A Week With Dale and Shirley

(Mom, Dad, and Kasia next to the Electrical Fence at the 

Weeping Radish Brewery in Jarvisburg, NC)

We've had some house guests for the last week.  Mom and Dad (aka, Dale and Shirley) made the long drive down from Chicago in order to see their adorable little granddaughter for a few days.  After making a a brief pit stop in Annapolis to visit the Naval Academy, they braved the torrential rains of an East Coast spring and headed down into North Carolina.

They arrived a day early after deciding to cut their Baltimore stop out of the trip.  The weather had turned nasty, and so it was decided that it was better to spend an extra day with Kasia than to slosh around the wet streets of Baltimore all day.  

We had a great time.  During the week, we went and explored all there was to see in Elizabeth City (not a lot).  We also went to up to see Smithfield, VA to walk down its antique-store ladened streets and enjoy lunch along the waterfront.  We made a day trip down to Manteo, NC to walk the waterfront.  Everywhere we went though, Mom managed to find something to buy.  After all, you can't return home after a trip like without having something to show for it.

But perhaps the highlight of the entire visit, was our trip up to see Bacon's Castle.  Good old Nathaniel Bacon... and his castle.  Except that it wasn't a castle but rather a really old brick house.  And it didn't belong to Bacon.  In fact, Nathaniel Bacon never stepped foot in the house, and the place actually belonged to a family named Allen who were the enemies of Bacon.  Confused?  Me too.  But one thing I do know is that the woman who gave us the tour knows more about that house and about a bunch of people nobody really cares about than I know about anything.  How did the last owner of the house die?  She knows.  Car crash... the husband died instantly.  The wife died a few days later.  She was 82.  The tour guide claimed she had more stories and could go on for hours about that alone, but we begged her not to.  

Good old Nathaniel Bacon....  Seriously though, he could have been this country's founding father had he not died during his rebellion.  By the way, is it just coincidence that Bacon's Castle is outside Smithfield, VA which is known for it's ham and bacon?  Interesting.

After learning all this interesting history, my parent's decided to pack it up and head back home.  Like Johnny Appleseed heading west, Dale and Shirley had the knowledge of Bacon that they needed to spread through out the country.  And off they went.  Now, we're returning to our normal routine.  It's a little quieter, and little emptier in the house.  

We can't wait for Mom and Dad to come visit again.  Maybe next time we can go see the Jackson Gray Confederate Memorial and learn some more unknown history.