While staying near Washington DC, we did a quick drive through the city, around the Capitol and along the National Mall.
An interactive map:
US Capitol:
Other buildings:
Washington Monument:
More on DC soon.
town
Washington, North Carolina
While staying across the river in Chocowinity, North Carolina, we visited the larger city of Washington a couple of times. According to that Wikipedia article, it is commonly known as “Original Washington”; it was established in 1776, and is the first city named after President George Washington. (Washington, DC was founded in 1791.)
An interactive map:
View from bridge:
“Washington Square Mall” — a small strip mall here, not at all like the big Washington Square Mall in Portland, Oregon:
We had dinner at Boss Hog’s Chicken & BBQ:
Waterfront:
Main Street:
Crab sculptures:
We went to the Blu Farm to Table restaurant for my birthday, dining on their rooftop patio:
Unfortunately, we didn’t particularly enjoy the food. Oh well.
Waterfront:
A fairly cute little town.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
While staying at Myrtle Beach State Park, we went into Myrtle Beach proper a couple of times. Not the popular boardwalk and such, but along the endless strip of mini golf, beachwear, and pancake shops.
Mini golf:
Rope course:
Mini golf:
Park:
Beachwear:
One excursion was to try Cook Out:
Cook Out menu:
Mini golf:
Beachwear:
Beachwear:
Beachwear:
Treats:
Mini golf:
Mini golf:
Beachwear:
Beachwear:
Pancakes:
Beachwear:
Pancakes:
Beachwear:
Beachwear:
Mini golf:
Beachwear:
Beachwear:
Pancakes:
Mini golf:
You get the idea. Not the most exciting part of town. I kinda wish we had checked out the boardwalk area, but it was probably more of the same.
Key West, Florida
We did a quick visit to Key West, Florida.
Lots of golf carts on the roads:
And tour trams:
And bikes:
Also lots of free-range chickens (mostly roosters):
We visited the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center and Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, which will be featured in subsequent blog posts. But we also stopped by the beach in the state park for lunch, which I’ll include here.
This beach is one of the southernmost points in the continental US. Quite a nice and popular beach, too:
Direction sign on the beach:
We grabbed some lunch at the cafe on the beach:
Another rooster:
We had considered visiting the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum and other touristy places, but had enough of walking around, so drove by them instead.
Houses with nice Caribbean paint jobs:
The aforementioned Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, with a bit of a line outside:
Why did the chickens cross the road? No, really, why?
The famous Southernmost point buoy, which as mentioned isn’t actually southernmost, but is a popular spot for selfies, with a long line of people waiting their turn:
Really not our kind of town; way too crowded.
Carrabelle
We didn’t really do anything during the three weeks we stayed at Ho-Hum RV Park over the holidays. That seems to be fairly typical for us, just taking some downtime to relax. Especially with some very busy times coming up after this (stay tuned!).
Ho-Hum is in a kinda out-of-the-way area, but near a town called Carrabelle (population 2,778). We did go to one restaurant, the post office, and the local grocery store; that was pretty much the limit of our exploring here. There are definitely a few more things to do and see, e.g. we considered going to check out a couple of nearby lighthouses, but we’ll save that for our next visit.
Here’s an interactive map:
We had lunch at Marine Street Grill:
Next to the post office is the world’s smallest police station:
The Gulfside IGA Plus grocery store is a little small, but had almost everything we wanted:
(There is a Walmart 45 minutes away, for people who use that as a marker of civilization.)
Clock and memorial:
We do enjoy cute little towns, and this is definitely one. We’ll have to make a point of exploring it more when we’re here again.
New Orleans
We did a bit of exploring of New Orleans, Louisiana, including walking around the French Quarter, a quick drive through the Garden District, and elsewhere. This post has an assortment of pictures from the city.
An interactive map:
Lots of pictures from the distinctive French Quarter:
We had a jazz brunch at the Court of Two Sisters:
A beignet and coffee snack:
Even the cops have swag:
We stopped at another Cafe Beignet for coffee beans (that were kinda gross), and also picked up some tasty pralines:
A brief drive through the Garden District:
Hale Boggs Bridge:
Veterans Memorial Bridge:
The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway holds the Guinness World Record for longest continuous span over water in the world, at 23.83 miles (38.35 km) long:
A couple more shots from the French Quarter to finish up:
The city certainly has a lot of character.