Partying with the Poes!

North Carolina will NEVER be the same! :) My mom, dad, mema, and papa Joe flew into Raleigh this past Thursday for a 5 day visit. They came, they saw, they laughed. We had a wonderful visit and saw a lot of the state of NC. I think we're all ready for a vacation after this "vacation". I, for one, am tired and ready for a nap. :) Here's an overview (complete with pictures) of what we got to do:

Thursday:

I met up with them in Raleigh after they arrived and picked up their rental. We piled into one car and drove around Raleigh a little through the Historic Oakwood area. While doing this, we found an old cemetery, so we pulled in to see if there were any "Poe" headstones there. We knew that we had some relatives that lived in the area a LONG time ago. We also found the Confederate Army section of the cemetery. All the headstones had been replaced with marble ones like at Arlington Cemetery. There's one that was a Union soldier mistaken as a Confederate and buried here. OOPS!!

Friday:

After a full day of travel on Thursday, we got off to a later start on Friday. We went to a city about an hour south of here, New Bern, NC. By far, my mema's FAVORITE part of the trip! :) They're restoring the downtown area, and it's very nice. Pepsi, by the way, was invented by a pharmacist in New Bern.

We also visited a beautifully restored church downtown. They have a silver service for communion that was brought over with the 1st rector of the church when the settlers arrived. AND, they still bring it out to use on occasion! George Washington took communion off of this service.

After lunch at Captain Ratty's, a great seafood restaurant, we went to the Tryon Palace. This was the 1st capitol and governor's mansion in NC. It has some very nice gardens to walk through!

Saturday:

One of my patient's moms told me about a festival not far from here taking place this past weekend. Being a festival/fair lover, I suggested we go. :) It was The North Carolina Seafood Festival, and it only happens once a year. How lucky were they that it was during their visit?!? :) We got to see some great NC artists, hear some live bands, and eat some GREAT food. I was having so much fun looking at all the arts & crafts, I forgot to take any pictures of the festival! But, on the way home, we stopped at a Wendy's for an ice cream & potty break. Inside, they had a "wendy" cut out that we could get our pictures with . . . so we did!

Mom

Me

Mema (making a silly face) :)

The guys didn't want to "be Wendy". Go figure! :)

Sunday:

Sunday, we hung out in Greenville. We went to church, and then watched some football. My mema loves the NC Panthers - which makes her popular in this area! - so we all watched/napped through the Panthers game. I'm so glad they won, since it made for better moods all around! :) After the games, we went to a couple of local stores, and I got my mema addicted to Starbucks! I introduced her to the "mocha frapucinno," and she was immediately hooked. Everywhere else we went, she was watching for coffee shops and wondering if they might have a frapucinno. :) In our shopping, we three girls found cute straw hats and decided to form the "Vanilla Floppy Hat Girls Club", or the VFHG. We wore them Monday and took our pictures all over the Outer Banks with our hats on!

Monday:

The above picture is us waiting for the 1st of 2 ferry rides (my mom's dream come true - a day on the ferry!) we took while touring the Outer Banks. We went out to Ocracoke Island to see the lighthouse there. I had planned on taking everyone to the restaurant I went to last time I was there, but it was closed. So, we found an even better one, Captain Ben's (are you catching the theme in food, too?!?). :) After our tummies were full, we went to my favorite beach spot to collect shells and get our feet wet. Not paying much attention to the size of waves headed my way at one point, I got MUCH more than just my feet wet! :) I had gone on & on about how beautiful it was, and no one was disappointed after we got there! I just can't say enough about how pretty the beaches are!

Dad & Papa Joe on the beach

We caught the ferry to the next island and the next lighthouse.

Dad & Mom on the ferry boat

After seeing the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, we drove (& drove & drove!) up Cape Hatteras until we reached Bodie Island, the place of our 3rd & final lighthouse stop for the day. Cape Hatteras is a VERY, VERY LONG island!! By the time we finished with the Bodie Island Lighthouse, it was too late to get in the Wright Brothers' Museum.

Tuesday:

This morning, we went out to breakfast, they checked out of the hotel, and we had just a little more time to visit until they needed to head to the airport.

It's been a WONDERFUL 5 days, and I've thoroughly enjoyed having some family around! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. Let me just say, if you've never "partied with the poes" (pretty much any Poe), it's a lot of fun! Everyone should have the opportunity at least once in their life. Now, I'm off to take a little recuperating nap. :)