Category Archives: Pet travel

Asheville: Loophole of the Bible Belt

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Oh, could most tourist destinations learn a thing or two from Asheville, North Carolina. This mid-size city in the Appalachian Mountains has lots going for it, not the least of which is the stunning scenery. On the urban end, the city’s energized and funky downtown core offers up a nice mix of used bookstores, speciality shops and independently-owned bars and restaurants. And most of it is dog friendly too. Rigby was welcomed into one store after another – especially the Three Dog Bakery where the sign on the door informed customers, Owners on Leash Welcome.

The locals like to joke about liberal-leaning Asheville being “the loophole in the Bible Belt.” There’s lots to see and do, including music, although we focused our time in the city on food, walking, soaking in the architecture and enjoying the work of local artisans. Our highlights? Read on . . .

Art Deco: Downtown is a mix of beautifully restored heritage buildings – with the nation’s largest collection of Art Deco architecture outside of Miami.

Southern eats: Even the funky-style eateries support the culture and heritage of the Southern mountains. We ate a great meal at Early Girl Eatery with its all-day breakfast and Southern standards on the menu (biscuits and gravy, fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits and a North Carolina specialty, grilled pimento cheese sandwich).

Asheville Bee Charmer: Think all things bee-related and you get the idea. The new Bee Charmer has two locations, one in the heart of town and the other in the up-and-coming arts district of West Asheville. Owner Jillian Kelly is 100 per cent committed to connecting with ethical beekeepers around the world. The shop’s warmly- glowinghoney tasting bar is a blast and a way to try before you buy while learning a little about the intricacies of bees and honey production. If it’s about bees, Jillian knows it all.

Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar: We love most bookstores but we really, really loved Battery Park on Page Avenue (right in the centre of town). A visit is like slipping into a good friend’s sumptuously-decorated living room – couches and chairs, artwork on the walls, thick Persian rugs, table lamps – with the addition of thousands of (mainly) used books filling rows and rows of tall shelves. Music softly plays in the background (“we’re a conversational bar”) and well-behaved dogs are welcome. Owner Thomas Wright quips that he is “selling buggy whips” but we were instantly hooked. Oh yeah, there’s a well-appointed bar that serves champagne and wine. So comfortable, it was hard to leave.

Song of the Wood: A short drive outside Asheville is the stunning home and workshop of hammered dulcimer maker, Jerry Read Smith. Jerry is a skilled artisan and gracious host who loves to talk music, craft and woodworking to anyone with an appreciation for fine workmanship. He showed us his latest commission – number 950 in a long career than spans three decades. “Every single aspect of it makes a difference. A mahogany bridge will be different than a rosewood bridge,” he says. “The more you play it, the better it stays in tune.” For those who don’t have a clue what a hammered dulcimer is, take a look and listen at his excellent website (tip: it’s a percussion string instrument with about 100 strings in five octaves). He describes the unique sound best when he says: “Every note rings as long as it wants to. I think of it as music set free.”

Biltmore Estate: This magnificent piece of architecture – at 250 rooms it is America’s largest house – is a peek into how the .001 per cent live. The estate built by George Vanderbilt in 1895 stretches across 8,000 acres, getting in and out involves parking and shuttle rides and once you are in the estate home you will be agog at the antiques, furnishings, architecture and lifestyle. It’s an Asheville must-see.

 

Georgia’s rich music history: Athens and Augusta

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Cool things come out of university towns. The critical mass of students questing for identity and meaning, the energy of artists looking to push their own – and your – boundaries, the enabling atmosphere of a major learning institution in an era of political and cultural ferment – this combination is likely to give rise to innovations some of which will proceed to transform far beyond the municipal boundaries of their city of origin. So it is with Athens, site of the University of Georgia at Athens (UGA) and home to at least two (so far) institutions of the 20th century’s music scene: The B-52s and R.E.M.

