So, we're looking at heading to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina instead.

By all means spend a day (at least) at Colonial Williamsburg on the
way to Kitty Hawk. Wonderful place to visit and a marvelous
educational opportunity for your kids.

Avoid the Norfolk area; it's very busy. If you must get involved,
call "Mankiller" (it's on the charts) for clearance, then fly down
the beach to Kitty Hawk.

You can land at "First Flight" airport, right next to the Wright
monument, but you can't RON. Dare County airport, at Manteo, only a
couple of miles away, is the best place to RON, get fuel, rent a car,
and so forth.

Comfort Inn at Nag's Head, between Manteo and Kitty Hawk, has very
reasonable rates mid-December; don't know about now.

If you leave to the south, fly down the beach to Hatteras Light. Then
west to Cape Lookout Light. Land at Beaufort. See the beautiful
town. Get dope on how to get past Cherry Point Marine Corps Air
Station so you can continue along the beach to Wilmington, if you want
to see the battleship North Carolina and go to Charleston, as someone
recommended. It is a gorgeous city.

So is Savannah. Folks there celebrate St. Patrick's day for an entire
week, btw; you're just in time. You can get Yuengling Lager (from the
oldest brewery firm in the U.S., based in PA) on draft. at both
cities. Try it; you'll like it.

While we're there we'd like to show the kids ..... some aviation museums....

The Eighth Air Force Museum is just north of Savannah. Damn few
airplanes but a great collection of WW II stuff.

Figure we'll be in the area for a few days, and then maybe try to fly
over to Texas along the Gulf coast,

Don't miss the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola. It's better than
the NASM, Dulles included. Second only to Wright-Pat.

Any questions? Have a great trip.

vince norris