Well, we decided to take a trip. My niece Jade was graduating from high school, it had been at least 10 years since I visited the east coast. I'd never met Savannah, my second niece. Lots of reasons to travel it seems. In the past I would have had time to spend road tripping and making my way to a destination, but no longer. We booked a couple tickets on Delta Airlines and off we went.
After dinner of standard pub fair with Blair at the Alameda Brew house we boarded our plane on time for a 2248 departure. There isn't much to say about flying these days. The planes are cramped, and full. We kind of slept on and off but managed to see the eastern shore line of Lake Michigan as we approached Detroit for our plane change. Kind of neat. Perhaps it isn't fair to judge a city by its airport. The funniest exchange after living in coffee land for a while was at the coffee kiosk that wouldn't take my coffee cup behind the counter..."You know health department" was the only retort. We changed planes and arrived in Norfolk without any issues. Our bags even arrived as well. All in all a smooth uneventful series of flights. Thanks Delta! My sister Annmarie picked us up from the airport. Since we arrived largely wonked out from lack of sleep, we mostly just hung out and took an actual nap for a few hours. Lauren was at work, but we were deposited at her house to stay for the first couple days.
Eventually fishing slowed down in the inlet and we headed south in order to fish our way back. The Sea Era is a very neat boat. Steady and fast, and super efficient only using 15 gallons of diesel per hour. We cruised south for about 30 minutes trolled slowly back north with everyone taking a turn pulling in a Bluefish. Eventually we picked up a few Mackerel with only the Battaglia's on the boat (TOG, Lauren and Me) catching the only 3 caught. It was a nice chill day on the boat, a good day to be on the water. 
After returning to dock with our catch, a total of 24 bluefish and 3 Mackerel, we handed them off to the efficient if not all together pleasant fish cleaning crew (who can blame them really...cleaning the fish of drunk tourist all day). They made quick work of our catch, for the ending of a really great day on the water. Lauren herded her drunk charges back to the car and got them safely home. Ariel and I wandered around the docks looking at other catches, while waiting for mate Bayliss to finish her duties. Ariel and I had decided to stick around and talked Ladd into taking a day off to show us the sites. Eventually we made our way to Ladd's house, up highway 12 from the fishing center and across the bridge to Roanoke island and the town of Manteo. She rents a quaint little house along the western edge of the island that backs up to marsh land. It is a sweet little pad, really nice and quiet. With black ducks out back and several species of flycatchers kicking around. Wednesday evening we hung out made some linguine with pesto. Ladd's friend Dave came by and fried up some soft shell crabs, which are blue crabs that recently molted on the latest full moon. Excellent! 
After a pleasant and not too hot night we started Thursday with a hearty breakfast, of fried eggs. Then headed out to see the local sites. We started at Ladd's parents place and met her mom, Hilda, and dogs. It is really neat spot under the trees along the water on the east side of Manns Harbor NC. Straight across the bay from where Ladd lives this summer. From here we went back across Highway 64 to and down cape Hatteras to Pea Island. There we took a walk out into the wildlife area. We saw royal terns, common terns, tricolored herons, little blue herons, least terns, peeps, eastern kingbirds. The temperatures were good and it was a really nice walk. Of course we were hungry eventually and we headed north to Tortugas Lie. I never intended that this be a food blog or entry, but is seems that while on vacation you tend to eat at lots of different places. Safe to say this is likely the best place we ate on this trip. I had the Blacked yellowfin tuna with mango salsa and goat cheese, along with a shared side of seasoned fries. The food was stellar! The fish was perfect, and critical here the bread was a decent hearty roll, not that typical gooey, white bread found at most American sandwich shops. I highly recommend this place for the food. Ladd had the same as I did, and Ariel had fish tacos, which too were excellent. From here we did a little shopping and eventually made our way to Wanchese NC home of Bayliss Boat Works.
After a whirlwind tour of the shop we tried to go for a boat ride in one of the first boats built by the works and recently restored. Ironically engine trouble (air in the fuel line) sidelined the whole thing. Oh well, next time perhaps. Instead we went back to Ladd's house and finished the day with more food, hard crab, salad, and beer. Full again.
On Friday Ladd had to work a morning trip so Ariel and I wondered to downtown Manteo. We found coffee and a bagel. Kicked around for a while, birding etc. Eventually we stopped into the Outer Banks History Center. Turns out that Ariel is relative royalty on the outer banks. Her great grandfather (on pops side) was Robert L. Wescott, a very well known name in the region. It turns out that he apparently owned the Kill Devil hills where the Wright brothers worked on their aircraft, and made their first powered flights. We have only scratched the surface, but it seems that Ariel has some pretty neat links to some very important history.
Ladd got back from the trip around noon and we again went out to eat. This time to a place in Manteo called Ortegaz. While the chips and guacamole were good. The Tuna sandwich I had was pretty lame, especially considered against yesterdays fare. Remember that gooey white bread...find that here. After lunch we were going to go to the beach, but Ladd got called in for a random drug test that the Coast Guard does of captains and mates. So Ariel and I went to the beach and got caught in a thunderstorm. Ladd made it back and we went up to Kill devil hills for the final hour of operation where we got to see where the Wright brothers made it all happen. After absorbing the history of the Kill Devil Hills site we headed back to Manteo. Chilled out for a bit, got some Lemonade, and Walked around down town. We need to get back to Chesapeake to help out with party prep etc and attend the actual graduation party. We bid our farewells to Ladd and Dave and headed North. We were navigating a bit by feel but managed to make our way back. It is really interesting to note how flat the region is...in sharp contrast to the Willamette valley. Saturday started with lots of prep. Running errands to pick up food and supplies etc. Vinny and Paul had most of the tents, tables, and games set up. It was all pretty smooth. The DJ showed up, the music got loud. Jade was the center of attention as it should be. We drank and ate and chilled. It was a good, fine time. Lauren handled the logistics well and everything was pretty smooth. I think that this party was also for Lauren and Vinny as well. Jade will be off to college in the fall and while only 2 hours away, it will be nice for them to have a bit of a life change. Jade seems to be a pretty thoughtful, intelligent kid (for her tender 18 years) so her parents have little to worry about.
Sunday, was another down day. Ariel and I went to the beach early. It was quiet and chill with only the metal detector guys walking the beach. We looked for breakfast but found nothing but starbucks in the vast urban sprawl of the region. It really takes leaving to realize how homogenized this country has become...and searching that much harder for the little differences and unique experiences that are still around. Later in the day TOG and I went to a small private Airplane museum, we looked at planes, talked about stuff. It was a nice chill day. For dinner we went to Annmarie's house for one last family affair. A good ending of the day and trip.
Monday June 20 we flew out after a morning of chilling with Lauren. We got a final ride in her fancy new convertible on the way to the airport. Now I have to note here that Lauren LOVES her convertibles. For years she had my Dad's old 72 Skylark, which has largely gone beyond serviceability. Recently she acquired a VW EOS, which is a fancy hard top convertible. It is pretty slick with all the bells and whistles. If you want to see Lauren grin BIG just ask for a demo and she'll take you for a ride. Anyway she dropped the top after leaving us at the Airport and we headed home. This time through Minneapolis, again largely uneventful, except for getting a good view of hood and other southern mountains of the Cascades as we arrived. With this view we knew we were back.
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