Athens seems like a cool place to live. It’s certainly a cool place to visit. The city seems to grow out of the university grounds – which are lovely, spacious and extravagant. It’s a big city on a human scale. Lots of funky coffee shops, restaurants and bistros, bars featuring live music, a couple of cool bookstores, comic stores and used vinyl and CD outlets (including the famous WUXTRY – Georgia’s oldest independently-owned record store – where the members of R.E.M. would congregate). These co-exist on pleasantly shaded streets with upper-end shoe, clothing and sunglasses shops making for a pleasant walking experience. We did a tour with Paul Butchart, a local historian who gives Walking Music Tours of Athens’ rich musical history. Like everywhere else, live music venues opened and closed and relocated and went under at a furious pace – but out of this at least two major institutions attained escape velocity and transformed a corner of popular music.

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I did make a point, some years ago, of doing some serious listening to Michael Stipe, et al., – who emerged from various university courses at UGA to form R.E.M. These guys produced album after album of intelligent rock music. From their punk roots playing the dives and student bars in Athens, they grabbed a significant share of critical and popular appeal and rode it to its natural conclusion. When the band realized they had attained all there was to attain in pop stardom, they wound it up. What they left behind is a catalogue of excellent, insightful, danceable and thoughtful rock and roll music. Whatever the various members do next, they can be proud of R.E.M.’s legacy of music and politics.

Augusta became the home of The Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown. Here’s a guy with a legacy to astound. Is there another figure from the 20th century who lived long enough to put his stamp on so many different styles of music? His legacy touches rock, blues, R&B, rap, hip-hop and, of course, soul.

Not bad for a former shoeshine boy from the streets of Augusta. His life size statue stands on the centre of the boulevard on downtown Broad Street.

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Of course James Brown – they call him “Mr. Brown” in Augusta – showed promise very early. From there it was just a matter of turning talent into opportunity, but if Brown had anything other than talent it was vision: a crystalline conviction of what his sound and stage deportment was all about.

You can divine some of this at the Augusta Museum of History where they have curated a James Brown exhibit that takes you from his early youth to the final performance of his unnaturally long career. A few tidbits:

  • 95% of his stage suits and costumes were handmade.
  • He often played 300 shows a year.
  • He was the originator of “starting on the one.”
  • He was a self-taught musician with a love for gospel music.
  • He had perfect pitch.
  • He was a highly religious man.
  • He had a full hair salon in his home.
  • The dance moves he created circa 1968 were later copied by Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake.

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There’s lots more to see in Augusta too. This was – before the Civil War – a prosperous economic crossroads through which cotton and various other commodities passed en route to the ports of Savannah and Charleston. In the course of its economic development, wealthy families injected their fortunes into some pretty impressive – even by today’s standards – real estate and architecture. Well worth seeing. As is the lovely Riverwalk that features a perfect little amphitheatre looking over the river.

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EATING & SLEEPING IN ATHENS: We stopped for lunch on the dog-friendly patio at Big City Bread Cafe for a delicious Turkey Burger with a side order of Bleu Cheese Fries (yes, house cut fries topped with blue cheese and served with garlic aioli and scallions).

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We bypassed the campgrounds and stayed overnight at the dog-friendly, LEED Gold Certified Hotel Indigo, a short walk to the downtown Athens area. The service was great and the beds even better!

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LOCAL LEGENDS FROM AUGUSTA:

  • Ty Cobb retired in Augusta
  • Bobby James brought Masters level golf to Augusta
  • James Brown, Oliver Hardy, Butterfly McQueen, Laurence Fishburne and Brenda Lee are all from Augusta.

WATCH THE THEATRE: The film Get On Up (2014) is about the life of Mr. James Brown.

Check this one off the bucket list: Cumberland Island National Seashore

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It’s been a few years since we heard about Cumberland Island National Seashore. Really heard about it – from an outdoorsy friend who has seen her share of wild places around the world and knows about these things. She raved about it and that immediately put this National Park Service site on our must-do list. Luckily, it fit in perfectly with this trip’s theme of exploring what is unique about life along the Atlantic coastline.

