This June we went back East for our nephew’s graduation. We flew in a bit early to North Carolina to spend a few days on our own to check out the town of Wilmington.
The first day we checked out historic downtown Wilmington on the Cape Fear River, including an AMAZING brunch at the Dixie Grill. It rained while we were downtown and the humidity after the rain was intense for these Alaskans.
Day two was expected to be ”excessively hot”, so we did some sightseeing by car and checked out the Wrightsville Beach area (and brunch at Sweet ‘N Savory). We ended the day at a bar called Fork ‘N Cork (both restaurants were featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives)!
After dinner we walked around a slightly cooler downtown.
Our last day in Wilmington was still very hot, so we drove down to Carolina Beach for Britt’s Donuts on the boardwalk.
We then drove further south to check out historic Fort Fisher. (We spent a lot of the day in air-conditioned car and buildings!)
We ended the trip with dinner at the wonderful Wrightsville Beach Brewery.
The next morning we drove north to Virginia and met up with the family before we all drove down to Virginia Beach for a Kenny Chesney concert (Carly Pearce opened for him) - an early Father’s Day gift for our dad!
Thursday morning we met up with our friends the Hunters who were in our life group in Alaska but moved back to Virginia. It was SO great to see them again!
Friday was the big day. My sister, mom and I spent the day doing some graduation gift shopping (and got pedicures). Then Friday evening was graduation and then dinner with the family at Tucanos Brazilian Grill.
Saturday we had a delicious omelet bar brunch and our nephew opened his gradation gifts.
Sunday was Father’s Day and after a family brunch (more delicious food by my sister!), we went on a bike ride through historic Yorktown (with stops at Mobjack Coffee Roasters and Ben & Jerry’s).
That evening we went to a Lionsbridge FC soccer game (a semipro team) at Christopher Newport University (with a quick stop at a brewery and cider works). My first soccer game since I played at age 4 - ha!
Monday was our last day with family so we went to Top Golf (another first for us).
Tuesday we said goodbye to family and drove up to the DC/Dulles area to check out the Steven F. Udvary-Hazy Air and Space Museum (which has been on our bucket list for years). Andrew loved it!
Then we had dinner with my cousin Andre, who lives in the area.
It was a great trip visiting with family and experiencing an East Coast heat wave, but we sure were glad to get home to Alaska… where it was a surprising 80 degrees!
