Oh Carolina

In seven hours you can make it from Maryland to the coast of North Carolina. Wilmington to be exact. Neither of us had been to the coast of North Carolina before so we figured what better place to get this trip started. However, seven hours is a long time to sit in a car without any stops. We did at least make it to North Carolina before Rose needed her (second... or third) morning coffee so we made a short pit stop in Fremont, North Carolina.

Fremont is one of the cutest little towns you've ever seen. We actually found it by accident. Rose saw a Dunkin sign off of the interstate and almost grabbed the wheel to pull over (only slightly kidding). So we had to make a stop. When we got off the interstate there was nothing but old coke signs and a little main street with storefronts and the whole bit. It was like something preserved from the past. 

​But anyways, long story short, it wasn't a real Dunkin, the coffee was gross, and Rose wasn't happy about it but at least we got to see this cool piece of Americana.

Now on to Wilmington! Of course it had to rain during the drive. If Rose and I are together there can be no other weather activity besides rain. Actually it was a tropical storm conveniently named Colin (same as my brother). Isn't it so fitting he'd be here to try and mess up my trip!? But it was no match for my brand new Rain-X windshield wipers so we got through it no problem.

The rain continued for the first day and looking at my radar on my phone I was worried it would last through our entire stay in North Carolina so we decided to make the best of it and explore anyways.

When in a tropical storm, we go to the beach!
Luckily when we woke up on day two it was bright and sunny. The radar showed one little sliver of the storm where nothing was coming. Wouldn't you know it that Wilmington was right in that sliver! So we decided to head downtown and see the historic district and see what kind of pictures we could get there.

It was a perfect example of a southern town with tons of willows with those droopy leaves coming off of them (no clue what they're called but they're really cool). It was nice. My favorite part was that there wasn't much traffic or people around. I'm used to Baltimore and our NYC trips where there are people everywhere and you can't even move. Cities down here definitely go at a slower pace.
Droopy things?
Naturally we had to go shopping. It was a new city and we (Rose) had to see what was there to buy. There were a bunch of cute little shops that we saw on the way to the beach the night before so we thought it would be fun to see what they had to offer. Well we sort of ended up in our own Pretty Woman situation. The first store we went into wanted $200 for a simple (and rather dumb looking if you ask me) necklace. The lady in the store didn't even talk to us because she knew we wouldn't buy anything. And she was right! We just took some pictures around the shops and made fun of everyone shopping there. We did stop at a coffee shop there that is apparently a big thing in the Carolinas called Port City Java. It was pretty good and reasonably priced which was nice considering where we were. 
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​After laying by the pool for a while to relax from our big shopping experience we wanted to go to dinner. We kept seeing billboards for a restaurant called Front Street Brewery and figured that was a good spot to try. We were right! It was incredible! The only spot around to park was street parking that said no parking before 7. Well.... it was 6:30. So I did it anyways and we periodically left our drinks to make sure it was still there. It was.

The food and the beer was delicious! I would highly recommend it to anyone going to Wilmington. It's in the old historic district right up from the waterfront. I may have bought a souvenir that was too expensive but too awesome to pass up. How often do you take a trip like this right? 
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The real finale for the day was after dinner. Sunsets are something that we both really enjoy so we wanted to go to the beach and get the sunset over the ocean. Then I realized that we are on the east coast and that the sun wouldn't set over the ocean. When we left dinner we saw that it was next to an inlet with a battleship and some bridges. Maybe it would set that way? ​

​It did
We stayed here taking pictures for a very long time. I bet we took over 50 pictures each. I won't bore you with all of the results but it was amazing. I'll post some more of them at the end. 

And that was our Wilmington, North Carolina adventure. Next stop is Montgomery, Alabama!