Cumberland Island sits on the very southern tip of Georgia – cross the St. Mary’s River and you are into Florida. It’s the largest barrier island along the Atlantic coastline, and definitely one with the best-preserved wilderness. That’s because Congress stepped in and designated the north part of the long, narrow island as Cumberland Island Wilderness Area, with all its protections and legislations. As Park Ranger Maggie Tyler told us, “It’s supposed to be an area where man is only a visitor.”

Cumberland Island is not somewhere you just stumble onto. You’ve got to really want to go there and a visit requires some planning. For starters there is a cap of 300 people per day. Second, the way on and off the island is by passenger ferry service only. Third, there are no commercial services on island (except for bike rentals at the ferry dock) and to get around you either bike the main road (no bikes on the trails) or hike. Visitors need to take food, water and whatever else they need for their time on island.

It’s the serenity and wilderness that draw people to Cumberland Island. The beaches and sand dunes are pristine. One-third of the state’s sea turtle nesting grounds are on the beaches of Cumberland Island. The mature maritime forest of live oaks, tall saw palmettos, myrtle and holly create a thick church-like canopy. There is a long, dirt roadway called the Grand Road that runs north-south – it is protected on the National Register of Historic Places and “has not changed in centuries.” Add in the island’s saltwater marshlands – the perfect stopover for migrating birds travelling along the Atlantic Flyway – and what you have is an intact, stable barrier island environment. These days, this is a rare thing.

It may be protected from the impact of human development now, but this was not always the case. At the turn of the 19th century, wealthy families from the north came to the island to escape the harsh winters. Over time, 90 per cent of the island was purchased by the Carnegie family (whose fortune was in steel and railroads) and they built mansions that showcased the elite lifestyles of the Gilded Age. Two of these homes remain – one is in ruins and the other, Plum Orchard, is a popular tour stop for visitors who want to roam the partially-furnished rooms to see how the one per cent lived at their winter escapes.

In the mid-20th century the homes and the land were passed to the National Park Service and under its stewardship the island is returning to its natural state of wilderness.

Cumberland Island lived up to its hype. It is a place of beauty, of solitude and of purity. If this is the type of shoreline experience you are jonesing to find, you need look no further.

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Looking to camp? It is possible to stay on the island but you must make a reservation and bring all of your supplies. The sites are beautiful but have no water, electricity and there are pit toilets. We stayed just a few miles away from the village of St. Mary’s at the lovely Crooked River State Park. The sites were well spaces and heavily wooded and there were some nice walking trails with great views over the river. It was also very dog friendly.

Gracious Savannah

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Savannah is a city for walking.

It’s the southernmost of a trio of towns and cities that embody the grace and architecture of the Old South: Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah. They are all beautiful and inclusive today but they have histories rooted in the plantation-era days of enormous wealth concentrated in the hands of very few, built on the backs of tens of thousands of slaves brought in from West Africa. We kept this in mind as we looked in awe at the stately mansions that were once the home of plantation owners and cotton brokers and strolled along the historic riverfront.

We actually started our tour with a ride into the heart of the downtown National Historic Landmark district on the hop-on/hop-off Old Savannah Tours trolley (it was dog-friendly, so Rigby hopped onboard too). We got off at Chippewa Square – the green square where Ton Hanks sat on a bus stop bench in the movie Forrest Gump. Savannah was designed on a system of grids – the whole city is a very orderly crosshatch of streets punctuated by large green public squares. Streets and squares are lined by a cathedral of trees: enormous live oaks, hanging with Spanish moss.

When General Sherman arrived in Savannah he was so taken with the city that he sent a telegram to President Lincoln handing the city to the president as a Christmas present. Savannah was spared Sherman’s March to the Sea.

We were fascinated by the infusion of Gullah culture (the Gullah people of the Lowcountry trace their rich heritage to the African slaves brought in from the Angola region of West Africa). In the vernacular of the Gullah, the word haints means ghosts. Look on the ceiling of many front porches (from small cottages to large mansions) and you’ll find it has been painted blue. The Gullah people believe the colour blue keeps the haints
away.

