A Tourist in Morehead (heh heh) City, North Carolina

Cultural Event #11 – Fort Macon

Bud, Jim Sr. and I took a morning of our vacation to visit some of the tourist destinations in Morehead City. The first was Fort Macon, which is unique because it was built into the ground as a means of hiding its location from incoming ships. The problem with this plan is that it didn't take into account the ease with which the Union army would overtake it by land. Oh well. Too bad for the good ol' CSA. I will say that people in the South sure have more sympathy for the confederates than I'm used to. It was an interesting place though. The highlight was a copy of a letter that the C.O. at Macon (a confederate) wrote expressing his pleasure in declining the Union's offer to evacuate his post. It's all so civilized until people start getting blown up by cannons.

Cultural Event #12 – Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores

After the fort, I overcame my vomity feelings about fish long enough to make a pass through the brand new Aquarium. It was as cool and creepy as ever. I refrained from touching the rays or picking up the nasty crab things (like Jim Sr. did), but I did look at everything. Tiny icky octupus, big scary shark, little pretty angel fish. There was a sizeable freshwater section too, which reminded me of the DNR building at the State Fair. The highlight of this trip was Bud using one of those penny smashers for a souvenir with a big shark mouth on it, and then promptly dropping it and almost losing it down a crack in the patio.