Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Wilmington Beach Trip

Between my whole family being sick with a crazy, violent stomach virus and my new sewing obsession I have completely forgotten to write new posts!

Dane had to go to Wilmington for work so of course we packed up and went with him! We also took our moms with us. ;)

We stayed at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside. It was a perfect location downtown. It is right on the river and straight across from the Cotton Exchange.


Ethan and Enslee checking out downtown from the Hotel window.

The cons to the hotel were that they didn't have a fridge or microwave in the room.  We found out that we could rent one for $10 a day. WHAT?? They didn't offer a free breakfast but they did have a hotel resturant downstairs. They had a $12.95 buffet which was (according to Dane)  just a continental breakfast. Self parking was $9 a night in the hotel parking lot. Our hot water went out one night, but they had it fixed the next morning.


Ethan and Enslee enjoying the pool.

Pros were that the hotel was very clean and the staff was great. The outdoor pool was very nice they had a full bar during the day with food and drinks. Location was of course the best. We could walk out of the hotel and be downtown, or on the river walk.

Who needs a full service bar if you have snacks like Ethan?!

The food was the best part! We ate at these local restaurants while we were there:

Paddy's Hollow Restaurant and Pub
We all had a sandwich. They were amazing. I had a french dip sub, excellent! The cream Spinach was awesome!

Elijah's
This was a seafood place that all the locals recommended. I don't like seafood but they had a GREAT Chicken Marsala dish.

Front Street Brewery
This place was my fav. They had great food all around at a good price. Also half price apps from 3pm-6pm. I had a pulled chicken burrito. Yummmmmy!

P.T.'s Old Fashioned Grille
This was a great burger place. It was messy and oh-so-good!

Fat Tony's Italian Pub
Great Italian food, we had goat cheese and sun dried tomato bread sticks!

Tangerine Caribbean Grille
I had a patty melt. Everyone else had seafood, and ALOT of it. Even Dane couldn't eat it all!

Dixie Grill
This one was my favorite. Old time charm with great food. We ate breakfast our last day there. I had the Dixie Benedict which was a home made biscuit with eggs, fried green tomato topped with gravy. AWESOME!!!

Kilwins
I know we have one of these in Asheville, but I don't ever get to go! There was one right up the street from were our hotel was. I of course had to go there every evening. My favorite was the sea salt caramel chocolate apple. Heaven!

As for attractions, we mostly stayed downtown. It's hard to get alot in with two kids so young. Downtown was great, it is where the battleship, coast guard ship, horse tours, shopping, bars and food are. No need to go anywhere else!

As for the places we did go to, they were Kure Beach and the Cotton Exchange as mentioned above. Kure Beach had alot of parking and was easy to get in and out of. Cotton Exchange was nice, but hard to get a double stroller around in. I wasn't to thrilled about the shops they had there but our mom's seemed to like them. There were mostly jewelry and art stores.

The most exciting part about the trip was that it was Enslee's first beach trip! We went to the beach one evening after Dane got out of class. It was about a 20 minute drive to Kure Beach. When we got there we were able to park beach front so we wouldn't have to walk which is great with 2 kids! The beach was windy and cool. I guess Berta the hurricane was still around in the air! Ethan loved the beach, he went straight in it with Dane. The water was FREEZING! He was rolling in the waves so much that they would drag him towards the ocean, he was definitely a wild man. This mama gets paranoid with the ocean - I have never liked the  beach! Enslee on the other hand,  was not to thrilled with it. She screamed every time the wave started coming towards her. Shame on us for leaving her by the tide, we tortured our baby girl. But it was worth it just to hear her scream every single time! :)
`````````````````````````
Anyways, the beach trip was alot of fun. Glad to be back home. No matter where you go with two kids, it's always easier to be back at home to get them back on schedule!  I will have more pics up later!