Fort Macon State Park

(Havelock, NC)  Hi 74 Lo 67 -- It was cloudy again today, but we took a chance that it wouldn't rain and decided to go to the coast and visit Fort Macon State Park.

We picked up Jim and Judy, and Jim's mom Alberta, and started the afternoon with lunch at Smithfield's Chicken and BBQ. (Click the pictures to enlarge.)

Jim and Judy, Mom Alberta, and my Jim.


After lunch we drove over the bridge across Bogue Sound to Atlantic Beach. There was no traffic and very few people in the beach community. We stopped at the public beach access to check it out.

Mom Alberta, my Jim, Judy, and Judy's Jim.


The view of the beach from the deck. The ocean was the calmest we’ve ever seen it in these parts.



A couple of miles farther down the coast road is Fort Macon State Park. Fort Macon was built in the early 1800's as a coastal defense of the town of Beaufort. It was captured by Union troops during the Civil War. It was also occupied during the Spanish-American War, and was used as a training site during WWII. In between the wars it sat dormant. It was finally bought by the state of North Carolina and turned into a state park.

We've been there a few times before, but they've added a beautiful visitors center and museum a few years ago.


The museum mostly tells about birds and shells, grasses and animals in this coastal area.


Remember at summer camp or a boy/girl scout camp out when we were sent on a "snipe" hunt? Believe it or not there’s actually a bird called a snipe. The middle bird in this photo proves it.




To the fort.
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On our past visits we've always walked around the fort ourselves. This is the first time we've taken a guided tour.


The food storage room.


The mess hall.


View of Beaufort Inlet from the top of the fort. Those are cannon mounts in the foreground.





This guy crashed our tour and sat down to sing a song and play his ukelele. It was pretty awkward as our tour guide had to interrupt his song after a couple of verses to get our tour back on track.



There were many exhibits of Civil War relics.











One of the rooms have an exhibit on how the troops lived.  There's four guys to a bunk.

Time for a rest. Jim and Jim.











We headed back late afternoon just in time for rain. We stopped at a deli on base for some sandwiches, then called it a night.

Jim watched baseball and I found my next crochet pattern to work on. It was a wonderful day with friends and family.