Can't Find My Way Home

(That's the last Steve Winwood reference.  I promise.)

We had a nice breakfast the previous day at the pancake house and decided to go back.  There are two branches of Stack 'Em High Pancakes on the island.  The one we went to the previous day was about a mile south of the hotel; the other a few miles north.  We were planning to head north to explore Duck and maybe some other towns on the other side of the bridge so we went to get breakfast at the joint to the south.

I wanted to revisit it.  One of my "passing" tests is if I'm remembered.  If someone thinks "older woman customer" they're not going to remember me.  If someone thinks "guy in drag" they probably will, just because of the novelty.  But there's another issue now, which I'll get to shortly.

I wanted to see if the woman behind the register remembered me.  I wanted to see if "Czechoslovakia" would remember me.

Travel Meg.  NOT a "travel mug"

So, of course, when we entered the "greeter" was a guy who definitely wasn't there yesterday.  The cashier also was a guy.  I said "you weren't behind the register yesterday, were you" and he said "my wife and I own the restaurant and we switch off."

We had a different waitress as well, even though we sat in the same small area.  There was also a different coffee bringer; instead of the guy calling us "beautiful ladies" a woman asked if "you girls would like some more coffee" which was different and pleasant.

(by the way, I don't remember where but I do remember hearing a "sweetie" and a "honey" reference to Meg during the trip.)

Either the husband told his wife someone asked about her or she was just making the rounds but she showed up shortly after to say hi.  I asked about the waitress from yesterday, the Czech girl and she said she was off today.  I said "I was going to just ask 'where is Czechoslovakia?' but you'd probably say 'Eastern Europe?'" which earned me a laugh.

She didn't say anything like "nice to see you again" or "you came back" or anything implying she'd

Breakfast (Tuesday)

seen us before.

At the end of breakfast, I did go up to the register (she was behind the register again) and said "I'm just curious ~ do you remember me?" and she said "yes.  You asked for the special... no, the usual." and she laughed.

So there's my problem now.  People remember my male self because I joke with them.  Did she remember me because of my stupid comment or...?

We drove up to Duck and stopped at a couple of shopping centres there.  We stopped and shopped and headed back north around noon.

One surprise before leaving: we stopped in a small self-serve shoe shop.  I said "we can look for shoes for you but these kinds of shops never have shoes in my size.

Well, never is a bad word.  There were many pairs of 11s, although none were wide.

Meg's ice cream and rainbow sprinkle fix (Tuesday)

And, surprisingly, I didn't see any shoes that both looked wide enough and I was in love with.

One more shoe store note....  At the checkout there was a little tank with a snail in it.  A sign identified it as "Alex."  I asked if it was a boy snail, since they gave it a boy's name.  The woman behind the counter said she didn't know if it was a boy or girl.  I suggested letting the snail out and see which kind of shoes it heads for.  If it goes for the stilletoes, it's a girl.

Again, I'm getting more comfortable making "gender" jokes and seeing if anyone picks up on it.  So far, no-one's said a thing.  I'm going to pretend that's because I pass so well that they don't think I'm anything but a ciswoman.

We took the bridge away from the island and went north through Norfolk and Virginia Beach and other southeastern Virginia cities.

Heading from the Williamsburg area towards Richmond we decided it was lunch time and stopped at a Bojangles.

Northern Virginians say that the Mason-Dixon line isn't at the Potomac River, it's at the Occoquan River.  South of that landmark you hear southern accents, and it can be like a different world sometimes.

We made good time.  Traffic was light.  (DAM!  I said "no more Winwood references")

Meg in rural southeastern VA?  Not a problem.

Meg for four days?  Not a problem either, although if I wanted to go for five I'd be doing some serious shaving first.

Maybe next trip I'll try a two-piece bathing suit.

At the Beach ~ An Aside

Tuesday at the beach, Charity and I stopped in a toy store where we picked up a couple of games for us.  Mostly, the store was very kid-oriented.  Charity is more of a game geek than I am, and she spoke at length with the clerk whereas I just interjected with opinions of games every now and then.  I also walked around the store and found components for a play kitchen.

That's not unusual.

What was unusual was, every box showed a boy playing with the kitchen.  There was not a girl in sight.

Stupid me, I didn't take a picture of that section of the store.  But it kind of looked like this:

and it reminded me of this:

We're making progress!  Maybe if more boys learned it's OK to play in the kitchen, there would be fewer sons living in their mom's basement after college.

