THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507140213
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 54 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: RON SPEER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
The Grand Canyon and downtown New York have always been my favorite examples of places that exceed all expectations.
Many famous attractions don't live up to their billing and leave you a bit disappointed when you finally see them yourself.
The Grand Canyon, however, is deeper and wider and more stunning than anyone can describe. I was awed by what nature can do when I first saw it, although I had heard wondrous things about the Colorado River gorge for years.
Ditto downtown New York. Everybody told me it was sky-high, but I was unprepared for just how far the Empire State Building and the other edifices reach toward the stars.
Spending a day in New York leaves an old country boy with a mighty sore neck, and a sense of awe at what man can do.
Now I've discovered another place that is far more breathtaking than I had imagined: The Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island.
I've heard about it for years, ever since I first starting visiting the Outer Banks nearly 20 years ago. After I moved within a couple of miles of the gardens a year ago, I kept making plans to drop in. But I figured I would be disappointed and never got around to going.
Then visitors came two weeks ago and asked if I would take them to the gardens because they'd heard they were wonderful.
``You'll probably be disappointed,'' I warned, but off we went.
And the sights we saw knocked my socks off. It's a stunning display of what man AND nature can do. Plot after plot, patch after patch, nook after cranny are exploding with beauty.
Hidden from view until you're on the grounds, the gardens are gorgeous.
Cascades of color punctuate the sprawling grounds, with towering live oak trees - some more than 400 years old - providing hallways of shade on a hot afternoon.
The colors change over the seasons, but I can't imagine the gardens being any more beautiful than they are right now.
The magnolia trees are blossoming. Lilies are throwing up colors of all shades. The crape myrtle trees are afire with their blazing colors. Impatients and petunias line every walkway.
And the hydrangeas - particularly the lace-cap variety - throw a deep-blue hue over all sections.
Thanks to the folks who run the gardens, it is easy to find out the names of unusual flowers that can startle you with their beauty or their perfume. Markers are planted near every variety of plant, which takes the guesswork out of the journey.
The sunken section, with its fountains and statues and perfectly trimmed hedges, is probably the biggest drawing card on the $3 hike, taking onlookers back to Olde England.
The gardens, but a stone's throw from where English adventurers first settled in the new world more than 400 years ago, were created in 1951 as a memorial to the colonists who ``walked away through the dark forest into history.''
One of the most thought-provoking stops on a walk into the past is at the twisted live oak that is believed to have been alive when the first Englishmen came in 1584.
The tree's gnarled limbs touch off thoughts of how Roanoke Island and North Carolina and the United States and the world have changed in its lifetime.
I parked on a nearby, worn-smooth concrete bench to take it all in, and to soothe my soul in the cool shade of the tree, a marvel of endurance. The peacefulness, the beauty, the sense of well-being were a welcome respite from the outside world.
I enjoyed it all so much that I went back again last Sunday - and the second trip was even better.
A couple of hours in the Elizabethan Gardens, my friends, can erase almost any problem. by CNB