Atlantis

The myth of the "Lost City of Atlantis" has been a siren call for explorers for hundreds of years.  The possibility of a sunken city filled with treasures is an almost irresistable lure so is it any wonder that The Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas appropriated the name?  What better brand for attracting visitors to this Caribbean resort?

Tim and I succumbed to its draw and we pulled Jillian and Richard along with us for a 4-day Thanksgiving vacation.

Not only did we enjoy the crystal clear turquoise waters we found at the resort's beach, but we also plunged down the Mayan Temple's Leap of Faith and other waterslides, rode an inter tube through the Lazy River and basked beside one of the resort's eleven swimming pools.

We arrived on the island with high hopes for our once-hometown men's basketball team, Jillian's alma mater, the University of Arizona, who had also traveled there for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was a bratwurst and a drink from the venue's concession stand.

We watched intently, but the very first tipoff (shown in the video below) should have...well, tipped us off that the UofA Wildcats were not going to do well.

Unfortunately, Arizona ended up at the bottom of the bracket but the opportunity to watch teams from Purdue, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Villanova and others play was nevertheless exciting as was sharing the hotel's elevator with these giant young men.

Our time at Atlantis ended all too quickly, but the memories we made there will last a lifetime.

Olympia National Park

"From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam, God bless America, my home, sweet home."  Irving Berlin

I doubt that Mr. Berlin would have considered substituting the word rainforests in place of prairies.  That would have messed up his iambic pentameter, not to mention spurned the middle of the country.  But if he had wrote the lyrics that way, he would captured the diversity of Olympic National Park.

Within its boundaries are rocky coastlines, old-growth rainforests and alpine mountains.  Tim and I observed them all and I have the photos--too many photos, in Tim's opinion--to prove it.  So the following needs editing, but I am reluctant to cut any.  I'll leave it to you to skim through this.

As a postscript, let me say that having two base camps from which to explore the park was key for us.  We camped near Forks, Washington giving us great access to the coast and the rainforest on the west side of the park.  Then, after three days, we moved the Dawntreader to Port Angeles, gateway to the Olympic Mountains.  Otherwise, the distances within the park might have prohibited us from enjoying all three ecosystems.

Now, ready, set...skim!


The Beach

The Rainforest

The Mountains

"God bless America, land that I love."

Backroads To Beaches

Leaving Charleston via the Arthur Ravenel Bridge

Instead of hopping on Interstate 26 and then Interstate 95 from Charleston, SC, Tim and I took the backroads to return to Washington, D.C.  It's been a month since my cochlear implant surgery.  Now that the swelling has decreased, it's time to turn on the implant and see if it works.

But first, the beach!  By taking the backroads, we added Myrtle Beach, Nags Head and Virginia Beach to our itinerary.  Three beaches in three different states--South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia!  If that doesn't make us beach bums, I don't know what will.

Myrtle Beach is the most popular destination along the Grand Strand, an arc of beaches that stretches 60 miles along the South Carolina coast, and a new experience for us.

Unbelievably, we scored a campsite at the end of a row in Myrtle Beach Travel Park, giving us an amazing view of the ocean from inside our RV, the Dawntreader.  

At lower left, Tim gazes at the moon.

Perfect for viewing the sunrise and later soaking up the sun!  We were reluctant to leave, but more beaches beckoned.

Jennette's Pier in Nags Head

So we figuratively pulled up anchor on the Dawntreader and sailed north to Nags Head.  Not only did we wish to experience the beach there, but we also wanted to pay homage to the Wright brothers who proved that flight was possible at Kitty Hawk.

The Wright Brothers' Memorial

Hailing from Kansas, I know what windy days are like, but the gusts of the Outer Banks could certainly match or exceed them.  The wind, the isolation and the sand made it easy to see why Wilbur and Orville picked this place to perfect their planes.  The winds provided lift, the isolation meant privacy from newspaper reporters and the sand softened their landings. 

From upper left: Replicas of the makeshift buildings used by the Wrights,
the park ranger, Tim & I at Memorial Rock,  the marker of the final flight's distance

In his talk, the park ranger at the National Park Service Wright Brothers Memorial brought the enormity of what these two brothers who never graduated from high school achieved.  These two co-owners of a Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop used what they observed of birds in flight and what they knew of balance from their familiarity with bicycles to solve a question that man has wondered about since the beginning of time.  Can man fly?  The Wrights turned that impossibility into absolutely possible.

Rain moved in on Sunday and the temperatures dropped so after attending church, we visited nearby Fort Raleigh, thus ticking off another National Park Service property from the list.  

Fort Raleigh is named for Sir Walter Raleigh who in 1584 was granted a charter by Queen Elizabeth to explore and establish an English settlement in the New World.  Although he never stepped foot on North America, he sent others to found Roanoke Colony, a colony that became known the Lost Colony when all trace of the settlement and its people disappeared.

Lost is also what happened to us when we made our way to Virginia Beach.  The GPS sent us through a maze of backroads that had us trapped before a bridge whose weight limit was 13 tons.  Yikes!  The Dawntreader weighs twice that.  But with cars lined up behind us, there was no alternative except to move forward.  Thank goodness, the bridge held but this is not an experience I wish to repeat.

Pam, Cindy, Tim and  Randy

Despite the chilly rainy days, we had a warm time with friends in Virginia Beach and Williamsburg.

Randy and Pam gave a a tour of the Navy ships in port at Norfolk; 

Then, they took us to a favorite waterfront restaurant for supper.  

Yas, Cindy, Tim and Ralph

Ralph and Yas, longtime friends from Washington, D.C. cooked dinner for us, giving us the chance to share life's journeys with one another.

Would we take the backroads again?  Absolutely!