Wednesday May 4 (Wilmington)

The weather was cloudy to begin with and we left just after 9 am but I forgot my water so we went back for that! 

We had only travelled a relatively short distance when we were delayed on highway 11 for some time by an accident. It involved a large grain carrier as well as one large and one smaller FedEx truck. Apparently one of the FedEx drivers was slightly injured. 

We resumed our travel and at Wallace we had a comfort stop and a coffee, this is just before we joined highway 40 which would take us into Wilmington. We eventually arrived at Sarah's about 11.30 am.

I met Gracie for the first time and she is such a beautiful cat and what a talker she is!! She is also very affectionate and, after running to Terri, whom she obviously recognised, she came over to me and accepted lots of petting.

I love Blueberry Bagels and Terri had told me that it is best to get them from a bakery so Sarah made a couple of phone calls and then the Great Bagel Hunt started. One of the shops, Einstein Bros Bagels, is situated in the University of North Carolina and Wilmington. 

Off we went to the campus but we missed the turn to Einsteins so we did a loop around, came back and eventually found it, lol! It is a huge and impressive campus with a large food hall with a good variety of food on offer. 

We eventually found the Fisher Student Centre and on entering, such a shock as there was also a Starbucks!! Terri and Sarah managed to drag me away and I purchased some Bagels, but then we returned and I purchased my usual coffee.


 During the morning, the sun had come out  and by this time it was lovely and warm. On leaving, we again took a wrong turn and after several loop the loops we found our way back onto the main drag. 


We drove down to visit Wrightsville Beach, most of the houses we passed are very pretty, I love all the different colours and it was a step back in time in terms of their architecture. 

It reminded me very much of the houses I saw on the Outer Banks last year and we saw many similar houses at the other beaches we visited today. By this time it was early afternoon and we were all feeling a wee bit hungry. On the way back from the beach we found a Jimmy Johns and enjoyed a very late lunch, the subs were delicious and good value.
We returned to Sarah's so she could change into something cooler and I dropped my Bagels off. We had some playtime with Gracie, I think she was pleased to see us.

We then headed to Carolina Beach and on the way we took a detour to Fisher Beach. This beach saw a lot of action, especially from warships, during the Civil War, and there was a lot of information about what happened there. There were some impressive rolling waves sweeping in from the Atlantic Ocean towards the sandy beach to the south of us, they were aided by a stiff sea breeze. They were also breaking against the rocks that have been laid down to protect the coast. We saw three Pelicans out to sea, it looked as if the fishing was good!

We then stopped at Kure Beach Pier, where there are usually a number of Pelicans in attendance but not today. There were a lot of people fishing and we saw a couple of fairly small fish landed. 

We finally arrived at Carolina Beach, this is very busy during the summer months and there are a lot of houses available for casual renting. There is only a single lane road into the beach so it can take quite a while to reach the beach and finding a park is a nightmare!! We visited the new Board Walk, a $1 M project. It is well designed and laid out and certainly looks the part. We found a swinging seat so sat and enjoyed the sensation while appreciating the view out to sea. We did see a small boat struggling to make headway against the waves.

We finally headed back to Sarah's but not before stopping at a store, Maxwells. They stock a wide variety of merchandise, T Shirts and some other clothes, lots of different paintings, children's toys, some household goods and so on. I went through the check out first and was given a senior discount, the lovely oprator the gave the discount to Terri and Sarah, lol!!

By this time it was fairly late and traffic was heavy but we finally arrived back at Sarah's apartment and were welcomed back by Gracie. We relaxed for a while and we headed off back to Ayden just after 7 pm. By this time, the traffic was much lighter and, we stopped for a Starbucks coffee on our way out of Wilmington. It nearly did not happen as the shop was not where it used to be!! thank goodness, it had only moved one block down, phew!!

We had a good trip home and arrived about 9.15 pm. It was a lovely day out and we were very blessed with the weather. Thanks to Terri for all the driving and Sarah for hosting us!!