We walked and walked along cobbled streets made from the stones and bricks that were packed as ballast into the holds of ships that crossed the Atlantic as part of The Triangular Trade (goods from Europe to West Africa; West African slaves to the New World; plantation goods such as sugar and cotton from ports like Savannah to Europe). Savannah emerged as the major port in the state of Georgia.

All that walking deserves a little indulgence. And that’s how we finished our day in Savannah – with lunch and ice cream at the famous Leopold’s Ice Cream. Leopold’s has been around for almost 100 years and has developed quite a following (it regularly makes the list of best ice cream shops in the world). The patio out from was dog friendly and they even brought Rigby her own tiny cone in a cup. Now, that’s Southern hospitality!

Savannah in the artistic community:

  • The bus stop/park bench scenes in Forrest Gump were filmed at Chippewa Square.
  • In Something To Talk About, Julia Roberts peers into a downtown restaurant and sees her philandering husband at dinner with another woman.
  • Savannah resident Johnny Mercer wrote Moon River while at his downtown home.
  • Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was completely filmed in Savannah.
  • The Civil War film, Glory, was filmed in and around the city.

South Carolina’s beautiful Lowcountry

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Spoiler alert: There is nothing we didn’t like about the Lowcountry just outside Beaufort called the Sea Islands, a collection of small islands huddled together, separated by tidal creeks and connected by short bridges.

The definite highlight was our stay at beautiful Hunting Island State Park – we loved it so much that we extended our visit for an additional five days. We’d set our alarm to a pre-sunrise hour, walk five minutes to the beach and be there for the sunrise over the Atlantic. In the distance there were shrimp boats (no doubt harvesting our dinner that evening). Rigby was fascinated by the small fiddler crabs scuttling along the sand (South Carolina beaches are on-leash dog friendly). The beach is long and luxurious, anchored by a lighthouse at one end and a sweeping curve of sand at the far reach. The early morning sun cast a warm glow on the palmetto palms that line the back of the dunes. It set up each day perfectly.

In addition to the natural beauty of the Lowcountry, this region is steeped in history.

There is a long tradition of shrimping. We’d stop at Gay Fish Co. (just at the bridge from St. Helena Island to Hunting Island) to buy the freshest shrimp we’d ever tasted. Half-a-dozen shrimp boats were tied to the rickety docks. Inside, the woman weighing our daily ration told us their docks stood in for the Alabama coastline in the filming of the shrimping scenes in the hit movie, Forrest Gump. On the wall there’s a framed photo of Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise playing out a scene from the movie.

We visited the Penn Center Historic District, preserving the Gullah community on St. Helena Island. The Gullah people – the descendants of enslaved Africans – are known for their unique culture and traditions imported from West Africa (including the weaving of beautiful sweetgrass baskets). Before bridges were built, these islands were isolated and the culture was protected and thrived. Gullah culture is all over the Sea Islands, but the Center is the only spot where the buildings remain intact and protected as a National Historic Site. When the program at the site opened it was the first school in the nation to provide formal education for freed African slaves; a path to liberation. Over time, the focus shifted to civil rights and social justice issues. Now, the Center is a part of the National Park Service’s Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, preserving this unique culture, traditions and heritage.

One of our favourite meals was at the modest Gullah Grub Restaurant. Our lunch started with squares of rich cornbread, still warm from the oven, and glasses of “swamp water” (a mix of sweet tea and lemonade, called an Arnold Palmer on the mainland). Traditional Gullah dishes are based on whatever is seasonally available – rice, tomatoes, okra, fish. We ate local: a starter of she-crab soup, barbecue ribs and fried chicken with a side of collards doused with vinegar for some extra tang.

We’ll be back . . . again and again and again.

