all about ceese

Day 1 | Saturday, May 28

Once we arrived, we stopped at the Cotton Exchange for a quick window shopping experience (lots of cute local stores) and grabbed lunch at the German Cafe.  It was a great opportunity to walk throughout historic downtown; we were able to stroll through a weekend festival they had, and also see their USO Building we were able to tour the Burgin-Wright House and Gardens about a of blocks from the water.  This had such a unique, rich history of not only the building, but Wilmington as well; very much makes me appreciate living in today’s time! 

After that, we window shopped through downtown before the shops, which was a very unique selection to choose from!  Some of my favorites were The Old Wilmington Candle Company and Cape Fear Spice Merchants.  We were able to squeeze onto a boat tour of the Cape Fear River, which gave us a good hour or so tour on the river. Afterwards, we ended with dinner at The George on the Riverwalk, which was incredible!  Such a great local spot, very impressive decor and menu (not to mention it’s on the water).  Definitely glad we made reservations ahead of time, as things got booked up for being a Saturday (especially over a 3-day weekend!).  

Day 2 | Sunday, May 29

This was a fun day; it started off a little rocky due to our Tour Guide being a no-show for that morning.  But, at least we got to be spontaneous and wound up visiting the Bellamy Mansion Museum, which was gorgeously large.  The audio tour gave us great insight on the history of the mansion.  We then headed into Wrightsville Beach and grabbed lunch at Dockside’s (which was featured in the movie The Choice, which is based on a Nicholas Sparks movie).  Since we were in that area, we also stopped by Airlie Gardens, this unique gardens was absolutely stunning.  We were able to walk around a few hours, and take their trolley through there.  

Once we were done meandering around the gardens, we headed back downtown to peruse through the shops; parking is free on Sundays, so we wanted to take advantage of that!  We wound up grabbing dinner at XXXX, followed by dessert at Little Dipper Fondue, which was nice to enjoy it outside (with the exception of the bugs!) before calling it a day.

Monday, May 30

On our way south, we stopped in a sleepy little beach town of Southport. Nestled behind some of the North Carolina beaches, this quant beach town was more for a Kodak moment for (me) to check out where some scenes of ‘Safe Haven’ were filmed before having lunch at The Frying Pan. I would have loved to have lunch at Ivan’s, but sadly it’s a fictional restaurant, having used the American Fish Company as its residence during filming. This town was adorably walkable, and we took full advantage of window shopping before we drove back to Charleston.