Wilmington, North Carolina ~ Part Un

One of the things I've done over the last busy week was take some time to go on a date with my husband. We've been together for over 5 years, but I think dates are still important!


We took the whole Saturday to go down to Wilmington, which is about an hour south of us on the coast. Wilmington is a beautiful city, and has something for everyone. 18th Century houses, beautiful beaches, awesome restaurants...everything Jacksonville doesn't have.

You can't go just anywhere and have a horse dressed as a bunny pull your carriage on Easter weekend!




We saw so much and took so many beautiful pictures, this'll have to be a two parter. Hell, I took so many, it may turn out to be a three parter! O_O


Like I said in my last post, I've been trying to be more active, so we fit some fun excercise into the day. First stop was to play frisbee in the Hugh MaCrae Park. The park has such pretty landscaping, so of course I took some pictures! Thank god there are none of me sweating with the frisbee...

The camellias here are just about done blooming, but this one was still pretty.


I'm a sucker for a retaining wall...


The azaleas are starting to bloom out everywhere. In fact, Wilmington's annual Azalea Festival is being held this upcoming weekend. I really wanted to go, people open up their historical houses and gardens to the public for tours!

But my brother in law is coming to visit this weekend, he hasn't been here in years. I'm taking a garden bullet for you Steve!!

Maybe I can talk them into taking me down there anyway, and I can drop them off in the pub all afternoon while I go out touring....hmm... :)


Some of my favourite azaleas of the day:






There's no Newcastle Brown in there, Mr. A!



The dogwoods are also in full bloom. I'd love to have one of these. They're very short lived trees though, and prone to disease.



From the look of this tree, I'd say it's a cherry. Look at the trunkage on this thing!


This is only one small part of MaCrae Park. I just think it was so pretty :) Most of the park is just pines. There are giant Koi in that lake. Huge! I'm surprised one of them didn't flip out of the water dolphin-style and snag that kid!


Some turtles chillin' like villains on the only island in the pond. Maybe they're afraid of the Koi too.



Cool Japanese Maple. Which I had to get in front of, of course.


Ham alert.


Eastern Redbud, I presume?


Very weird duck. I've heard of Turducken before, but this is ridiculous.


Some more of his homies resting in between tourist feedings. They didn't even have the decency to look scared when I got close to take a picture.


Lovely place. Couldn't play frisbee for long though, it kills me! I have bruises all over my shins, and my fingernails got shredded. I'm not a girly-girl, but c'man! Enough was enough!


Mr. A and I went for a pint in the Grand Union Pub, and had some fish & chips. Yes! There is an abundance of delicious seafood here in the coast, but no one's really done an 'authentic' fish & chips. Grand Union's were AWESOME. Ok, not really authentic, we weren't eating them out of paper or anything. But so tasty!

Usually when you see a place advertised as a 'pub' down here, it's a murky establishment with one pool table and a fat hillbilly behind the bar serving Budweiser in a pint glass. I always back out of the 'pub' slowly...no sudden movements...


After lunch, what did Mr. A treat me to? A visit to the 'Airlie Botanical Gardens'.

Beautiful! Amazing! Astounding!

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for the pictures :) No time to post them tonight. But be on the lookout tomorrow!

Today was the tepid appetizer. Tomorrow? The filet mignon!!