Tuesday, October 7 - Day 20

Lazing Around AB and a Dining Experience

What a great day! We have had a real laid back day. Actually up at dawn to watch the sunrise over the ocean. Lisa took some sunrise photos from the beach. We had a big breakfast at a corner diner and then went shopping for shorts for me and armloads of souvenirs for Lisa. Back to the hotel for beach time and nap time. We are in the center of a bunch of US Navy and Marine installations. Close off shore for most of the day was a warship with lots of activity around it. It looked like one of the Marine small carriers that have the Harrier jump jets. There were a lot of helicopter landings and I am pretty sure several Osprey landings, very loud even at a couple miles.

For several months I have watched the PBS show, Chef and The Farmer. Not your usual recipe filled cooking show but a tale of a wife, chef and mother of twins, and her restauranteur husband who start a sophisticated restaurant, named Chef and The Farmer, in a very rural part of NC. It's about the struggles of family vs work, sophisticated food vs rural population. It was not too far from our stop in AB so we went there tonight and had a very fine meal. We had a dozen oysters for starters at the Boiler Room. Then at Chef and the Farmer we split a plate of peach curried pork belly skewers, Lisa's entree was tomato pie and mine was Cajun shrimp and grits and Lisa's dessert was homemade marshmallow ice cream with hot fudge and mine was upside down apple cake with caramel ice cream. Wonderful food. Here is their website: http://chefandthefarmer.com/

Tomorrow we are off to Pamlico Sound barrier islands.

Photos: 1 - sunrise; 2 - motel; 3 - view from our room; 4 - motel property; 5 & 6 -view of motel from pier;  7 - Dave at the beach; 8 - standing in calf deep water at low tide looking toward pier; 9 - another Caswell sign in Kinston, NC; 10 - Chef and the Farmer restaurant; 11 - Dave's Cajun shrimp and grits; 12 - Lisa's tomato pie