Outer Banks - Sunday 31st May

Friday

Even though I have been to Raleigh many times when I worked for IBM I really don't know it at all.  Mind you Kathryn has lived in the area for 28 years and hadn't really explored the area either.  So we chose to visit two heritage sites.  The first one was the Joel Lane house which was built in 1769 and is the oldest dwelling in Wake County.  In the late 1760s, Lane settled at Wake Cross Roads and he and his house played a key role in North Carolina’s transition from colony to state and in the establishment of Raleigh as the state capital. The plantation manor stood on a small hill, overlooking the future site of Raleigh. Lane owned thousands of acres, which enabled him to be influential in politics and was directly involved in the decision to locate the permanent capital of the state in Wake County. In 1792, the legislature authorized the purchase of 1,000 acres of his land upon which to establish the city of “Raleigh” as the new center of state government.  The house to the Americans is old and our guide recognised the fact that we have a "bit" more history!!  I think the photos give a good idea of what we saw!

After a very nice lunch we drove to the Mordecai House which is the oldest residence in Raleigh on its original foundation. Closely associated with the founding Lane family, the property is representative of the plantations that once dominated the local landscape. In recent years, the building has also come to symbolize public commitment to local historic preservation. At one time the house was the seat of one of the largest farms in Wake County, encompassing more than 5,000 acres. The oldest portion of the home was built about 1785 by Joel Lanr for his son Henry.  The house takes its name from Moses Mordecai, who twice married into the family of Henry Lane - first to daughter Margaret and after her death to her sister Ann. Before his death in 1824, Moses Mordecai hired William Nichols, then State Architect, to enlarge the original house. This addition is considered a significant work of Nichols, who had previously overseen the remodeling of the State House. In 1826, with the completion of the four new rooms, the Mordecai house was transformed into a Greek Revival mansion. The Mordecai family was prominent in local and state affairs.  Moses Mordecai had two sons, Henry and Jacob, and one daughter, Ellen, by his first wife and one daughter, Margaret, by his second. Henry was a prosperous planter at Mordecai House and served in the State Legislature. His daughter Margaret and her descendants owned and occupied Mordecai House until 1967.

In the grounds are some more historic buildings which have been moved there to save them.

From there we went to see Kathryn's god daughter, Mary Rose - who seemed very shy but I gather she isn't really!

In the evening we went, with Kathryn, to the 42nd Street Oyster Bar.  It's a place I used to visit with my customers every time I came to Raleigh and I was so pleased to see that it hasn't changed one little bit in 10 years.  Our meal was excellent as always 😃

Saturday 

Time to move on again - this time to the Outer Banks (OBX) with Maggie and Eddie, they had driven 13 hours (772.4 miles) from Florida!!  Us Brits just can't imagine driving that long can we? They picked us up and Eddie had the job of trying to get a quart into a pint with all our luggage.

We then drove 260 miles to OBX and had lunch.  It was soon time to check in to our beachside house on Hatteras Island and we are thrilled with it.  It has four bedrooms and three bathrooms plus two more loos!  Huge but we wanted it for its location and the living space.  This is our view

We were then treated to a lovely sunset

Sunday

We decided last night to have a quiet day today. So after a slow start we drove down to Hatteras and did some gifts type shopping then it was up to the supermarket for food shopping.  Back to Windscape (our house) for lunch then Richard and I walked or maybe that should be paddled across to  the little island we can see from the house.  The water was very hot near to the shore and warm where it got deeper - it only came to the tops of our legs.  We saw a Red Bellied Water Snake swimming around though I think he was more scared of us than we were of him!  Maggie took these photos from the veranda.

We had a barbecue in the evening which was scrummy.