For the last week, we have had three of Mitchell’s friends visiting from Iowa. Since there’s nothing to do in Jacksonville (I know I sound like a broken record whenever I say that), we took them to Wilmington last weekend.
Before checking into our hotel in Wilmington, we stopped to get some southern BBQ (new for all of us), which is different from the BBQ we are used to in Iowa. Southern BBQ has a vinegar base, and it seemed like I couldn’t taste it no matter how much I put on my sandwich (which was still delicious, obviously). They also put coleslaw on their BBQ sandwiches, another first for me. Another thing that we have noticed is that the side dishes (called “vegetables” no matter what the side dish is) are different here – collard greens, tomatoes and cucumber, lima beans, fried okra, ect. Nothing too weird, but different from your standard fries and coleslaw ;)
We really wanted to explore Wilmington on Saturday, but it rained all day long. We tried to wait it out in our hotel but with no end of rain in sight, we finally ventured out to watch the Iowa State game at Front Street Brewery - their nachos are the best I've ever had ;). Our hotel was perfect. It was right on the boardwalk with a nice view of the river and of the USS North Carolina battleship. One of the outside walls of our hotel had a dolphin mural painted on it, by the famous marine life artist, Wyland (you can see some of his work here - I had heard of him because there is a famous wall in Key West that he has also done, so that was pretty cool!). But the best part of our hotel is that we were able to walk everywhere we needed to in downtown Wilmington without having to worry about finding/paying for parking or worrying about finding a taxi to get home at the end of the night.
Rainy view of the river and the USS North Carolina from our hotel. Our view of the ship was much cooler than it looks in this picture.
I have talked about how beautiful downtown Wilmington is, but it is a whole different world at night. We were there for Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, and there were people everywhere. Lots of different bars to go to, lots of interesting people (think discharged Air Force service member full of conspiracy theories), and lots of fun. Unfortunately, I don’t have very many of pictures, so I’ll just leave you with this…..
We woke up on Sunday to a beautiful day, and got to do a lot of the things we had originally wanted to do on Saturday. We walked along the river walk (I will never get sick of this), went on a waterboat tour of the river, and checked out the USS North Carolina. Wilmington is such a beautiful place, and I am so in love. It is growing quickly, and I’m sure it will look a lot different by the time we move.
Ship Selfie
Pictures don't do this thing justice. It was enormous.
The ship also gave nice views of downtown Wilmington
After our productive weekend in Wilmington, work on Monday greeted me with my first presentation, and I cannot express how happy I am that that is over! Luckily, it is Friday again and the boys have left for Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. I’ll be headed down to meet them tomorrow, then they'll be headed back to Iowa. It was such a good week, and was nice to have some familiar faces in town.. although I must admit it took me a four-hour nap today to recuperate ;)
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