakery... and here it is:


 

Just noticed that the sign says "ugies," not "uglies"

 -- so I don't know which is right.

 

Brought home and sliced  -- the cakey part was doughy and wonderful and there is fresh apples in it, cinamon on top, and flakey crispy coating. I have to say this was one of the best pieces of pastry I've had... ever.

Here it is whole. Mary and Michelle bought two of these -- we each had 2 or 3 hunks and we have half of one left over.

Moving on to dinner... they also bought shrimp when they were out at one of the seafood stores and here Michelle is shelling shrimp for tonight's shrimp tacos.

Wednesday Dinner

On the menu was:



Chicken fried steak with white gravy



Green beans with onions

We each had a piece of corn on the cob (in the foil) and then this was roasted potatoes, yellow zucchini and onions.

Vacation Wednesday

We took a roadtrip today to Cape Hatteras lighthouse.

 

Of course, you could climb the lighthouse, and if we were
50 years younger,
 that might be a good idea.

It's black and white striped.

The sun was in full force today. This is pulling back into our house (on the left) and Mary's car.

from the deck -- the water looked beautiful today.

 

After the lighthouse, we stopped at this tiny restaurant called the Fish House for lunch and had a great meal. Then we stopped at this bakery for treats -- Mary had texted someone whose parents live here about the bakery -- whether it was a good one and he replied Yes!! with two exclamation points and told us to try the "apple uglies" -- so we left the restauarant, went to the bakery and it's only open from 6:30 to 11 am. Mary said she'd get up early and drive back there tomorrow (it's about a 40 minute drive) and Michelle said she'd go with her, and I said I sure appreciate that. Hopefully, we'll find out tomorrow what an apple ugly is.

Michelle is making chicken fried steak for dinner.

The Vacation Continues...

Rainy day at the beach. Mary and Michelle went to get the air conditioner in Mary's car fixed. She had asked someone in the rental office for a recommendation, and the woman made one and warned Mary to not be turned off by the junkyard look of the place. She wasn't, and the guy fixed it for $60 while they waited. Then we had breakfast (scrambled eggs, sesame seed bagels and slices of ham) for lunch followed by an exhausting afternoon of reading, TV, jigsaw puzzles and napping.

Mary made lobster mac and cheese for dinner. Then we watched TV and turned in early. Tomorrow we're going to venture out to see the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.

Here goes:

Obviously, this is the kitchen of the rental house which adjoins a dining alcove that has a sliding glass door that faces the beach.

Mary washing dishes.

Michelle at the dining room table.

The happy vacationer.

The view from the dining room table. That is not the sun rising in the east, but rather the flash bulb. This was still morning before the rain.

From the deck straight ahead.

From the deck looking south.

From the deck looking north.

Lobster macaroni and cheese for dinner.

Salad with Italian dressing and crumbled blue cheese.

Mac & cheese on the plate

After dinner aerobics in front of the TV

Lazy Labor Day

The three of us had a relaxing day -- it was raining on and off -- grocery shopping, gabbing, watched a movie (Flight with Denzel Washington), made BLTs for dinner, watched the waves, nothing much going on and loving every minute of it. I didn't even take photos. So far, a very relaxing time.

Made it to the Outer Banks

Our timing was really great. I arrived at the rental office to pick up the house keys and knew that Mary and Michelle were close behind. They arrived when I was still in the rental house and we got settled in. We didn't realize how out in the country we are as the nearest grocery store is something like 20 minutes away so we found a pizza place that delivered and that was quick and easy and was exceptionally good.

But my day started in Hampton, Virginia, when I realized I might be near Hampton University, one of the original schools for ex-slaves, now a big deal university primarily for African Americans. Booker T. Washington is a Hampton graduate. I googled for directions and it turned out to be 9 minutes from my hotel, so that was my first stop this morning.

The campus is really beautiful.

Meanwhile the previous evening I'd read about a tree on campus called the Emancipation Oak which is the place where the school started. A freed black woman taught escaped slaves under this tree in 1861., Not the tree above. Then, two years later the Emancipation Proclamation was read for the first time in the state of Virginia under the tree. It's called the Emancipation Oak, and still exists. So I'm driving around the campus looking for this tree and there were so many beautiful trees, including this one. But finally I asked directions and was led to...

This is the Emancipation Oak in the background. You can see the walkway and the plaque describing it in front of what Mary says are crepe myrtles.

Crepe myrtles up close.

Here's the plaque for the tree, and that's the first teacher who later died of TB. What is interesting, in addition to this tree still being alive, is that National Geographic declared this tree one of the top 10 trees in America so I want to see what the other nine trees are. That would be an interesting pass time -- to visit all 10 trees.

There are so many low branches that you can't really see the trunk, but the Emancipation Oak is the tallest tree here. I can't believe it's survived this long.

This is the first sign I saw for the Outer Banks.

Next stop was the Wright Brothers monument in Kitty Hawk (actually Kill Devil Hill) and here you can walk the distance that the first airplane flew.

And, no,  I didn't make it to the top of the hill. Didn't even try.

Replica of Wright Flyer

Another long bridge

Driving for miles with dunes and the ocean on the driver's side and dunes and water on the other.