Swoonings & Swarmings

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Rigby (aka “Riggers,” aka “Riggeroo,” aka “el Poocheroo”) is a “dog-lover’s” dog. If you are a dog lover, you need no further explanation. For everyone else, she’s a dog who brings out the warm in dog lovers. She knows immediately who the dog lovers are, goes directly to them or attracts them to her like iron filings to a magnet.

So swoonings and swarmings are recurring events. A swooning involves one to three persons rapturously fawning over Rigby for some period of time – typically five minutes or less – while a swarming usually involves more than three people, often women, for five or more minutes. A third category might include the “mini-swoon” which consists of one person going nuts for a short period of time.

Women, in particular, swoon for Rigby – men too of course, but women tend to be more openly demonstrative and affectionate. Over the years we’ve noticed a pattern in these encounters around which I have crafted a little routine. It’s a light and friendly encounter that usually ends with a gale of laughter.

Here’s a recounting of an actual swooning with a mother and daughter:

Q: “Is this your dog?”
A: “Yes.”

Q: “Why is she off leash?”
A: “Because she just follows me around. She’s my shadow.”

Q: “Male or female?”
A: “Female.”

Q: “How old is she?”
A: “She’s nine – I’ve had her since she was three months. She was a pound rescue. She came to them as a stray, so they didn’t know anything about her pedigree.”

Q: “What’s her breed?”
A: “The best guess is Border Collie/Aussie Shepherd cross. The humane society thought she was an Aussie, but she’s got a lot of Border Collie traits with some Aussie colouring.”

Q: “She has one blue eye. Is she blind in that eye?”
A: “Nope. Works perfectly, but I think the blue eye comes from the Aussie side.”

Q: “She’s so calm and well behaved. Did you train her?”
A: “A little. She picked up the training really quickly. She’s very oriented to pleasing.”

By this point, Rigby is usually sitting at their feet looking back toward me. They are stroking her head, ears and back.

Q: “And she just follows you around the streets? She’s doesn’t run away?”
A: “Not yet. She follows me from room to room at home. She never lets me out of her sight.”

A: “How does she behave with other dogs when she’s off leash?”
Q: “Usually pretty good. She gets a lot of socialization and loves to play.”

Q: “Aren’t Border Collies really high energy? Why is she so calm?”
A: “That is their reputation, but she’s been this way since I brought her home. I don’t know why she’s so calm … I’m just glad.”

By this point, they are fawning over her – and she is down on her back inviting a tummy rub, which pushes everyone’s pleasure over the top.

Q: “She’s beautiful: what’s her name?”
A: “Chick Magnet.”

Explosion of laughter!

Q: “Oh my God, she’s a TOTAL chick magnet!”
A: “Actually, her name is Rigby – after Eleanor Rigby, the Beatles song – but thanks for letting me use that joke.”

Truly, though, one of the coolest moments in our travels with her occurred in Louisville, Kentucky. We were scheduled to visit the tourism office in the downtown and expected that one of us – usually Craig – would wait outside with Rigby. But as we were checking the address and confirming our location we both looked up to see six women with their hands to the office glass motioning us to “Bring ‘er in! Bring ‘er in!” and so we did. They put out a bowl of water for her and we stood back to let the swarming begin.

Another beautiful moment occurred in Albuquerque, NM, when Rigby walked up to a Latina child who instantly fell into a rapture, at which point Rigby got down on her back to invite a tummy rub. I wish I had photographed this moment, because this little girl was about the same size as Rigby and the two of them were just in heaven for a few minutes.

Beaufort . . . is amazing

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It’s not hard to see why the beautiful South Carolina town of Beaufort is a mecca for film shoots.

This is a lovely little – and rather prosperous – 300-year-old city sparkling with real estate that makes natural settings for Hollywood films. The Big Chill was shot here. The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini and Forrest Gump were also shot in and around Beaufort. The town has a stunning natural setting looking out over the Port Royal Sound, enframed by small islands that conjure up a history rich in Antebellum and post-war prosperity and peace.