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Sunday Funnies: Against the Grain

Against the Grain by Ron Therien is one of those strips I lost track of years ago.  These are from 1999 or 2000.  It appears the strip goes on.  It might be better to zoom than click-to-enlarge these.

Oh....  Over the years, these are the only ones I saved, but I embargoed (the best) one and you'll see it soon.

Unintentional Transformations

These two short sequences come from Big Top and Liberty Meadows.

Stucco the Clown (Big Top) has always been unruly (bordering on evil and cannibalistic)  so a "clown whisperer" has been brought in.

Liberty Meadows is, well, just a medication error.

Please click or zoom to make them readable.

That's Luann standing behind Ralph.

We Interrupt The Beach Story For This Important Bulletin

 

 

I am now legally divorced.

This is considered a "life event" for corporate (in)human resources.  Of all the life events (marriage, birth, death, etc) this is the only one that's both a joyous and a sad event.

---

Inlets and Outlets, Part II ~ Inlets

Shana Tovah to the members of the tribe out there!

After scoring the pottery, we headed back over the bridge to the Outer Banks proper.  We headed south instead of north, to stop at the Oregon Inlet.  We kind of overshot it and drove down the island a bit, then turned around and parked near the marina on the inlet.  We walked around, looking at boats and enjoying the sunshine.

By now, lunch was definitely overdue and dinnertime was approaching fast.

Charity and I both enjoy games and I knew there was a game/toy shop on the way back.  We stopped and looked around.  It seemed to be mostly kid stuff but there were some games for non-kids in a rear corner.  The store was pretty empty but we talked games with the guy behind the counter and picked up a couple because, somehow, we neglected to bring a game or two on the trip.  And new games are always welcome anyway.

Before we left, we asked about places to eat.  He suggested a couple that were along the beach, on the way back to the room.  We stopped and skipped the first one he suggested, but stopped and dined at the second, The Red Drum Grille and Taphouse.

It was quite crowded, but I'm getting used to crowds.  I people-watch; in return, they ignore me.

I did what's becoming normal: chatting and joking with the waitress, and basically being a normal restaurant patron.  And, again, I was treated as such.

Being a short, straight drive to the hotel, I had a mixed drink.  Being a restaurant on the beach, I had the fish and chips.  Both were good.

We returned to the hotel after dark and played one of the new games in the room instead of taking a walk on the beach.  And it was a good night to get to bed early.  Tomorrow would be the long drive back to Annandale.

---

Who Said It Was a New Usage of the Word?

I thoroughly enjoy the books of P. G. Wodehouse.  I recently read Something Fresh, which was written in 1915.

Ashe Marson answers an ad for someone looking for adventure.  The job Mr Peters (the "little man" in the excerpt) was offering appeared to be valet.  Ashe declined, wanting adventure not a valet's position.  They are not getting along.

'Don't be a damned fool,' said the little man.  'Of course I'm not asking you to be a valet and nothing else.'

'You would want me to do some cooking and plain sewing on the side, perhaps?'

Their eyes met in a hostile glare.  The flush on the little man's face deepened.

'Are you trying to get gay with me?' he demanded dangerously.

'Yes,' said Ashe.

The answer seemed to disconcert his adversary.  He was silent for a moment.

This was, as I said, 1915.

---

Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)

The outlet mall was south of the hotel and we decided to head back to Manteo on Roanoke Island.  I did want to see that maritime museum and explore the island a bit more.  There are a lot of attractions packed into that little island.  There are Elizabethan Gardens, a show about "The Lost Colony," The sailing ship Elizabeth II, an aquarium, and more.

We wandered the town of Manteo again.  This time, we knew where it was (Monday we wandered) and we parked near downtown and explored, starting with the maritime museum.

If you have a chance to go to Manteo and have to skip something definitely make it the maritime museum.  It was not worth the shoe leather walking to the front door.

Monday, we ate lunch and then saw a very appealing ice cream place.  But lunch was very filling and we passed.

Today, we had a big breakfast and stopped for ice cream.  In addition to having access to non-chain ice cream, it was quite hot out, hotter than expected.

I continued my usual behaviour and kidded around with the girl behind the counter.  I say usual, but, again, this is new Meg behaviour and I wonder if it's appropriate in a female.  On the other hand, I'm being myself as Meg; I can be myself with respect to acting in a way that might be less female-appropriate.  And again, I'm not sure.

