Monday morning - Ahhhhhh, that is the relief we felt from being able to sleep in! But not for too long - we were anxious to pack up, check out, & head to the beach! After driving south for about 4 hours we reached our destination: Oak Island and "Blockade Runner", our rental cottage for the next four nights. What a perfect location, right on the beach, quiet neighborhood. Perfect for two people and one tired pup to relax after a busy weekend.
Jolie's first reaction to the beach was "let me run!" She wanted to do everything at once - chase the foam from the surf, run after the seagulls, dig holes! It was so much fun. Unfortunately Oak Island beaches have a leash law, but with her flexi leash Jolie had freedom to run back & forth to her heart's desire. We loved the Mid-Atlantic coastline- long straight beach as far as you can see. Plenty of room for Neal to get his daily running workout in and for Trish's walks.
Monday dinner- what else to do but check out the local BBQ joint. Couldn't come this far without checking out some genuine NC Style BBQ! Eastern NC BBQ that is. Complete with hush puppies & sweet potato fries of course! Yum!
Tuesday - relaxing day. Neal got a good run in on the beach while Jolie & Trish relaxed at the cottage. This day was the best we had weather wise. After the heavy rain & tornado warnings since Saturday we were ready for some sunshine! After a little bit of local sightseeing we headed back to the cottage for a home cooked dinner which included some crab cakes picked up from the local fish market.
Wednesday - Neal had scheduled a Kayak Tour on a local river. Unfortunately they did not have enough people signed up & had to cancel. So instead, we headed towards Wilmington, stopping in Southport for coffee (we really missed Starbucks!) At the local coffee place we met a nice couple with a bulldog named Irma. Jolie did not like Irma very much, even though she was a real sweetheart. The couple noticed right away we were not from "these parts", especially when we mispronounced Concord. It's not emphasized on the first syllable, but on the second. Like ConCORD. Who would have known, they never told us that in Concord!
After a little bit of shopping in Southport we headed to the Orton Plantation. This was a small rice plantation on the Cape Fear River. You can read more about it here: http://www.ortongardens.com/
Next we headed to downtown Wilmington for some more shopping, sightseeing & lunch, then it was time to head back to Oak Island. For dinner we ate at a local seafood restaurant, the fresh fish was delicious.
Thursday - very windy & wet today. Neal had been hoping to kayak but with thunderstorms in the forecast it wouldn't have been safe. Wanting to get our last long walk in on the beach, we bundled up in raincoats & prepared to get wet. Jolie actually didn't mind getting wet, she was having too much fun to notice!
Since Thursday was our last night in North Carolina we had to decide what to do for dinner. After not a lot of thought it was unanimous - we had to get take out from the BBQ place! Not a hard decision at all.
Friday morning we were up early to pack and tidy up the cottage. It was hard to leave, we really loved the beach. Maybe someday we'll be back.
On the way back to Charlotte to catch our flight home we stopped at the Lumber River State Park to eat our lunch. The Lumber River is a true black-water river, lined with Bald Cypress, Tulip Poplars, Loblolly Pines, and thankfully no alligators!
Our flight home was long but uneventful. Daughters Kelsie & Angela (along with papillon Robin) met us at SeaTac to drive us home. Jolie handled the flight home just as well as the flight out, she was a good traveler! One tired pup & two tired humans were very happy to be home again!
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