Named Best Small Southern Town by Southern Living, a Top 25 Small City Arts Destination by American Style, and a Top 50 Adventure Town by National Geographic Adventure, this second-oldest city in South Carolina, chartered in 1711, is a collection of well-cared for boutiques and small enterprises along a couple of nicely manicured downtown streets that converge onto the beautifully planned and executed Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park – almost worth visiting on its own.

But the real value resides in walking the residential side streets and drinking in the luxurious architecture and laneways lined by Spanish-moss draped live oaks – some of which are so old and large that thick branches actually bend to the ground in places. It’s a fascinating sight.

We took a short drive from Beaufort to Parris Island, home to the east coast boot camp for the United States and the only boot Marine camp for women. We were headed to the museum, an expertly curated history of the Marines and a comprehensive overview of the history of Santa Elena, the Spanish colony that founded the island community back in the mid-1500s.

The town opens its doors for dog owners. We had lunch on the patio at Panini’s on the Waterfront and were introduced to an Arnold Palmer, a typical Southern drink made of half sweet tea and half lemonade (our new favourite). A bowl of water appeared tableside for Rigby. The restaurant also has a special menu for dogs. We kept to our shrimp-every-day creed and had delicious Shrimp Cheese Steak sandwiches piled high with local shrimp (did we mention the “Alabama” shrimp boat scenes from Forrest Gump were filmed just a few miles away?).

If anything, Beaufort is made for walking. We fantasized about renting a house here for the Canadian winter months, a place where we could write, where we could be assured of some sunshine, where the roadways were not choking with traffic (or slick with ice) and where the general level of prosperity ensured that we could feel safe and intellectually stimulated. In short, we loved it.

In fact, we stretched our stay in this area by several days, just to take in the Gullah history, lovely beaches and campground on the Sea Islands near Beaufort. More on that next time.

Charleston - a city of grace

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Charleston, South Carolina, evokes the very best of the South. It is a stunningly beautiful city – it was once the richest city in the United States (by a factor of eight) with the fourth largest population. It shows.

The city was a gift to several British lords from King Charles II; it grew to be the largest slave port in the Americas and one of only three walled cities on the continent (the others are St. Augustine and Quebec City). And this extraordinary wealth is still on display along street after street of vaulting mansions, the largest of which is 24,000 square feet of floor space and includes three Louis Tiffany chandeliers. The rich and the uber rich – slave traders, cotton brokers, ship owners, bankers, rice or indigo magnates – used this perfect port city as their summertime retreat from their inland operations where malaria and yellow fever wiped out thousands of people.

 

Like the wealthy class of every era, they travelled extensively across Europe bringing back with them the architectural styles and fashions of the very rich across Greece, Italy, France and Spain. And they combined these early modern and classic styles with adaptations from the Bahamas where living quarters were designed to maximize every breeze, dissipate the summer heat and capture the winter warmth.

We rode through the city in the back of a mule driven wagon with Matthew who works for the Palmetto Carriage Company. It’s a dog-friendly, one-hour carriage ride during which Matthew riffs on the many interesting historical aspects of this city’s neighbourhoods. The city only permits 20 carriages on the streets at any one time, so every different carriage driver has to queue at the bingo machine and await their route assignment. This lottery system turns out to be fair for everyone, limits the number of carriages slowing down ordinary traffic and gives Matthew his first opportunity to amuse and inform us of the idiosyncrasies of his work as a historic guide.

So many interesting things to note. For example, many buildings feature what look like large bolts in their façade and exterior walls. These, Matthew tells us, were products of a massive 7.3 magnitude event that provoked home owners to pass massive steel rods through their houses to pull them upright and into alignment again after the earth’s rumblings. “No one knew they had earthquakes here until a whopper hit in August 1886.”

Being a port city, Charlestown has known more floods than it can count and being so close to the sea many parts of are actually several feet below sea level. The cobblestones – over which we rattle under the energy of our mules, Hit and Run – arrived to Charleston in the holds of ships as ballast for trans-Atlantic voyages. The Old Exchange and Customs building – a symbol of Britain’s oppressive imperial control over the colony – was the last building erected by the British in the Americas before the American Revolution. Over the years it has served multiple roles, including as dungeon during the era of piracy and the Civil War.

