Girls Week-end Part 2

We started the second morning again with an enjoyable breakfast in the hotel lobby.  (I love the all you can eat breakfasts that come with hotel rooms!)  We then headed to downtown Wilmington to spend the day.

We started the day with a trolley tour through the historic area of  Wilmington.  I love hearing the stories, the people and the history behind the buildings and places.  It makes a place so much more interesting to know a little more about it.  

 One of the stories was about this rooster on top of a church.  It became important when a professional sports franchise came to town looking for a mascot for the new team.  They saw this and decided to name the team after it.  (Port City Roosters - a minor league baseball team.)

 We spent time walking along the riverfront.  Lots of fun shops.  Rebecca loved the neat jewelry shops.  It was fun shopping with her (even though shopping isn't really something I tend to do often - she loves it).  Again, we had a beautiful day!

 A friend recommended this store for a meal.  (Wish we had known about this when we were here before with the boys!  We'll know for next time.)  They serve hotdogs -  in many different ways.

 We took our food out back to eat on the open deck.

 This was our view.  Can you see the Battleship North Carolina in the background?

 These are the courhouse steps.  This was often used as a scene in the old tv series Matlock.  Wilmington is a thriving film production area!

 More shopping.

 We found a cupcake shop too!  (Coastal Cupcakes)  Mine was oreo cheesecake (yum!).  Rebecca had angel food with raspberry filling (also yum!).

 We went out to eat at Carrabas.  It was very busy - and after eating, I could understand why.  The food was delicious.  Mostly though, I enjoyed hanging out with Rebecca.

 Some of the goodies purchased on our trip.

 We debated what to do on our last day there.  We needed to leave by lunchtime.  We decided to just relax.  We had a Bible study together.  Ate breakfast.  Went back to the riverfront.  We walked some.  Found an outdoor jewelry vendor.  Then headed home.

 I'm so glad we had this time.  I hope we'll have many more such week-ends.

I enjoyed the one on one time with Rebecca.  She is a beautiful young lady and I'm blessed to be her mother.

Reminds me to get back to our time of spending one on one time with each of our children.  Its fun to focus on just one of them sometimes.  

I have so many things to be thankful for.  God is good!

Blessings

Leslie

Girl's Week-end - Part 1

Sorry for taking so long to post about our fun week-end away.  I am not sure where the time has gone.  Busy, but not any more so than usual.  Trying to play catch-up some this week.  We'll see how it goes.  Thanks for those of you that have asked about me after not seeing anything.  All is well here.  :-)

Rebecca and I left on a Thursday afternoon after co-op.  We made a stop at Panera and then started our adventure.

It was then that Rebecca learned where we were going ... Wilmington!  We spent some of our time away having discussions and sharing time that was personal - mother/daughter time.  I'm thankful to have this time together.  We also spent time doing some fun things!  I'm going to share some about the first half of our trip.

We arrived in Wilmington, checked into our nice hotel and then decided to get something to eat.  We chose Olive Garden.  It was yummy!

We were up early the next morning and awoke to a beautiful day!  We had breakfast at the hotel and then headed out.  To catch a ferry.

 It was a cool morning and we were both glad for our jackets.  The ride out to the island was uncrowded ... and oh, so peaceful!

 I was delighted to see one of the NC ligihthouses that we had not yet seen!  We visited most of them with our NC History group - except for 2.  One of them was Oak Island (below).

 The other was Bald Head Island lighthouse - the oldest lighthouse in North Carolina!

 There are no cars on the island and no high rise buildings.  It is an incredibly serene and lovely place!

 Welcome to Bald Head Island!

 We went first to see "Old Baldy".  It used to be all white.  It looks patched now because, well, its been patched.  Its been that way for many years now.

Entrance to the lighthouse.

 View at the top.  There is a ladder through a hole in the floor to get into the top.  The views are beautiful!

 Just liked this photo of the entrance to the lighthouse.  Can you believe how thick the walls are?!

 Isn't the sky an amazing shade of blue?  I love lighthouses.  I'm thankful for the many people that work to preserve them.

 Part of the island has salt water marshes.  This is a view overlooking them.

 There weren't many people around and we took many shots of ourselves.  I don't like most of them though so you won't see too many.  LOL

 We had 2 options for getting around the island - renting a golf cart or renting bicycles.  You can see what we chose.  Its been a long time since I've ridden a bike - especially for any distance.  It was fun!

 We headed out by the beaches.  We only saw 1 runner.

Then we headed inland for lunch at a little cafe/market.  Afterwards we rode to the Maritime Forest Preserve.   We hiked around a shorter trail.  

 We rode to the end of the island and saw where there was once another lighthouse.  All that is left are the foundation pieces.  It was deemed unsafe and thus taken down.  (It was a metal structure and not nearly as lovely as Old Baldy)

 Some views from the end of the island.  Tranquil, stunning, truly evidence of the hand of the Creator.

 I snapped this photo on our way back across the island.  Just loved the color of the sky showing through the trees.  It was the perfect day to spend on an island.

 Headed back the mainland and saying good-bye to a fun day.  I'm thankful for memories that I'll hold dear of time spent here with my precious daughter!

More (hopefully) tomorrow.

Blessings
Leslie