Day Trip to Wilmington

Saturday, we took a drive down to Wilmington, NC. It’s about a two hour drive from our house which is perfect for a Saturday outing. It’s also one of the things on our “to do” list before we move. I’ve been to Wilmington several times over the years and the Mister has been a couple times but the girls had never been.

Our first stop was a tour of the Battleship North Carolina. Both of the girls thought it was neat but Morgan was especially impressed. She enjoyed seeing how the sailors lived their daily lives on the ship. She and the Mister toured the entire ship, top to bottom while the youngest was too afraid to go below deck. I don’t know why. I explained to her that they don’t tie you up and torture you down there, but she refused to go. So, she and I toured the upper deck and enjoyed the views of the Cape Fear River. At one point, I asked her if she thought that alligators lived down there. She figured no but as we were walking around, we saw a placard that said there were indeed two alligators that live in the river near the ship. I never figured we’d actually see either of them, but as the Mister and I leaning over the railing looking in the river, I spotted what I thought was just driftwood but it moved closer toward us and then we could tell that it was an actual alligator!!! I was so excited, lol. It reminded me of the time that we saw two moose alongside the road in New Hampshire. You know they’re out there but you never expect to see one. Seeing the alligator was definitely the highlight of the day.

After that, we drove to Wilmington’s historic river front and walked along the river and did some window shopping. It was pretty muggy that day so we also did a lot of sitting and drinking water. Still, we had a fantastic time and now I can say that I’ve seen an alligator in the wild. Woot!

Here are some pictures. For those of you that are my Facebook friends, these are repeats. If you’re not my Facebook friend, you should be!!