Saturday, August 21, 2010 - Elizabeth City, NC

It was a gorgeous day! When we got up at 7:00 am, we noticed that the tents for the Farmers’ Market were being set up in the park adjacent to the waterfront. By 9:00 am the market was open and we spent some time checking out the vendors’ wares and purchasing produce and baked goods. We enjoyed looking at the Bonsai trees on display, the carvings and furniture made from cypress stumps, and the other crafts that were for sale.

Instead of digging right into the chores we needed to tackle while at port, we decided to spend the afternoon at the 50,000 square foot Museum of the Albemarle which is located on the waterfront in downtown Elizabeth City. The gallery’s primary exhibit, Our Story, depicts the history of the Albermarle area and displays more than 700 artifacts about the region’s watermen, farmers, lifesavers and soldiers.

After touring the museum, we walked across the street to the Verizon store to have a few questions answered about our new phones and the service provided. The representative was not as familiar with the Droid models as she was with the Blackberry devices, but she helped us the best she could. We will still need to call technical support ourselves to answer additional questions. From there, we walked through a portion of the downtown area. It seemed to be quite vibrant and we got the impression that the townsfolk were making a big effort to keep things going. We stopped into Logan Raye’s Key West Grille for a couple of drinks and a yummy fish taco.

On our way back to the boat, there was a tiny park on the waterfront dedicated to the developers of the small Moth sailboats. Here we met a couple from Raleigh, NC, who had left earlier in the day to drive around their state in celebration of their wedding anniversary. They had picked a direction to drive and made an effort to travel only on state and county roads. Steve and Myriam found themselves in Elizabeth City. They asked if we knew of any B&B’s in town. We told them we had arrived in Elizabeth City for the first time just 24 hours prior but if they wanted to come over to our boat, we would check the internet to get some phone numbers and addresses. We sat out on the foredeck and shared some wine with our new friends. They were able to find a place for the night and the four of us enjoyed a nice visit.