Los Flemings

Sandwiched between the exploding populations of Raleigh, Durham and Cary is William B. Umstead State Park. Running through the middle of the park is Crabtree Creek. And the put-in is only about 10 minutes from our house.

Saturday conditions were finally right to satisfy my curiosity. The creek had enough water, the forecast was for sun and mild temperatures and Mame was caught up enough to join us. (That's her in the shadows to the left - about to pass under I-40)

For a quick escape and natural beauty it was a great day, but for ease of canoeing it was a bear. We lost count of the the number of downed trees that we had to pull over. In the end it took us 5 hours to travel 5.3 miles (our usual canoe pace is 2-3 mph depending on current).

We did see lots more wildlife than we expected including ducks, geese, herons, turtles and muskrats. There were even a few small rapids to negotiate. These kept Sam interested along with the regular stops to go over trees and the occassional exploration of some small island for him to claim as his own.

Here are pictures from our excursion last weekend to New Bern



Mame and Sam enjoy the view from the bow on Brice's Creek.

Outside the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola.

Sam and I went 'down East' (as folks in NC say) to New Bern for the weekend. We got to visit with Mame, had a lovely half-day excursion in our canoe on Brice's Creek Saturday, ate seafood and experienced New Bern's St. Patrick's Day parade today. Sam came away with a hat-full of candy thanks to good parade positioning - he wasn't around any other kids and we were close to the end of the parade route so folks were emptying their candy buckets.

New Bern is a miniature version of Charleston with a nicely maintained historic district and a couple of blocks of commercial area catering to tourists. We also learned it was NC's first capital and the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola.

Grandma Maxine was up for a visit for a few days last week and Thursday she got in on the class field trip to Jellybeans Skate center. It was Sam's first attempt at roller skating and there were plenty of spills. Overall he was persistent and started to get the hang of it. Today we returned for a second visit (out of what will be four altogether) and he showed improvement. The hard part is that he wants to go as fast as the big kids but doesn't quite have the balance down yet.

Outside of skating we had a nice visit with grandma. Enjoyed the dining tour of Cary and a puppet show at the NC Museum of Art on Saturday.

Mame is done with her heart rotation and is in her second week in New Bern and enjoying the experience so far. The hospital considers the Sr. students as part of the staff, so she has gotten a lot of opportunity to practice independently. And she likes the sensation of knowing what it will be like when she has graduated.