Wilmington, North Carolina

Tonight we are in Wilmington, North Carolina.  We arrived Sunday evening, after a rather long day driving.  We drove US 17, rather than the interstate.  It took a little longer, but we drove through small towns and were able to stop in various places along the way. 

We stopped at the Great Dismal Swamp State Park, a continuation of the national wildlife area by the same name in Virginia.  We took a walk along the boardwalk, and I took this cool picture of the still water, where its hard to distinguish where the water ends and where the sky begins.

 

In Wilmington, we are staying at a small KOA.  Wilmington looks like a pretty cool town.  It's population is 108,000, but there is lots of history here and lots of great old homes and buildings.  Along the Cape Fear River, that runs through "downtown", there is a lovely boardwalk with various shops, restaurants and fishing tours.  There is a huge old cotton mill that has been turned into a shopping area, with unique little boutiques and coffee shops.  I even came across a bead store! Yea!

We found a cool used book store where we spent some time, and they had this cool, "literary jukebox".  We had to get a picture of it to share with all the library folks!

We spent 4 or 5 hours downtown, and we must be starting to think of the trailer as "home", because by 4 pm, Noel was asleep on the couch and by 4:30, I was in my pjs!  I guess we're ready for the early, early bird specials!

Today was a BEACH day!  We drove to Carolina Beach - while they advertise a boardwalk and shops, the boardwalk was just that - a walkway made of boards.  But there - in all its glory - was the gorgeous Atlantic Ocean! 

 

It was a gorgeous, sunny day, but it was also quite windy.  The surf was rough, with 6-7 foot waves and the wind was blowing the sand so hard that is was like having mother nature's dermabrasion - but it was a beach - and I was staying!  Noel's not much of a beach fan, so he went for a stroll and to read in the truck while I was getting my fix of sunshine and surf, but after about 2 hours - I had pretty much been sandblasted all over and even had sand in my ears, so now we are tucked in back at the trailer and preparing to head to South Carolina in the morning.