Make Lemonade When Given Lemons!

We added a little side trip to our loop when it was determined that our boat repair would take us into this past week and of course nothing happens on weekends.  So we took off from Southport and headed north on the Cape Fear River last Friday for a long weekend in Wilmington.  This is a fun place to visit in the summer because they attract visitors with free concerts, a Saturday farmer's market, festivals and wonderful shops and restaurants.  We were treated Friday night with a free concert by Red Zeppelin (no typo here), an imitator band and rocked out to some old tunes.  Saturday was a gathering for antique car enthusiasts called "Rims on the River".

This cute little number was for sale and I thought she would look quite nice next to my red Porsche in our home garage.  But the logistics of getting her there were too complicated so I just drooled a little!  While in Wilmington, we toured the USS North Carolina, a WWII battleship that was retired and moved by Wilmington history enthusiasts to preserve her heritage.

We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the working and living quarters of this massive ship and viewing how the sailors lived in close quarters during dangerous times.  Makes me proud to be an American!

Al liked sitting in the captain's chair while imagining what it would have been like to be responsible for the ship and its men.  We enjoyed exploring the bridge and the old navigation tools, realizing what skill was needed to cruise the ocean without a Garmin GPS!!

The sailors on board were in dark, narrow working areas most of their day so it was interesting to see how ice cream was made on board as a treat to keep them motivated!  And now to unveil the new captain's chair that motivates my captain to keep on cruising in comfort and style. It arrived by crate at Myrtle beach while we were in Indianappolis and we installed it easily on the base that was put in place at Stuart Yacht some weeks before.

I will take some pictures with the captain in his seat when we finally get going tomorrow.  So we have enjoyed some lemonade along with our lemons during this past 2 weeks!