Wilmington, North Carolina

Lots of traffic on our way back from Wrightsville Beach, but necessary to drop by CVS on the corner of Oleander and College to pick up the disposable camera pictures from the Stone Mountain escapade. Sadly, it doesn’t appear to have worked; lots of dark grays and blacks, not many laser light scenes. We gave it a whirl, I guess.

To escape for a few minutes the heat and car exhaust of rush hour in Wilmington, we took a short detour to the campus of UNC-Wilmington. It ever there was a place that would be great to work, this is it. A smallish, gorgeous campus with a full complement of sports facilities, brick academic buildings, most accompanied by the typical southern school white pillars, and tons of pine trees. Must be pretty great to work there.

A late dinner at the Copper Penny, a pretty standard sports bar/pub. Pretty cool place, and not just because it is Wilmington’s Philly bar. Though we got a chance to watch some of the Phillies-Marlins game, and loved the Philly stuff on the wall, the food was decent. My French onion soup was good and super cheesy, but too bad they brought it out only thirty seconds before our mains (fish and chips for me; seared tuna sandwich for LVL). A few beers and some Phillies drama, just for laughs.

Back to Greenville Lake, this time with LVL. Stopped first at the same boat ramp area where I spotted the gator, to no avail. Maybe on account of my mosquito immunity or my fascination with the darker shades of things, but I seem to like the overgrown, swampy variety of “lakes” a bit more than LVL, who prefers the pristine, clear watered stuff. Who can blame her? We spent about an hour driving around the perimeter, checking out the several varieties of trees, the Spanish moss, and looking in vain for gators.

We did happen upon a beautiful wooden bridge in a fairly open area of the lake. Hot, muggy weather caused the camera to fog up when we stepped from the heavily AC’d car. Tons of cute 8-10” turtles swam below us (they must be fed pretty frequently from where we stood, as they all seemed to gravitate toward our spot), most covered in algae. Tons of great pics, a few quiet moments together before hopping back in the car. Sadly, especially for LVL, still no gator sightings.

Wilmington ended up being a great place to spend the bulk of our last week on the road. Access to the beach, the river, the lake, several interesting restaurants, and a pretty unique culture made for a fun, chill couple of days.