"Nothing but fun. . ."

Earlier this week, cruising up the ICW through Myrtle Beach NC, we gave Amelia a choice about where we should stop and spend the night. She could select between two places where we had stayed on our way south: the nice resort with the extensive pool complex or the outlet mall with a low amenity dock. To our great surprise, she chose the outlet mall over the pool and when we asked why, she told us that she remembered it and it was “nothing but fun.”

She was right, of course. There we had a chance to visit a traveling zoo with baby tigers, walk the bridge across an alligator-infested swamp, ride the flying horses and stop for pizza and then ice cream. From a six year old’s perspective, a perfect afternoon.

In a way, she is right about our entire trip as well. What we thought would be a family adventure with a little pina-coloda-on-the-beach thrown in has actually turned out to be more like an extended vacation, with all the good and bad of a long family road trip. Our boat is our station wagon, the ICW is Route 66, and the many roadside attractions are just along the waterfront.

We are now in Morehead City, NC, just outside Beaufort (pronounced “Bow-fort” unlike its South Carolina cousin Beaufort “Bew-fort”). We have been told by fellow boaters that the Bridge Tender in Beaufort, SC, who opens the bridge for passing boats, will not respond to boats that call on the radio until the correct pronunciation is used. We didn’t have a problem so we must have done it right.

Today, we are on our way to a beautiful little town on the Pamlico Sound called Oriental, NC, where we are looking forward to improving our docking score from the “judges” on the Bean’s front porch. We may even be featured on the Town's Harbor Webcam at www.towndock.net.