We spent the day on Roanoke Island

We drove over the causeway and the BIG bridge to Roanoke Island yesterday to visit Festival Park and the Elizabethan Gardens. We had hoped to make it to the Aquarium as well, but that didn't happen. Festival Park has a 26 year old replica of one of the seven ships that sailed into Roanoke Sound to help found the English colony there in 1585. This ship would have held 50 passengers, some of them sailors, some carpenters and others to help in building the colony. They must have been packed in fairly tight, since this was not a very large ship!

We watched an interesting film about the three tribes of Native Americans who inhabited the area. The scenery in the film was gorgeous!

The Elizabethan Gardens were pretty, but by far not the most beautiful garden we have seen. We were about two weeks late for the the azaleas. The garden was full of huge azalea bushes but not a bloom in sight! There were some rhododendrons just starting, as were lots of hydrangeas that should bloom out in a few days, just not the day we were there ...:>( The garden was named for Queen Elizabeth I, the ruling monarch when settlements first came to Roanoke Island. This was a lovely bronze sculpture of Elizabeth in the garden.

The thing most amazing about the garden were the live oak trees - they weren't BIG compared to the girth of those we saw on Ocracoke, but the wind and salt spray had done beautiful things to their formations.

What I can't fathom is these huge, tall trees and all the undergrowth growing in nothing but SAND!

On our way over to Roanoke on Wednesday morning we had seen a 4 story tower next to a Kayak Tour store. Having had the experience we had on Sunday night with the Deputy Sheriff in Buxton, we wanted to make sure we could come back to the tower for sunset pix, so we stopped and talked to the owner at the Kayak store, and he said it would be ok to climb the tower to watch the sunset. As it turned out there was a light pole RIGHT IN THE WAY! We got better shots by crossing the road and standing on the edge of the road by Roanoke Sound. Crossing the busy highway was the real excitement for the night!! But the photos are worth it!