One thing you'll be shocked about is how FEW pictures we took! Consider it part of the laid-back nature of our trip, but we spent more time actually enjoying our trip than trying to document it. I do have some pictures to share, though. Here are the highlights of our trip.
Friday, June 14th:
We started off our anniversary morning at home with some pancakes, peaches, and strawberries (and cheese, because every meal needs a piece of cheese).
We got to Wilmington, visited the Cotton Exchange (a collection of locally-owned shops and restaurants) and ate lunch at The Basics, which specializes in Southern cuisine. Jason got a BLT and I got Brunswick Stew. It was good, but paled in comparison to Mom's and Smithfield's stews. We walked around downtown a bit until I got tired, and then we headed south.
We drove through Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and stopped at Fort Fisher. There, we walked around the fort, read about the Civil War battles fought in the area, and saw some crabs in the marshes.
By this point, it was time to check in to the hotel. We stayed at the Homewood Suites in an area called Mayfaire, which is between Wilmington and Wrightsville. We'd both highly recommend, since it was a really nice place, walking distance (if you're able to walk...) to tons of stores, restaurants, and movie theaters, and the halfway point between most of the things we did over the weekend. I took a nap, and then we went to the Bento Box for sushi anniversary dinner.
The Bento Box in one word: yum. We ate outside beside this nice water feature, and it was perfect. Pre-pregnancy, Jason and I would usually order 4 rolls and share them. Now that I'm limited to cooked rolls, we each order our own. Jason took advantage of this and ordered something I never would have gone for, a roll simply called "Pain" -- spicy salmon, scallions, wasabi tobikko, mango, and avocado drizzled in hot chili oil. He LOVED it, and talked about it all weekend. We definitely recommend and will probably visit there again on our next trip to Wilmington.
Saturday, June 15th:
After complimentary breakfast (seriously, how good are hotel Belgian waffles?), we headed to the beach. Despite a bit of road rage and a rant from Mr. Self about paid parking, we found a parking spot near a public access site. We slathered ourselves in sunscreen (it was already hard enough for me to get around, I didn't need to add the difficulty of a sunburn on top of that) and soaked in the sun, breezes, and sounds of the waves crashing and little kids laughing. It was pretty wonderful. After a while, we got in the water, which was PERFECT. Everyone had told me I'd love swimming while pregnant because it relieves the weight/pressure, and boy were they right! I bobbed up and down while Jason rode some waves, and we really enjoyed ourselves. A bit more time in the sand, and we were satisfied. Neither of us are big beach people, so we felt we had "done the beach" and gotten our fill for the next couple years or so.
We grabbed some lunch at Chick-Fil-A, ate it in our hotel room, and took showers. At 2:00, we went to see Man of Steel, which Jason really wanted to see. Our one-word review of it: Meh. Not horrible, but really not good either. What was good was our post-movie Cold Stone trip (BOGO if you show them your movie stub, bonus!) and walking around the stores at Mayfaire.
We had some issues deciding what to do Saturday night. We visited an arboretum (because that's what we do) to fill some time. It was very small with only a few flowers, but was very pretty.
We ate dinner at Big Daddy's in Kure Beach, pretty much the ONLY restaurant in Kure Beach. I was unimpressed. I should also clarify that I was still pretty full of Cold Stone and that I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to seafood (I blame it on growing up on the river and so near the beach). After dinner, we walked along the beach, which was really nice.
Sunday, June 16th:
We went back to downtown Wilmington, walked along the river walk, and ended up back at the Cotton Exchange. We ate outside again (we did a lot of that over the weekend, because the weather was SO GORGEOUS!). I got a super-yummy crab cake sandwich (Amanda, you'd definitely approve of it), and Jason got a reuben sandwich. We had wanted to tour the battleship, but they estimate the tour to take two hours, and there was no way I could handle that much walking, so we settled for taking pictures of it instead.
Anniversary trip, consider yourself a success!
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