I think Cape Hatteras Point is one of the two most beautiful coastal spots in the lower 48 states along with Big Sur. We rent a Jeep & spend the day at the point. DH surf fishes & I treasure hunt for shells. It's a wonderful spot for shelling. Just offshore at Cape Hatteras, the warm Gulf Stream ocean current collides with the colder Labrador Current creating ideal conditions for powerful ocean storms and sea swells. The swells bring the shells to the beach...large, intact shells. If you rent a Jeep, don't forget to let some of the air out of the tires. The sand dunes before you get to the beach are deep & very soft. If you make it to the beach you'll never get back up the dunes with full tires. Don't ask why I know that....! :) Watching the GPS while driving the outer banks is soooo cool. The arrow appears larger than the spit of land separating Pamlico Sound & the Atlantic. BTW, Pamlico Sound is the largest lagoon on the east coast. Have a marvelous trip! We love the Outer Banks. /tricia

I live near SF. The place we go for brunch on really special occasions is the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel at the top of Nob Hill (across the street from the Fairmont Hotel). It has a great view and a wonderfully amazing brunch -- the best I've ever seen and I have travelled a lot. For drinks, lunch or dinner, I would also recommend the revolving restaurant at the top of the Hyatt Embarcadero. I have taken out of town guests there several times. I don't remember much about the food but the view is wonderful. Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge is also fun (and still free, I think) (you will need a car or cab to get there, though, and getting a cab for the ride back could be tricky). If you decide to get a car (and San Francisco is not THAT hard to drive in) I would also recommend Guaymas restaurant in Tiberon or a stroll in Sausalito (across the Golden Gate Bridge from SF). Both have great views of San Francisco and are only a short drive from SF (assuming traffic is OK across the Golden Gate).

"First--do those prepaids need to be charged like a regular cell? DO NOT use a car charger, except in a true emergency. One of Dd's coworker's husband has a cell phone store, he warned us that using a car charger is a good way to burn up your battery (car chargers overcharge the phone, they don't have a 'shut off' when the battery is charged). So you will need to remember to take the phone inside to charge it with a wall charger. Prepaid cell phones are cell phones like any other. In fact many of them are older models that were used in contract phones and when the new models come out for contract phones, the leftover supply gets converted for prepaid use. There are a couple prepaid places where you can use another phone and set it up. As far as car chargers, let's clear this myth up. I've used car chargers since I got my first prepaid cell phone. I wasn't about to go out and have a dead battery at a time I might need it most. Either you misunderstood what he said, or he gave you very bad information. Perhaps he sells only junk chargers, but there's plenty of good chargers out there. I have bought car chargers for every type of phone I've had. I probably charge my phones on the vehicle more than at home. As I'm going between calls, I'll put a charge into it or top it off. And YES, it does shut off when it's fully charged! That feature actually is part of the phone usually but also there is a switch in decent chargers. All of mine have it. On my current LG phone has been in use for about 2-1/2 years. Many suggest that phone batteries are only good for a couple years. Mine is still going strong. But batteries vary. I can go about 5-6 days without having to charge it. My one Motorola had to be charged about every other day so the car charger was mandatory to have use of it. You can research it on the internet and check the chargers when you look at buying them. But if you're still overly concerned about this fallacy, there's another easy option. Get an inverter and and extra AC charger (but there too, beware of quality). Then you can use the AC charger through the lighter outlet. There are conveniences to having the cell phone. If you're out somewhere and want to see if a friend is home before driving over there a quick call can save some gas. If you're at a store and see something on sale and want to know if you should pick it up for someone, it could save an extra trip. There's a lot of legitimate uses for them other than chit-chat so although having one for emergencies is a good idea, and prepaid is the way to go in this circumstance, you'll build up time so you'll have that time to use for other things. I always caution people to check the coverage areas for phones you're considering and also, consider the areas you travel! Cell phones don't work everywhere. My first phone was Virgin Mobile and I liked it. They use the Sprint PCS system and it's very clear. However, you need to be in a major metro area or on a major freeway or highway to use it. If you get a mile or two off, you don't have a phone. So price shouldn't be your only concern. Also, for a while I carried two, and at one point, 3 different cell phones for expanded coverage. I got them so cheap that the cost wasn't a factor. Now I'm down to one, a CDMA TracFone and I'm very pleased with it. I get coverage where many others with $100+/mo contract phones don't get coverage. After I tested and experimented with cell phones to determine if I had a use for them I researched the coverage in the area and for me, around Minnesota, the Verison CDMA was the best. GSM wasn't bad and I used that for a while but I go out into the boondocks up norh and this is vastly superior. And with my age and health, I'm concerned about coverage. Don't be fooled. There's NO cell phone that gets reception everywhere. There's dead spots all over and the signal can be affected by a variety of things. I have been happy with TracFone, but I'm willing to look for the bonus codes, the special deals and the like to keep costs down. I bought a "double minutes for life" card for my phone, (some phones come with it, but no CDMA that I know of), and also have a deal where I get a bonus 30 minutes each time I add a card so adding smaller cards is better if I get deals on them. I also use the promo codes so for instance I just added a 120 minute card to my phone a month ago and got 190 bonus minutes for "free". Since I have about 700 minutes on the phone I needed to add time and you can purchase just time, which I did. For my use, I look more at monthly cost than the per-minute cost. I just added 310 minutes and 455 days for about $80 including the extra days purchased so the per-minute is tainted. So I have cell service for about $6/mo. Now, I don't give out my cell number to just anyone. I also have a Grand Central number that forwards to it that I give to people I don't totally trust with the number so I can shut it off if they abuse it. Enough rambling. I think everyone should have a cell available for emergencies and many will find them handy for other things and not have to spend $30-$300 per month for it! AND DON'T BELIEVE THE CAR CHARGER STORY!

