A few notes from when I lived in Chapel Hill and flew an Ercoupe a few
years ago.

1. My favorite place in the Outer Banks is Ocracoke (as mentioned
above), the airstrip is not bad but bring tie-downs as there never
were any there in my time out there. Howards Pub is a fine place for
lunch, easy walking distance to stretch the legs, although it's on the
two lane highway, it's the only road around and has a huge shoulder,
so is safe. There are nicer places in town, Howards is nice for a
quick lunch. Ocracoke village is really a great place to spend a day
or two just relaxing. Really my all time favorite spot in NC (and I
lived in Chapel Hill!). The flight down the rest of the outer banks is
really quite neat to Cape Lookout, around the light and over to
Beaufort, NC which also has its charms. The Civil War fort at Fort
Macon is an interesting side trip from the Morehead City/Beaufort
area. Nice landmark to fly over as well. I can't stress enough how
different Ocracoke island is from the built up condo and vacation home
hell of Kitty Hawk and Nags Head can be!

2. There is alot of restricted/military airspace around the outer
banks, but everytime I called up Cherry Point MCAS or any of the other
radar facilities in the area for flight following (like Seymour-
Johnson AFB), they were cordial and accomodating. They all sounded
like they were 18 y.o. though! It was quite seamless in the transition
from RDU's hand off, or vice-versa.

3. I've been on the USS Wisconsin and the USS North Carolina. The
Wisconsin was still officially in mothballs (or some sort of reserve
designation) so other than walking on the main deck and poking your
head around a few places, it was closed to tourist traffic. That visit
was in December '03, so things may have changed since. The North
Carolina, berthed in Wilmington is much more comprehensive in your
ability to wander around and really explore the vast majority of the
ship. You will need several hours!!!

4. Patriots Point just outside of Charleston, S.C. is a big complex
with the centerpiece being the USS Yorktown (CV-10, not CV-5 which is
not available for tours for obvious reasons!), a destroyer, a larger
Coast Guard cutter, and a post-war sub. Another place you could spend
a whole day, and highly recommended! Having been on the USS Midway, I
thought the level of presentaion was much better on the Yorktown.
Charleston is another great town with charm in the tourist area. I
liked it alot. Take the ferry out to Ft. Sumter, although short in the
time allowed on the island itself, was well worth it. There is quite a
bit of post-war construction which has changed the looks of the place.

5. Savannah has Fort Pulaski, another massive brick fort that was
state of the art in 1861, but quickly fell to rifled artillery of a
new era. This is a National Park Service site about 20 minutes outside
of the city out near the beaches, and is interesting to look around.
My wife and I had a hotel on the riverfront, and it was really quite
neat and interesting to see the massive container ships about 100
yards outside your window. I raised my beer to a deck crewman (from
somewhere in Asia) from my balcony (which was on his same level) and
he waved back...Cool. Savannah is another great town to spend a few
days in to get the feel for the place. The squares are interesting,
the night ghost tours are neat (if you get the right person leading
it, we took more than one evening organized walk, one history, one
ghosts, great for before or after dinner).

6. I could go on and on about all the battlefield in the east to
visit, they all have interesing parts to them and the National Park
Service does a uniformly good job of presenting the history (despite
their budget issues). But the one that stands out in my mind, and I've
been to almost ALL of them at one point or another, is the one
mentioned in a previous post, which is Antietam. I got the feeling
that it was closest to its original form (unlike all the touristy
shlock at Gettysburg), not completely inundated with monuments, and
far enough away from suburbia (unlike Bull Run and Fredricksburg,
amongst the most threatened) to really get a feel for what the
battlefield was like. If I may say so, the best way to get to know
these fields is to WALK them. Not drive the usualy park service circle
tour (which I've done many times when time is short); but to really
know it is to walk it!!! Shiloh is another.

So there. My tidbits from a northerner living in the south and
spending alot of time getting to know the place. I really enjoyed
living down there.

Ryan in Madison, WI
email me if you want particulars