The Shore at Pine Knoll Shores

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The boys and I did a day trip to the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores yesterday.  Typically, we go to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher because it's closer and also a great aquarium, but this time we wanted a change of pace.  This was our 3rd trip to Pine Knoll Shores, and we spent the night the other times we went there.  It is 159 miles to Pine Knoll Shores, and it was estimated to take 2 hours and 56 minutes.  On the way down, we made just one quick stop and it really did take around 3 hours.  On the way home, it took a bit longer due to more and longer stops although I have to say that we never did hit any traffic issues.

You can see the route to Pine Knoll Shores here on Google Maps  I totally relied on the GPS on my phone to navigate in both directions.  It felt a bit bold to be out on NC 111 in the middle of nowhere on the way home, but it was smooth sailing.  I enjoyed not being solely on I40 or I95.

In contrast, the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher is 145 miles and is estimated to take 2 hours and 28 minutes.  Really not that much difference.

There is a 3rd NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island, and I hope to get us there some day.  That one is 208 miles away.  I don't think we'll be doing that one as a day trip;-)

The aquarium had free admission yesterday for the MLK holiday.  We get in for free with our NC Zoo Membership anyway.  We chose yesterday because the weather was really nice

Everyone has their favorite thing to see at the aquarium  For Johnny, it's getting to go to the touch tank.  At this aquarium, they have a large tank with rays and guitar fish plus another touch area for horseshoe crabs and welk.  For Joey, it's watching the dive show. They had an extended show yesterday from about 2-3, and we had front row seats and I got a lot of great pics.  My favorite it trying to get jelly fish pictures:-)  We also enjoyed the river otters and octopus.

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I don't go to the beach and not go on the beach even if it is in the middle of winter:-)  Like I said, the weather was really nice yesterday.  It was about 55 with a light wind at 3:30pm when we went.  We spent about an hour.  I took pics and collected shells.  The boys dug in the sand and got their feet (or more) wet.

The pretty shot I've posted as my daily was taken during this time.

Here's a picture of Johnny getting wet.

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Here's a picture of Joey enjoying himself too.

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You might wonder where Donnie was.  Poor guy is doing some computer contract work and was stuck at home.  I didn't forget though...

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All in all, it was a great day.  Until spring break...

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