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We are moving pretty quickly these days because Lance has a conference in Arlington, Virginia that we are trying to make. While we enjoyed what little we saw of South Carolina it did seem a shame to have to leave it so soon. As for our time in North Carolina, it too would be brief. We could have wandered out along the Atlantic coast of the state where so much has happened (I’ll get to that in a minute) but we chose to camp near our good friends, LeeAnn and Hector, in the Wake Forest area.

In 1585 the first English colony in America was established at Roanoke. At the time all the land in the new world was called the “Colony and Dominion of Virginia” after Queen Elizabeth I. How did they get Virginia out of Elizabeth? From her nickname. She was known as the “Virgin Queen” because she never married (interesting definition of the word virgin, eh?), hence the name Virginia.

The first settlers gave up on the new land and caught a ride back to England with Sir Francis Drake. The second attempt at colonization in 1587 seemed to be doing well. In August of that year the first English person, Virginia Dare, was born in America. A ship was sent back to England for supplies and more settlers. Upon return of the ship in 1590 the colony was gone. The colony, dreamt of, organized by, and paid for by Sir Walter Raleigh had disappeared. It is still not known why the second attempt failed or what happened to the settlers, there are many theories but for now it remains the “Lost Colony of Roanoke”.

Living along the coast was full of challenges. For settlers reliant on shipping to send and receive supplies that stretch of the Atlantic was very dangerous. The sea off the coast of North Carolina is known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” since over 2,000 known ships have wrecked out there since 1526. The shipwrecks were so plentiful that people actually made quite a living scavenging from the wrecks.

Residents would hide their loot, much of it barrels of rum from Barbados, in the sand dunes. The rum was referred to as strong enough to “kill the devil” and the hilly dunes soon became known as Kill Devil Hills. Does that name sound familiar? It is where the first heavier-than-air human flight took off in 1903. The Wright brothers picked the spot because it had a good breeze and soft sand (in case they crashed, which they did).

Blackbeard used the dangerous seaway and numerous islands of the Outer Banks as his home base until he lost his head (literally, he was beheaded) in 1718. The state did finally get settled and on November 21, 1789 North Carolina became the twelfth state in the Union. By the time the Civil War broke out, North Carolina had the smallest amount of slaves of the Southern slave states. Until 1883 the tax on tobacco was one-third of the U.S. government’s revenue and most of that was grown in North Carolina.

Even today, the state is the leading producer of tobacco in the country. (Did you know that tobacco leaves contain more radium and polonium—radioactive material—than plants living near Chernobyl? Cancer, anyone?) The state has other claims to fame: poultry, hogs, sweet potatoes and research. In the Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill area, known as the Research Triangle, there are more Ph.D.s per capita than anywhere else in the U.S. What do they research? Everything!

Raleigh is the capital of the state and is one of the few in the nation that were designated on empty ground. Most others were towns that became capitals. Established in 1792, the city is named after the state’s earliest benefactor, Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh was quite an interesting man; he was a poet and he was in and out of favor with the various monarchs of his time. Queen Elizabeth I went from granting him special privileges to imprisoning him. Then she pardoned him but he was later beheaded by King James.

We spent most our of time, when not working, visiting with our good friends who live in Wake Forest. The small, quaint town is most famous for something that is no longer there, Wake Forest University. It began as a college in 1820 but changed to a university in 1956 when it moved to Winston-Salem. Now the community that was once surrounded by farmland is on the outskirts of the greater Raleigh-Durham area.

Most of our time with LeeAnn, Hector, their sons Zach and Nate, was spent visiting and catching up on each other’s lives. It had been five years since our last visit to Wake Forest, way too long! We did manage to fit in a trip to the Bodies, the Exhibition, the North Carolina Art Museum, a British car show and an arts and crafts festival in downtown Raleigh.

While I enjoyed all our outings far and away my favorite was Bodies, the Exhibition. LeeAnn and I went guy-less since Hector was busy at work and Lance has a weak stomach [1]. Honestly, we both enjoy watching House, M.D. but Lance has to cover his eyes at least once an episode when they cut into a body. I, on the other hand, find it all so fascinating and this exhibit was no different.

All of the bodies on display were real human bodies from people who died from natural causes. They were preserved through a polymer process that in some cases took over a year. The bodies were tastefully displayed in sections based on the various systems (skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory, etc) of the body. Each area offered a basic explanation of the system’s function and some fascinating facts.

Here are my favorites: Bone is five times stronger than steel. Every month you have all new skin cells, every three months all new bone cells. The male sperm cell is the smallest cell in the body while the female egg is the largest. Brain cells need twice as much energy as other body cells. You have over 60,000 miles of blood vessels. Women have more taste buds than men, somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000. Your skin is your largest organ and weighs about 12 pounds. Speaking of skin, most of the dust in your home is dead skin cells. Isn’t the human body amazing? As this one guy said after seeing the exhibit, “What’s more marvelous than yourself?”

In the end it was actually hard to say goodbye to our good friends. After all we had shared fine wine, delicious food, good times, and great conversations. But D.C. and the conference were calling so we hit the road. Hopefully, it will not be another five years before we visit again!

Photos: View our photographs from North Carolina.

Notes: We stayed in North Carolina from 05/13/07 to 05/21/07.

[1] And I was also working (Lance).