This is where we ordered ice cream and as she was preparing mine I leaned close and said "I think I need rainbow sprinkles."  She giggled.  I didn't think until later that the rainbow is associated with gay, and most civilians probably associate trans with gay.  I won't even speculate whether she was laughing because of that connection or because I said I need sprinkles.

I just like rainbow sprinkles.

We wandered into several shops, mostly clothing shops, mostly niche and pricey.  We also walked

through an artsy little shop where the owner made assorted pottery.  Charity decided she loved one of them but it wasn't quite ready yet.  She made a tentative purchase and we figured if we stayed long enough on the island we'd return and pick it up.  If not....

We went to the aquarium next.

It is a surprisingly nice aquarium.  There are a lot of local sea life and an assortment of very large and healthy sea turtles.  Signage could have been better.  I often didn't know what I was looking at.  They also do sea turtle rescue and care there and had a nice hands-on exhibit to demonstrate what they do.

Shark Fight!

There were also hands-on live exhibits.  You could touch a variety of invertebrates and even a sting ray (the stingers were removed).

At one point there was a green screen and we could get our picture taken.  They would then sell it back to us with a background of some sort and that didn't interest either of us.  We told the guy that we really didn't need our picture and he directed us through a different door than the people who had the photo.  I questioned that and he said "trust me!"  I said "should I?" and he said "trust me!  Go that way!"

That way was the sea turtle rescue area which I really enjoyed ~ it was very well done.

After we went back in, I sought out the guy and said "I should have trusted you."  He looked like he had never seen me before and I reminded him of our conversation and he laughed and said "see?"

So it was pretty cool that I didn't stand out to this worker!  Every event like that makes me more confident.

Meg, being bold!

One surprise: there was a shark tank with a few large specimens ~ over five feet long, I'd guess.  While they were swimming one started to nudge another.  They looked to be identical, and pretty large.  The next time they swam past, one had the other's pectoral fin entirely in the other's mouth.

Divers magically appeared, and the sharks were contained behind some large rocks in the tank so we couldn't see what happened.  I tried to get some pictures but the water was murky and it was too dark for a good shot.

For no discernible reason, they had several animatronic dinosaurs on the premises.  We took a look,
but it was a bit puzzling.

By now, it was getting later, we were getting hungrier, and the pottery was getting readier.  We headed back to Manteo and the pottery was ready.  We left Roanoke Island for the last time.

---

Inlets and Outlets, Part I ~ Outlets

After breakfast, we stopped at an outlet mall on the main drag (so to speak).  We did a lot of window shopping and a little real shopping.  We started at one end of the mall and went into most of the clothing stores.

Our first serious stop was at the Hanes store.  Hanes owns Bali, Playtex, Maidenform, Lilyette, Barely There and more.  My favourite bras are from Bali.  My favourite panties are Vanity Fair (not a Hanes product).  There were some great sales.  I was disappointed that the camisoles I loved were not on sale ($17 each!) but a Bali style I'd never seen before was on sale, as were Bali panties.  They had several different styles: hipster, bikini, hi-rise, and others, and a wide variety of colours and patterns.  Panties and bras were discounted more if you bought three of each.  I only needed one bra, but Charity bought two that were on sale as well.  I also bought six panties in three different styles.

To state the obvious, it's much more comfortable shopping for bras and panties en femme.

my new bra.  Alas, not me.

The bra, by the way, has full coverage, only two hooks, and instead of wire a wide band below the breasts.  It is amazingly comfortable.

I also picked up a new Maidenform waist cinch (also on deep discount) to replace my go-to cinch which was starting to fray.

Needless to say, I didn't try any of these on at the store.

Another stop was an Eddie Bauer store where I did try on some clothes.  I didn't find any dressy clothes I liked there but I did decide I could use a pair of Bermuda-length shorts.  I didn't see shorter shorts I liked but I had two pairs of shorts: one, jeans shorts, the rivet that held the button in front fell off; the other, khaki, were tight.  I picked up two replacement shorts (which, as I said, I did try on but did not wear during the trip.)  I consider these passable when I am in non-Meg mode.

I also picked up a passable pair of black slacks which I have worn to work.  They're size S12 (I believe the S refers to "short" which I'm not but they allow for hemming; these are not the first women's pants I bought for work that were S and fit right.  They're also from their "slightly curvy" line.  They make a variety of shapes, for different hip-waist ratios.  They have a "boyfriend" line which I believe makes more sense with my hip-waist ratio but I didn't see any of those.