OK, with Tracfone, a standard card is good for 90 days and minutes, like on virtually all prepaid phones rollover if you keep the phone active. You can buy a 30 day card, most are 90, and some are a year. You can buy a small card and add days to it too. You have a lot of options. The best part of Tracfone is they use multiple companies to provide service, unlike T-mobile, Virgin, Verizon, etc. Around here, in the small areas, CDMA band (Verizon & some of Sprint) is more popular than GSM (AT&T, Tmo, etc) or PCS (Virgin, etc). Another company is PagePlus but I've found them more expensive than what I can get from Tracfone. The other thing I really like about the situation I have is I can roam for no extra charge which expands the area. GSM and PCS do not roam on prepaid (or at least didn't when I checked a few years ago). I keep trying to caution people every time this comes up to not just go by what someone has unless they're in your area. Really, that's of no help to your needs unless they're in the area you'll use it. I can only share with you what I've found and give some suggestions. With cell service you need cellular access or the phone is worthless. And not all phones will have coverage everywhere. And don't compare contract phones to prepaid. Even within prepaid, the phone itself can make a difference on coverage. You need to check the coverage area for the companies you're considering. Here in MN, PCS (Virgin, Alltell, etc) is great for large towns and *major* roads and PCS, when connected is as clear as any I've used. Smaller roads won't have coverage. I had this for a couple years and liked the clarity but I started traveling more in northern MN and WI and coverage wasn't good. I tried a GSM (both AT&T and T-mo) and their coverage was better but spotty (if you have Tmo you can't connect on AT&T towers and vice-versa) and still didn't give me what I wanted. Clarity not as good as Sprint's PCS but slightly better overall than CDMA, and far better than TDMA or analog, both of which are now obsolete. I settled on a CDMA Tracfone (so it can use Verizon or Sprint networks if Tracfone allows it) primarily because of superior coverage in the areas I frequently travel and ironically I get better coverage than some people I know with contract phones, but again, this is the upper midwest so *my* usage experiences will not directly apply to *your* situation. I'd suggest a basic prepaid phone with enough time to last while you're here. Don't go overboard and let it expire when you're done. If you spend a lot on a phone, it's kind of a waste for what's essentially going to be a disposable phone for you. If you like the phone, you can always keep it and reactivate it when you return or just buy another phone. You could also sell the phone on ebay or give it to someone who needs it. I'm sure you know someone elderly who should have one in their vehicle for emergencies. It'd be kind to give them a car charger too but that's a different thing. Another caution: Coverage maps are at times inaccurate. Sometimes (as T-mo often does) they'll show the contract phone coverage area instead of the prepaid phone coverage areas and they're different. There's a lot of virtual providers, like Tracfone, PagePlus, Boost, etc who contract with companies. I don't know of any other than Tracfone who contract with multiple companies to provide access. Some make their money from the phones while some give away or lowball the phones to make the money on the connection. Be cautious of requirements that you might have to keep it active for a certain period of time but that's not a big issue with prepaid. Also, AT&T is in the process of buying T-mo. Not sure what the status is at this point but you can expect that to have an impact if it goes through.