Summer Vacation, Part 3, Southport, NC, June 2021

We arrived at Nancy and Dale's around 4 pm on Tuesday, June 8.   We felt instantly welcome and at home in their beautiful home!  

Nancy always goes the extra mile to make things special!  After we unpacked the car we headed straight to the beach where we had dinner at Koko Cabana where I had the fried green tomatoes and goat cheese tacos that I have been thinking about since the last time we were here!  They did not disappoint!

We took a nice long walk on the beach after dinner and walked in the warm water.  The water temp here is perfect.  So much warmer than the Pacific Ocean that we are mostly used to in California.  It felt so good!

Our first full day, we went to Wilmington to drop off our car at the airport.  Then, we met Adam at the marina and he took us out on his boat on the Intracoastal Waterway to a little island where we walked across the dunes to the Atlantic Ocean side.  We were going to stay and swim and enjoy the island but it started raining so we headed back.  We had lunch with Adam at a little seafood restaurant right on the water near the marina.  It was yummy and we got to sit outside until it started pouring rain!  We quickly were reseated under a roof and enjoyed our lunch while listening to and watching the rain come down! 

It was so fun to be with Adam.  He is Nancy and Dale's oldest son and he and his family live in a lovely home in Wilmington.  He and his wife, Heather, are both doctors.  He's a radiologist and she is an ER doctor.  We got to see the whole family one night when they invited us over for burgers before we all went to see The Quiet Place II.  It was very good and so fun being with them!

We spent as much time at the beach as possible!  They live in the community of St. James Plantation and they have their own beach access on Oak Island.  We went there mostly and also to a beach on the other end of the island closer to the lighthouse.  It's all beautiful and such fun to swim in the ocean and I even got to fish with Dale and caught some little fishes that we put back.

We all love to eat out and we love to get ice cream!

Beautiful spot to wait for our table at Rusty Hooks Dockside Grill

Nancy and Dale have a beautiful pool in their backyard which we swam in nearly everyday either after our bike rides (Nancy and I) or after coming back from the beach!  It's a vacation there everyday!  

Another fun thing that we did this trip, was to go on a marsh tour at the gator hole.  We sat in lawn chairs on an old rickety pontoon boat and were taken out into a marsh to see birds and gators and whatever else was out that evening.  It was beautiful and we saw mostly birds but it was an enjoyable time!

All vacations have to come to an end, and so it was with this one. I’ve always wanted a summer home and in a sense we have one here. So grateful for their hospitality! Nancy and Dale drove us to Raleigh and we met Cierra and Alfredo and their two youngest kids, Mila and Luca for lunch before flying home! 

See you next time!