The 12 was a bit loose but I thought it was tolerable, even though the shorts were 10s.  Wearing the slacks to work I realised I should have gotten a 10 as well.  But I think they look fine, with only one problem: the back pockets are minuscule, fairly useless.

Again, if you're going to be trying on women's clothes, it's better to be a woman while doing so.

Oh....  Breakfast for me means drinking copious amounts of coffee.  That meant a stop at the ladies' room of which there was only one and it had about twelve miles of stalls.  It wasn't very busy but there were enough ladies there that I didn't dawdle to adjust my makeup before leaving.

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Sunday Funnies ~ Shark!

I know I did some Jim Toomey's Sherman's Lagoon last month, but I have saved up a LOT over the years and whenever I look at them again I still laugh.

I want to share with my friends.

Besides, I'm still on the beach theme.  AND while at the Outer Banks I saw a shark take a big bite out of another shark.  I didn't see the outcome so I don't know if the bitee survived.

Click to enlarge.

Fillmore isn't handy with the ladies

And Hawthorne's just evil

LOVE the trashapult

I would do this.

Nails and Makeup. You Know... Girl Stuff

Three on nails.  Two on makeup.  Off The Mark (Mark Parisi), Meg (Greg Curfman), Preteena (Allison Barrows), and One Big Happy (Rick Detorie).  It might be worth zooming in instead of clicking on the image, especially for the last one.

Really.  The strip's called Meg.

Why I dress for manicures

He didn't say that.

I never expected tomboy Teena to put on mascara!

Sorry it's so small!  It's worth enlarging!

Ruby Tuesday, Me Mateys!

2005 Meg!

HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!  I was goin' t' run th' whole post through a translator but, lucky fer y'all, I decided agin it.
 
I remember when I first went out dressed with my makeup lady (ten years ago!).  She wanted to stop for cigarettes at a 7-11 just down the street from my house.  When we stopped, I went into the store with her, which surprised her.  She thought I'd be leery of stepping out so close to home.

As we drove on, she asked me to try to use my best girl voice.  I declined.  I was out wearing a dress, makeup, wig, and heels but I felt like she'd laugh at me if I tried to use my girl voice.  I even mentioned that to her, and we discussed it but my voice remained hidden.

When I went out by myself the first few times, it was to a mall.  I'd go into a shop and be greeted by the woman behind the counter and I'd mouth a response, and assume she'd think she couldn't hear me over the ubiquitous music.  I never bought anything and I'd smile in reply when she'd offer a "come again" or something similar when I was leaving.

Tuesday morning, we went to a local pancake house.  There were two "Stack 'Em High Pancakes" franchises on the island, one about a mile south of us, one about four miles north.  We wanted to head south after breakfast and also wanted the option of heading back to the hotel to freshen up so we chose the closer one.

It was quite crowded and definitely not an IHOP.

2015 (2 Sep to be exact) Meg!

We were greeted by a very loud woman when we came in, who asked if we'd ever eaten there before.  We said no and she explained that we can pick up cold drinks and some other cold items along a cafeteria-style strip and order food at the end by the register.  There we'd get a number and our food would magically appear shortly.

When we got to the register, Charity gave her order to the woman at the register and I said to her "I'll have the usual."  She said "honey, I see 700 people here every day.  I don't know what your usual is."

OK, she gets points for not saying "I think I'd remember you" or something similar.

I said "that's OK.  I've never been here before" which got a good laugh.  By the way, I do that occasionally.  Don't steal my lines!

I continued to kid around with her as we ordered and moved on  to our table with a number to inform the staff where we were sitting.

There are two rooms in this restaurant.  One is the main room which was pretty full and had the counter and such in it.  On the side was a smaller, mostly empty room.  We sat there, mostly because it was quieter.  There were windows to the outside and a pass-thru next to our table so we could see the main room.

A waiter or busboy came up behind me and said "would you beautiful ladies like some more coffee?"  To his credit, I DID have my back to him, but I can pretend, right?

I joked with the waiter, and our waitress who's name I didn't recall but I did ask her where she was from ~ she had an Eastern European accent ~ and she said Czechoslovakia.  After that, I referred to our waitress as "Check."

We chatted whenever she'd come back to the table.

This is what I normally do in drab, an activity known as "embarrassing your kids."

I decided that I'd like to come back here the next day, just to see if the waitress/woman at register remembered Meg.  Not remembering is better, but I also drew attention to myself so I kind of wanted to know.

