Shackleford Banks

While in Beaufort, we took a ferry to Shackleford Banks, a barrier island off the coast.  It is part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore.   

It's a good place to look for shells

And the ones you don't keep, you can hang on the tree at the embarking point for the ferry.

 

Topsail park, Beaufort

This statue in Topsail marine park memorializes fishermen.  Yet the park also memorialized the spot as a known landing point of the middle passage.  African captives that survived the Atlantic crossing disembarked here and then sold at the courthouse in Beaufort.

 

Old Guard

This confederate statue guards the Carteret county government building.  Erected in 1926, 60 years after the end of the Civil War, its purpose was to frighten Black citizens from registering to vote.

Many such statues have been removed yet many more still remain.

 

Beaufort

Beaufort has been a harbor town for hundreds of years.  Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard the pirate, sailed out of Beaufort and the outer islands.  His ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground in Beaufort inlet.  (see here)

 

Beaufort

We took a Thanksgiving trip to Beaufort, NC.  A small city on the coast.  I looked twice before I realized that this was a mural on the back of a building.

 

Pine Siskin

Where else would you find a Pine Siskin but in the pinecones and needles?

 

And it continues

 

This fall has been long and slow.  There are still a few stragglers hanging on to their leaves.