Roanoke

Today we were very tourist-y. We headed over to Roanoke island, thankfully it was a brief drive. For those of you who don’t know the story, Roanoke would have been the first colony in the new world. The settlers arrived on Roanoke in 1587 and when supplies ran short, the sip and some of the men returned to Europe. The rest of the men, along with women and children, including the very first person of European descent born here- Virginia Dare- were left behind to colonize. England was at war when the men returned, and they were forced to wait 3 years to come back. When they returned, there were no white people anywhere to be found. No settlement, no homes, nothing. Just CRO carved into a tree. Many think the people left behind assimilated into local Indian tribes, and some evidence suggests this. Others think the Indians massacred them and destroyed any remains. Either way, its pretty neat to be in the place where one of History’s greatest mystery’s occurred.

We began our day at the Elizabethan Garden’s. These are beautiful grounds maintained in a traditional English style. Max loved being able to run around and we played a lot of “I’m gonna get you” and hide and seek.

It was already hot and steamy, so we went to Festival Park, which was a settlement style village, ship replica and museum. It was not very big, but had lots of information. Max had fun on the ship, and we tried our hands at digging out a dug out canoe. This was done with Oyster shells, so it required a long term commitment. We just spent a few minutes. The next stop was a settlement camp. There was an armament area, black smith, tents, carpentry area and cooking area. It was a cool setup and you really got a sense of how difficult life would have been. We also realized just how thankful we are for air conditioning and headed to the museum pretty quick.

The museum was very hands on and you got to see Roanoke’s full history- not just the CRO part. It had a large freedmen’s community during the Civil War, and like Okracoke had a part in WWII. Heather and I thought the neatest thing was the story of Richard Etheridge. In an effort to avoid giving 2 history lessons in one post, I will summarize by saying his life was very interesting and he was the first African American light house keeper. I will also look for a good article about him to link to. The museum had a lot of hands on stuff, and Max liked all of it but the Pirate. We dressed him like an explorer and let him go in the exploration room. Heather got some really good photo’s.

After lunch, we headed to the aquarium. Those of you who watch Discovery Channel know its Shark week. Well, they were doing it big here. Me and Max got our first tat’s in honor of it. We modeled them back at the hotel for pictures. Other than his tattoo, Max wasn’t a big fan of sharks. But he did love the turtles, and they had a lot to see. Also a touch tank with stingrays, hermit crabs, urchins, star fish, and horse shoe crabs. Max really liked looking, but refrained from touching anything.

We headed back to the hotel and enjoyed the beach. It was a very relaxing evening. Tomorrow we head to the Northern beaches.