The Civil War left its mark in other ways too. Large parts of the city – particularly those within range of ship borne cannons– were reduced to burned out rubble before being re-built post-war. We stroll along the Battery, the point where Southerners in their finest clothes gathered with drinks of Planters Punch to watch the opening salvos of Confederate cannons on Fort Sumter – clearly visible from the old neighbourhood – that inaugurated the American Civil War on April 12, 1861. They thought this glorious little war could not last more than a few weeks, months at the most. No one foresaw four devastating years of war that pitted families and neighbours against each other.

Every seat on our wagon is taken. The ride is fascinating. Matthew is interesting and congenial. Even Rigby enjoyed it. She napped underneath our feet for the entire hour.

On the edge of town we stayed at the very dog-positive James Island County Park Campground with an enormous off leash area that included a dog beach and special events like Yappy Hour.

 

A stretch called Down East

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Tearing ourselves away from the beauty of Ocracoke was no small task. It did, however, involve one of our favourite activities of this coastline trip: a ferry ride.

It’s a two-hour ($15 USD) ferry ride across the waters of the Pamlico Sound to Cedar Island on the mainland of North Carolina. The area is better known to locals as Down East – a collection of 13 different maritime communities holding dear to the traditions of the seafaring life. Their past is a colourful history of whaling, fishing, hunting, quilting and the craft of decoy carving.

It’s the decoys that drew us to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center (right next to the ferry that crosses to the uninhabited shores of Cape Lookout National Seashore). Craig tried his hand at chopping away at a piece of juniper (a wood called white cedar in the north) under the tutelage of an amused Walter “Brother” Gaskill, one of the country’s best decoy carvers.

Brother instructed Craig to just chop away anything that “doesn’t look like a duck.” Afterwards Brother pulls out cutting knives and files to try to repair the damage, all the while smiling as he tells us – in a thick Down East brogue – about a local group of carvers who work with the museum to revive the art of carving decoys.

The second level of the museum – a building designed to resemble a cross between a large hunting lodge and a coastal life saving station – is like rummaging through your grandmother’s attic. Displays for each Down East community are filled with duck decoys, handmade quilts, black and white photos and household items.

From the top level there is a viewing platform with a great view of the Cape Lookout lighthouse, the only light station in North Carolina that stays lit night and day.

We found more maritime history (and, of course, more on Blackbeard) in the beautiful village of Beaufort (population: 4,000) at the North Carolina Maritime Museum. The region’s proud history of life saving stations, fishing, boatbuilding and piracy (okay, maybe proud is not the right word on that last one) is explained in detail.

But it was on two wheels that we really discovered the beauty of Beaufort (and it is very beautiful). We pedalled beach bikes from Hungry Town Bike Tours, a local bike tour company run by Betsy and David Cartier, two transplants from the northeast.

David gave us a snapshot of Beaufort: “OPALs. Older people, active lifestyle.”

Think a garden club with 160 active members. Wide, quiet streets that are perfect for biking or walking. Gorgeous homes that range from cottages to mansions. A stone’s throw across the harbour is the Rachel Carson Reserve and the historic Fort Macon, a well-preserved Civil War era fort. There are no chain stores in sight.

David has a theory on this. “Beaufort has stayed isolated, so it’s kept its charm. These houses were built by shipbuilders, so they can withstand the storms. You’ll see a lot of homes with two porches – one up and one down – it’s a West Indian style imported by the sailors.”

Indeed, Beaufort is made for those with a curiosity about history, food and culture and enough zip to pedal around town (easy pedalling along a very flat landscape and very light traffic on the side streets).

And about that “food” part … After pedalling and sightseeing all day we were primed for finding another seafood meal and, as it turns out, we ate dockside at the Front Street Grill at Stillwater, enjoying meals that were among the best of our trip to date.

