Outer Banks / Pamlico and Albermarle Sounds / Manteo / Nags Head / Alligator River (August 17th – August 20th)
Monday morning (8/17) we got up and walked around Washington, NC looking for shopping places open. We had lunch with Logan and Dawn at the Seafood Shack before they headed out on their 7 hour drive back to Kingsport.
The bakery was the first movie theater of Cecil DeMille 
Unfortunately the Bakery was closed on Monday! 
Found at the Seafood Shack!
We were sad to see the girls leave on Monday and spent that night at the Waterfront Docks again in Washington, NC. We did a walk around and read about some of the historic buildings in the downtown area.
We found an excellent local restaurant Down on Main Street that was serving ‘fried green tomatoes with homemade pimento cheese on top’, fresh local seafood and… running a special on Highland Brewery’s Oatmeal Porter for 2 bucks‘… a great way to end a Monday.
After a brief overnight stop Tuesday back at Dowry Creek Marina in Belhaven, NC we departed early Wednesday (8/19) for Manteo, NC on the north end of the Outer Banks. It was a long but beautiful trip that included a canal. We also had an awesome view of a crop-dusting plane that flew right over the boat — just couldn’t get to phone quick enough to get a picture. Along the Alligator River, Larry saw a couple of alligators and lots of birds, Mary worked out and cleaned on the boat some…
It was a cool day to clean some Eisenglass while underway 
Mary catching up on workouts on Tuesday while Larry drives
Alligator! 
Alligator river swing bridge 
The Alligator River and Albermarle Sound are filled with crab pots. We were racing a storm into the marina at Manteo. The canal into the harbor was very shallow and complicated but we made it into our slip just in time before the storm hit. Very near our docked boat wat the Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth II – has 8 foot draft in a 4 ft deep sound — it doesn’t float!
Later that evening we visited the town of Manteo where we found the Lost Colony Brewery (highly recommended).
Thursday morning (8/20) we took a Lyft ride to the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site home to the “Lost Colony” theater and adjacent to the Elizabethan Gardens.
While visiting Fort Raleigh, we heard that evidence of the Lost Colony had been found in Cape Hatteras… the saga may continue still…
Beach walk between theater and gardens 
Sunken Garden 
Sunken Garden
Herb garden 
Water garden 
Forest garden 
Butterfly garden 
After a morning of touring the lost colony and Elizabethan Gardens, we took Lyft to the beach in Nags Head OBX and had lunch before heading back to the boat.
Thursday Night before we head out to Lambs Marina and the Dismal Swamp…
Larry & Mary’s Great Loop Blog 