Home Sweet Home, Fall Trees and All!

We arrived home on Sunday to find our house just as we left it. (Someone has ransacked our home! No, wait...we're just messy.) Our lovely old trees were dressed in their best fall colors: what a beautiful welcome-home sight!

We feel so lucky to have been able to take this wonderful round-the-country trip, and we're so glad we were able to share it with our family and friends through this blog. Knowing that you all were reading kept us diligently photographing and writing throughout our travels. Thank you for all your notes and comments and love!

Back to the Farm!

Well, we were going to go to Washington, DC, but somehow we ended up here, at the farm. Fewer politicians, more cows. Not such a bad trade, overall...

We had planned to spend a day in our favorite museums, but it was just too hot to leave little miss Molly in the van (without a constant supply of popsicles and someone with thumbs to open the wrappers). We made the choice to continue on towards home with no regrets; we spent lots of time in the Washington museums when we lived in Maryland, and besides, we need another trip to plan for the Gumby van in the future! Also, we are beginning to feel the urgent need to be home, to prepare for the rapidly-approaching opening of Sandeep's private practice on November 1st.

We did stop briefly at the wonderful Cedar Creek Gallery, just north of Raleigh. It is a long, rambling craft gallery, owned by artists and filled with pottery, wood, glass, and more. Several of the potters work in a studio next to the gallery. We've been inspired by all the lovely crafts we've seen on this trip; we are looking forward to going home and making things ourselves. My pottery wheel will be moving back out of the corner: lumpy pottery for everyone! The Gumby van is carrying driftwood that Sandeep wants to carve. Molly intends to continue working in her preferred medium: the dug hole.

We drove through Virginia and Maryland. In the evening, it began to rain, torrentially. Poor Sandeep could barely see the road as we passed through northern Maryland, Delaware, and southern New Jersey. We can hardly complain about the weather, though, as we didn't have a single rainy day in our entire trip! We camped for the night in Clarksboro, New Jersey, but didn't sleep very well, as Molly barked and tugged and said "Play with me! Play with me!" long into the night. Molly, apparently, has at last tired of riding in the van.

Saturday, we drove through the rest of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and into Vermont. To our friends and relatives in and around New York: we promise to make a special trip, just to visit you all, soon!

Molly was so excited to reach the farm that she wiggled all over, and squeaked, then leapt from the (parked) van and ran around in a frenzy. We were very happy, too, although slightly less wiggly. The day was beautiful, sunny and warm, and the lovely autumn leaves had hung on just for us. Thank you, leaves...we appreciate your consideration. We visited with my parents and my brother, Justin, and my brother's girlfriend, May. Hi, Mom and Dad! Hi, Justin and May! We missed you! We were so glad to see you, too, Ali and Hannie and Matt! Molly was reintroduced to her cousin, Rasmus the cat. I don't think they'll be best friends anytime soon. You may notice the concerned look on Molly's face in the photo, and the direction in which Rasmus's paw is aimed. Molly seemed much more interested in Upton, the farm's newest calf, and he appeared equally intrigued by her. They would be quite the pair!

Popsicle, Anyone?

Nothing's nicer on a hot day than a cold, cold popsicle.

That's Molly's opinion, anyway!

Sandeep was scheduled to do two talks to physician groups in Raleigh and Durham today, so he was all dressed up for the first time in months. I'm surprised he still remembers how to tie a tie! In between the talks, we visited the North Carolina Museum of Art. We saw some beautiful European paintings (the American Gallery was closed due to construction), as well as sculpture and other objects, ancient and modern.

We're staying in a hotel in Raleigh tonight: the first hotel stay on our entire trip! It's quite a nice hotel room, and Molly is especially enjoying it. She has been playing wildly with her ball, and appreciating the air conditioning. It really was quite hot and humid here today. She says: TWO PAWS UP, for strawberry popsicles and air-conditioned, dog-friendly hotel rooms!

From a Watery Place to a Too-Dry Place...

We did finally, reluctantly, leave the lovely North Carolina beach. Before we left, however, we took another walk and I modeled what is sure to become a fashion craze: shrimp head fingernails! They're soooooo elegant. Soon, everyone will want them.

Everyone may not want a scraped nose like the one I am also modeling. I tripped over Molly's leash and fell flat on the ground while trying not to flatten Molly! Don't worry - we're both fine.

We really enjoyed watching the variety of birds that live on Cape Hatteras. Sandeep photographed these black birds swinging on the beach grasses. We followed little flocks of shorebirds down the beach, watching them hurrying around on their extra-long legs. We also saw pelicans flying and swimming, and egrets and herons standing picturesquely as we drove through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on our way back up the cape.

We drove back west along the same roads we had followed east, stopping just outside of Raleigh for the night. We camped at the Falls Lake State Recreation Area. We had heard that North Carolina has been suffering from a drought; the lake was a dramatic illustration of the water shortage. The lake is Durham's water source, and the water level is extremely low. The banks were exposed for many feet all around the shoreline. A tiny amount of rain fell during the night; we were grateful for it, on behalf of North Carolina.

Still Here...

One more good morning from beautiful North Carolina!

We both woke up in time for the sunrise this morning, and we took a lovely walk on the beach. Lots of fishermen (and a few fisherwomen) were out early as well, fishing from the shore. Molly found more little crabs to chase.

Okay, we're leaving, we're leaving...

Life's a Beach - Today, Anyway!

What is better than a day at the beach? Not much!

We had a lovely morning, with pancakes for breakfast, and then...beach time! We sat and watched the waves and the busy little shorebirds. We threw Molly's toy for her and she fetched it. Once, she dropped it at the feet of a passing man and looked at him expectantly; he very kindly threw it for her. We went for a walk. Molly stopped occasionally to dig in the sand. Sandeep stood in the waves and got splashed and then nearly knocked over, like me, by a surprisingly large wave. Molly stalked the shorebirds, ineffectually.

You would all stop reading the blog if we spent all our days at the beach, wouldn't you? I'm sure it's not SO much fun to read about someone else's beach day! Well, we'll be back to driving again tomorrow. In fact, we did drive a little bit today...

After lunch, we left our campground and drove south on Route 12, to see a bit more of the cape. The undeveloped National Seashore land is punctuated by small villages with shops, restaurants, and LOTS of rental houses. It seems that nearly every house has a "rent me!" sign on it. Most of the houses appear to be of about the same age; we wondered if they were built during a building boom, or if all the previous houses were swept away in a hurricane and these were built to replace them. We did read about the extensive destruction caused by Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

We stopped at an empty beach, where we nearly collapsed with laughter while watching Molly chase crabs. She would find one roaming about on the sand, then start off after it. The crabs are fast and agile, but also hard to see; Molly would pursue one wildly, and then it would hide under her foot (or mine!) while she hunted for it. The more she turned to see where the crab quarry could have gone, the more the sand she stirred up would hide it. She did manage to come nose-to-eyestalks with one crab; you can see it, looking like a crab-shaped clump of sad, at the end of Molly's nose in the photo above.

Sandeep photographed the strange and beautiful afternoon light. We drove all the way to the village of Hatteras, at the end of the cape. The next island, Okracoke, can be reached by a 40-minute ferry ride, but we decided to turn back northwards at Hatteras. Now, here we are, at our campsite again, with the waves crashing just out of sight.

We'll be heading for Durham tomorrow, as Sandeep has two talks to do there on Thursday.

Worth Waking Up Early For...

Good morning, from North Carolina!

See why Sandeep is now the trip photographer? He got up at sunrise to take these beautiful pictures, and even photographed the sunrise in a jellyfish.

Wow...