The amazing Shrimp & Grits were made with stone ground cheese grits (flavoured with heavy cream and a sharp Vermont cheddar), sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and tasso (a gravy made from a base of ham drippings). Craig opted for the same-day catch of yellowfin tuna (cooked rare) in soft wheat tortillas and served with sides of black beans, rice and fried plantains. The restaurant has indoor seating, outdoor seating on the deck (dog-friendly) and a great view of the sunset.

It was a perfect way to end a perfect day!

Cape Hatteras National Seashore: Where land and sea meet

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It would have been a mistake to look at a map of the stretch of barrier islands to the south, turn around and head back north to the comforts of the Outer Banks’ “larger” communities, like Nags Head, Kitty Hawk and Manteo. As lovely as these villages are – and they are great places to visit – things got really interesting the further we drove south into the heart of Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

First, a little geography: Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a long, pencil-thin stretch of barrier islands (Bodie, Hatteras, Ocracoke) with the dunes of the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the water of Pamlico Sound on the other. It’s largely land under the watch of the National Park Service, so gets a high level of environmental protection. There are several historic villages scattered along the way (not part of the NPS land) with large beachfront homes and all the amenities of a smaller town.

We’ve already written about the shifting sand and the close watch residents keep through hurricane season (June - November) but the real highlight is what’s not along long stretches of this pristine coast. The NPS has preserved wetlands for migratory birds (hike along a boardwalk at Pea island National Wildlife Refuge), historic lighthouses and miles of remote sand beach.

In the water, dolphins played. On the shoreline, a few fishermen planted their long rods to cast from the surf and the occasional walker doffed footwear and strolled barefoot along the sand. No shops. No go-carts or mini-golf. Not even a single vending machine. In the NPS campgrounds? No electrical hook-ups and cold water showers. Ink-black skies at night. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it sure is ours.

The Outer Banks are infamous as the Graveyard of the Atlantic – a testament to the dangerous shoals that claimed many a passing ship (the estimate is the waters off the banks holds more than 600 shipwrecks dating back centuries).

Craig took the ranger-guided hike up the black and white striped Bodie Island Light Station. The view from the top was great over the long dunes and the salt marshes that are a perfect stopover point for birds migrating north-south along the Atlantic Flyway. Bodie Island Lighthouse was built in 1871, is 214 steps and on a clear day you can see 30 km (18 mi) from the top. Its flash pattern is 2.5 on, 2.5 off, 2.5 on, 22.5 off (just in case you were wondering) and it still uses an original Fresnel lens. The grounds of the lighthouse are dog friendly (but not a climb to the top).

A little further down the road we stopped at the candy-cane striped lighthouse that most people associate with the Outer Banks: Cape Hatteras Light Station. The National Historic Landmark is the continent’s tallest brick lighthouse (a climb up Hatteras is 248 steps, equivalent to a 12-storey building). The grounds of the lighthouse are dog friendly (but not a climb to the top).

The iconic lighthouse also made it to many a newspaper front page in 1999 when the National Park Service moved the entire brick structure 460 m (1,500 ft) back from an encroaching sea. The sands continue to shift but they say the move should keep the tall building safe for a good long time.

In Hatteras Village we ate dinner overlooking a dock filled with fishing boats and had a seafood meal that set the bar high for the remainder of our trip. The chef at the Breakwater Restaurant buys local: shrimp, scallops, grouper, flounder, tuna and it shows in the taste on the plate. We ate our fill of steamed shrimp the size of a toddler’s fist that were flavour-packed, meaty and didn’t suffer a bit from being dipped in melted butter. On a quest to embrace grits, Jo ate a delicious main of Shrimp & Grits (and yes, it did the trick – now a convert) and Craig had spicy, blackened chunks of yellowfin tuna (the catch of the day) wrapped in soft wheat tortillas and served with sides of black beans, rice and a pineapple chutney. Dessert was one slice/two forks of Peanut Butter Pie – a rich and creamy PB centre topped with dark, chocolate ganache.

Like we said, the bar is set high.