May 18 – Festival Park in Manteo

It was another hot day with a high around 30C. In the morning we went to Festival Park, a short way north in Manteo. It has a sailing ship, a museum and recreations of an Algonquin Indian Village and the first European colony in the area.

First to the ship Elizabeth II.

It was hard to get a picture of it so close to the dock.

Later we were across the bay and Jennie got this picture. Notice how busy it was then. When we arrived it was rather empty but just as we were leaving many school buses of kids arrived. Dodged a bullet there!

The first colony arrived here in around 1580. This ship is called a representation (their words) of one from that time. One of the guide said they couldn’t call it a replica because they had no blueprints but did have some good ideas of the measurements and style of ships from that era.

This ship was built in the 1980’s and they do take it out for a sail occasionally. It takes a crew of 12 to run it properly. During voyages in the day, it would have up to 50 men on board make the Atlantic crossing. It is rather small to be with that many people for weeks on end.

As it was kind of small it was hard to get pictures that took enough of it in.

I think the photospheres come into there glory in these confined spaces even with all the disconnection and half people.

Photosphere 1 and photosphere 2.

We went below deck. Jennie tried the capstan to that would be the general purpose winch.

This was about half the space below, where 49 people would sleep.

The captain had his own cabin at the stern.

On to the colony settlement. There are a few people in period dress giving demonstrations.

A bow powered lathe.

I am not sure what was up with the little carved head behind him.

He let me give it a try but someone, who shall remain nameless, forgot to take a picture. Someone else forgot to remind her.

I also got to try this vise used to scrape wooden pegs, using a two handled blade. Use your imagination to see me there.

The blacksmith made us an iron nail.

It was kind of funny but once they found out we were from Canada, they asked us more questions than we did of them.

Our souvenir.

There wasn’t much to the Indian Village. This was a ceremonial circle.

If you opened the flap, these boxes would say a word in Algonquin but they wouldn’t shut up. The doors were loose and would open on their own.

Finally we went to the museum, which was actually pretty good. Lots of interesting info about the area.

One display let you pretend to duck hunt. The gun had a laser in it and if you hit a duck on the ceiling they would squawk.

Nobody was trying but as soon as I did all the kids there wanted to try.

Dress like a pirate.

Lifting weights with the different pulleys.

You could try on some period dress but with all those kids around and not knowing who had been in them, we passed.

Our next stop was outside the park. The Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse is just around the bay in downtown Manteo. It was actually kind of busy and we had to circle a while until we found a parking spot. There just happened to be a boardwalk from our spot over to the lighthouse.

One boat past its prime.

And very nice little sailboat tied up at the dock.

This lighthouse is a harbour light and sits on piers screwed into the earth.

It had a smaller fourth order Fresnel lens. Whereas a first order lens were 72 inches across and 102 tall, a fourth order was 20 inches across and 28 tall.

A poster inside said that a fourth order lens would have cost $25,000 in 1870 or $375,000 in 2004 dollars. I found a website that said a fourth order would only cost $1250 in 1900 dollars and a first order would be 10 times as much or $12,500. Not sure who to believe.

There was another nice little boat inside.

And more info posters. This one described how the Fresnel Lens worked. Rows of different lens and prisms would bend the light different amounts depending on how far from the light source so you ended up with a parallel beam.

Then back to the car. 

Downtown Manteo looks interesting. We will have to come back but by now it was well past lunch time and Jennie had a craving for BBQ ribs so it was off to Pigman’s BBQ in Kill Devil Hills. I normally don’t like to post food pictures but this is just for the record.

We could only eat half and only some of the rest for dinner.

Afterwards, again, it was early and hot so we hit the beach. It is easy to get to it here. Just about every 1/2 mile or so there is a public access ramp with some free parking.

Mostly just people from the rental homes here.

The beach was also quite steep so not a lot of shells. Here are some pictures of me standing in the same spot.

We didn’t stay long as without much wind, it was hot even here.

After picking up some groceries it was back to the A/C in the RV.

We are getting so much sun these days and are not that used to it. It was nap time once we got back even though we hadn’t exactly exerted ourselves.