Other diners came and went; we lingered a bit because we were going to head to an outlet mall and it was still a bit early, and we were having fun there.  No-one gave us a second look.

It was a fun and different (for Meg) start to the day and I was looking forward to the next stop.

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Just Another Manic Monday

Click for readability

On the slim strip of land known as the Outer Banks, there is a (minor) road that parallels the ocean beach, and a major road that parallels that a couple of tenths of a mile further west. 

Our hotel faced the beach on one side and the minor road on the other.  A couple of blocks south along the minor road brought us to the restaurant.  Sidewalks are iffy but traffic is light.

We got to the restaurant and it was mostly empty.  We were greeted and put at a table that seemed to be in the "no service section."  Eventually a waitress came by and apologised profusely for making us wait so long ~ there was a mess-up and no-one was assigned.  I asked her if we get our meals for free because we had to wait and she said no but we could have a free appetizer, which was fine with me.

Dinner was good, the restaurant continued to be lightly used although more people came in as we ate.  I also continued to joke with the waitress ~ for instance, I mentioned that I didn't expect this much traffic but had to point out that Traffic was all they were playing since we came in.  She asked if they should change the music; I said no, I love it.  It seems one of the staff put together a Steve Winwood mix CD and that's what they were playing.  A little Blind Faith followed Traffic, and some Winwood solo work after that.  I didn't hear any Spencer Davis but maybe that was before I arrived.  I did hear "Low Spark of High Heel Boys" which made me smile.

I also seem to be more comfortable talking with civilians these days.  I'm sure there's a reason.

The waitress also gave us a free dessert and pointed us to their gift shop (does EVERYONE on the Outer Banks have a gift shop?) and said we were there on the right day ~ there was a ten percent discount twice a year and Labour Day was one of those days.

So we went to the gift shop and chatted with the woman there and looked at the clothes, jewelry, and other items they had.  I picked up a pair of sandals and we walked back to the hotel.

It was dark out now and I was determined to get all of my makeup off before bed that night!

---

Simple Pleasure ~ The World Has Caught Up With Me!

Readers know I'm a fan of colourful socks.  I wear patterned socks or brightly coloured socks, generally to match my shirt.  Many guys wear ties that add some colour to the otherwise drab male uniform; I don't do ties so I express my individuallity in my socks. Of course, the socks come from the women's side of the aisle so I have to look for a larger size or stretchy socks.

Woot has daily deals and a bunch of auxillary side deals.  I generally forget about the other deals, but last week I saw this:

These are men's socks!  Look down at the bottom of the page.

Now I have to decide if I want to stick with women's socks or encourage this trend by buying these men's socks.

And I need to stretch the envelop a bit more now.

---

Come Monday, It'll Be All Right

The Jimmy Buffett song begins:

Headin' out to San Francisco
For the Labor Day weekend show

I just came back from San Francisco and Monday at the beach was Labor Day.  So there.

I was comfortable being out in my swimsuit.  I thought I might be self-conscious, but I was not.  I suppose, being out in a variety of clothing I'm not accustomed to over the past few years has eliminated my anxiety over being out in different attire.  I suspect, other than the "I need to shave EVEN MORE" issue, I would have been OK in a two-piece swimsuit.

click to zoom

I left my flip-flops at the hotel.  It was a short walk to the beach and I didn't see a need to wear shoes I'd just take off when I got to the water anyway.

I admit I did work hard to ensure everything was, um, in place before leaving the hotel.  I didn't want stray hairs showing even though there was a little skirt in front of the suit.  I didn't seriously overthink it....  I figured, it's late in the day and late in the season and I DID do a lot of shaving where I've never shaved before.  The beach should be quiet and if anyone wants to "girl watch" there will be much better viewing targets than me.

It wasn't really a different feeling wearing a swimsuit.  I've worn other (under)garments that covered just the areas the suit covered.  I've worn a leotard, for instance (although not out).  Panties and a camisole are not much different than a swimsuit, for covered area.  If I had any, I think I could even go with showing some cleavage.  Going out was more an "it is OK to wear this outdoors" attitude shift than anything else.  My normal dressing mode is "modest".  I see people (mostly women) walk to the curb taking out the trash or taking in the newspaper in pajamas or a nightgown or a robe.  I don't have that level of comfort.  It is difficult for me to just walk out of the apartment (to take out the trash, only a few feet from my front door) in my house slippers.  I've opened the door to bring in the newspaper wearing my nightie but that's also a comfort-zone stretch.

before going to the Port O' Call

So the difference was going out in what to my mind is underwear.  And although I would never open my door wearing just a bra and panties, as I said, I don't think I'd have a problem wearing a bikini or tankini.

