Ahoy! More Friday Fun.

I had a few good hours left of the day, so I decided to head to Fort Macon.  Best known as a Civil War era fort, it was actually in use in WWII.  It is now in a state park all the way at the far end of the island on the other side of Atlantic beach.

There have actually been a lot of changes since I was there last with Mom.  There is a huge visitor's center now (no pics of that, not that thrilling) where the store is located (closed before I got there).  I got there a little late and didn't get to do a lot of exploring...

This is the entryway to the main part of the fort

These are the only two original cannon still on the grounds of the fort

This is the view from inside one of the barrel shaped rooms of the fort looking out to the central parade grounds.

Some of the rooms they had set up with creepy mannequins to show how the rooms would have looked while in use.  This one is a WWII setup... 

This is the stairway up to the higher battlements where most of the cannon were.  The railings are pretty ornate and, interestingly enough, are replicas of the originals.  

This is the view from the fort.  I'm pretty sure that is Shackleford Banks we're looking at out there in the water.  Those semi-circles are where the cannon were mounted.

The State Park is raising money to buy cannon like this one to replace the missing armament of the fort.  I found out that there is going to be a Civil War reenactment this weekend...I may try to stop back tomorrow to check it out. 

The Fort closed at 5:30, but the park closes at 7, so I decided to check out the beach.  This is a strolling along the beach place only as the water is very treacherous.  I decided to keep my sneakers on and headed out across the dunes.  It had gotten quite cold by now, and windy...I was glad I had headed back to the condo after going to Beaufort to pick up my hoodie. 

I soon found that this was also an excellent shelling beach

Since there was no swimming, surfing, wading....there was fishing.  Where there is fishing, there are seagulls

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It was actually kind of funny as there were a line of seagulls watching the surf and the fishermen. Just a little army of gulls. 

Now it was almost 7 and time to get home and eat.  I had the crab cakes I got the other day, so stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things and popped in to the cheezy beach gift shop next door as well to pick up the ubiquitous salt water taffy to bring back for my co-workers.

I mention the taffy because my day doesn't end well.  The taffy was on sale as it is the end of season, so I got a couple of boxes and decided to quality control it.  Yeah...it pulled off one of my crowns.  I brushed my teeth really well and rinsed and jammed the thing back on and it seems stuck on there pretty good.  I may need to pick up some Fixodent tomorrow just in case...darnitall. So...Boss, if you are reading this, I will need to visit the dentist when I get home to get this glued back on. 

Anyway, I made a baked potato with my crab cakes...which I pan fried. Served up with some of my cole slaw.

MMMMMmmm...good stuff.  Crab cakes were good and the slaw has been marinating the exact right amount of time.  

Tomorrow, I need to do laundry and start packing up.  Leaving Sunday...booohoooo.  Hopefully, I will have time for a bit more shopping and maybe check out the show at the fort tomorrow. OK it is late...it is tomorrow...gotta get some shut eye