I am not a swimmer, but the water was warm and we waded and splashed a bit and got wet when we didn't see the big waves coming and had another nice long walk, this time in the opposite direction from Sunday's.  The difference between yesterday and today was, I didn't care how wet I got, which was nice.  The same crowd ~ families, fishermen, other walkers ~ were there.  Same crowd, different faces.

When the sky started to get dark and we got hungry we decided to head for a restaurant just up the street called Port O' Call.  Another stretch: a swimsuit on the beach is one thing but a swimsuit "in town" required another stretch.  I wouldn't walk into a restaurant in a swimsuit but felt comfortable with a lace cover dress that was pretty short and very see-through.  And it was a couple of block walk to the restaurant.

For the record, I did put shoes on before going out to eat.

Monday, Monday

My first full day at the beach started with a lesson learned.  I did something unusual, and dressed as Meg yesterday and planned on doing the same today. 

Lesson learned: even though you don't HAVE to, take off your makeup completely.  I did a poor job on my eyes Sunday night and I had to get out the remover Monday morning AND spend extra time washing the old mascara and eyeliner off and making sure I had a good basis for that day's makeup.

A related lesson: your total prep time before going out is S+C+M+D, where S is shaving and

showering time, M is makeup time, D is dressing time, and C is time spent waiting for blood to clot, after you do a poor job at S.  Try to keep C to zero.  I had a little knobby bit just below and to the left of my nose that I hit Monday morning and it added 20 or 30 minutes to my prep time as I waited impatiently for it to resolve itself.  I didn't waste that time.  I stood there anxiously fearing that it would leave a blot that I couldn't cover with makeup, or never stop bleeding until it was time to go home.  I also took the time to get hungrier, since I didn't want to leave the room except in Meg Mode.

After I was finally ready, we went down to check out the hotel breakfast.  The breakfast room was full and the line for the waffle maker was long so we grabbed a light breakfast and sat at a table outside the room, near the registration desk.  We then headed out for our first full day in the Outer Banks.

We started with what could have easily been a walk: our hotel was less than a half-mile from the Wright Brothers Memorial.  We parked and walked to the main building.  We looked at the exhibits and caught the end of a talk.  We went outside walked over by the markers for the first day's flights.  Then I encountered my first problems of the trip.

It was hot.  And my wedges were a bit uncomfortable.

So we did not walk up to the memorial, at the top of a sand dune.

I acted as I always do, and I think everyone around us did the same.  I spoke to the information lady, the gift shop people, and others.

We were Just Tourists.

From there, we went to a shop where I felt very out-of-place.  No, not lingerie or shoes or jewelry. I'm fine with those.

It was a scrapbook store.  Charity's hobby is scrapping and she really wanted to visit this store and see what they had.  She also had a long talk with the owner.  I have less interest in scrapping than I do in football (for the record, very little).

That ordeal ended and we drove south to Roanoke Island.  I think I had been there once before, in a previous visit, perhaps just as an alternative escape route from the area.  The main bridge is backed up for hours on a typical escape day.

We had lunch at Po Richards, a sandwich place on the bay.  The lunch was good, the place was VERY crowded, the ladies' was single stall.  I asked the woman standing outside if she was waiting and she said "yes."  As opposed to, say, "which room did you mean?"

I don't like waiting outside the restroom but lines bother me a lot more than milling so I milled.

We walked along the water and took some photos, then saw a sign for shops so we headed toward the shops.  We looked at clothes in some unique shops (as opposed to the Same Old Shops you find in many tourist towns) but didn't see anything wonderful.  Prices were lower though; the post-summer discounts had begun.

I wanted to see the Manteo Maritime Museum, which was nearby but closed on Monday.  Alert: we went back on Tuesday and discovered it's not worth the entry price (free).

After we saw as much of Manteo as we wanted (it does turn out it was worth a second visit, which we did the next day) we headed back to the hotel.  It was late in the afternoon and we thought a visit to the beach was warranted.  I put on my new bathing suit and made sure everything was, um, under control.  Charity put on hers and we headed for the water.

Baldwin Medicine

More "Cornered" by Mike Baldwin, this time with a medical theme.

LOVE this one!