How We Vacation: Wilmington

Felicity had a week and a half off for Spring break in April. The extended time allowed her to decompress from school, get healed up from another case of strep throat, get together with friends and take a trip to Wilmington. This little NC town has been on our bucket list since we moved to Charlotte. Nestled between the Cape Fear river and the coast this historical city was pleasantly charming.

Brandon has a new job he is thriving at, he works 100% remotely and I’m aware that we’re very lucky to have all the time together that we do. We have regular weekly lunch dates, workout together, enjoy our back deck to soak up some vitamin D, eat lunch together if I’m not off volunteering or running errands. During these moments I feel so filled up. He really is my best friend. When my sister said recently, “Wow 13 years of marriage coming up. How’d you get there?” I said, “I don’t know but we’re still so happy to be together and our marriage feels like it’s right where it needs to be so I guess nothing else that’s bogging me down really matters does it? Cause the foundation here feels solid.”

I’m getting a little side tracked, but maybe this writing process is good because I feel so grateful that when I asked B if he was able to take a couple of days off to take a trip to Wilmington he readily said yes. When the place we booked had an extra bedroom I asked him if we should invite Ana. We both chuckled because the answer is always, “Yes, bring Ana.”

I’ve enjoyed writing this theme before and it’s helpful to see how we travel and the adjustments we’ve made over the years. I thought I’d try a different format for how we vacation these days.

Eat Good Food

Typically we pick out some snacks and breakfast items to get us by, but we’re such foodies, we love trying new eateries. We hit up 3 different Drift coffee shops on this trip. This one in particular had souffle pancakes which we were all stunned to try and practically drooled over!

Sweet Treats

When searching for things to do on a trip, I always save a few places that offer sweet treats to quench that hereditary sweet tooth.

Do Something with Animals

Felicity is such an animal lover that we often try and find something on our trips to incorporate animals. At this point in her life we definitely feel like we’re nurturing something much bigger for her future. I honestly can’t imagine her doing anything else for a future career other than something to do with animals! Except maybe owning a donut shop, because girl loves our weekend donuts and she’s always been an early riser.

This time Brandon suggested something with Horses. We opted for a carriage tour. The guide was knowledgable and told us alot of info about the horses as well. Felicity said it was her best day ever. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Learn Something

This adventure also went hand in hand with our do something with animals rule. We visited the aquarium in Fort Fisher where Felicity insisted on purchasing a stuffed Otter she named Slider after watching the squealing otters play. Brandon suggested we play a scavenger hunt of sorts where we each came up with our own lists of creatures we may see at the aquarium. Felicity can tend to get really excited when we visit a museum and run through it. The scavenger hunt did seem to slow her down a bit at each tank so she could find the creatures on her list to check off. Plus it was a fun friendly competition.

Bring Entertainment for Downtime

I’m just going to come right out and say that I pride myself on my ability to whip out kid entertainment from my Mary Poppins bag. You’ll always hit some sort of downtime while waiting for food or for your next event which is where the busy box comes in. I may forget a toiletry or two but I rarely forget a busy box. I threw some coloring items in a old tin lunch box for Felicity along with finger puppets, stencils, fidgets, stamps and magnets.

Find Coffee

Brandon and I are 2 cup a day coffee drinkers. Sometimes Brandon sneaks an extra one in mid morning, but mostly we’re both a solid 2 cups a day. Come 1:30pm we make sure we have some sort of afternoon cup plan.

We stopped into this cute little dino themed coffee shop called Hidden Grounds one afternoon to find a young group of baristas who were friendly with Lici. The girl ringing us up asked Felicity if she could spell her name for her to write on her hot chocolate cup. It was the first time I’d heard Felicity spell her name aloud. She also won Felicity’s heart over when she asked her if she wanted whipped cream AND marshmallows, Felicity of course said Yes please and the girl handed her a little dinosaur figure to keep.

All of the seating for the coffee shop was outside, with the most beautiful aesthetic. Chairs sitting under the shade of trees, and big and little dinos were scattered throughout waiting to be found.

Hit the Beach

I love the beach in the off season. If there’s a beach we have to walk along it and look for seashells even if it’s chilly.

Expect Emergency Runs

When we decided to book a boat tour we realized that Felicity might be cold on the top deck of the boat with only the long sleeve shirt and hoodie we had packed. I feel like no matter how much I pack for a trip I’m somehow still never prepared for the weather. This trip was much chillier and windy than I anticipated. Brandon was adamant that we should try to find a wind breaker for her. After walking into multiple shops with nothing but sweatshirts I finally spotted this UNCW windbreaker we purchased for her.

Do Something for Everyone

We love little family trips and try to make sure that it doesn’t all revolve around one person. Brandon did sneak out to a video game store one evening and I convinced the family to browse this used bookstore where we all found a good read to bring back to our airbnb. B and Lici spotted a few arcades throughout the trip to bond in while winning not 1, not 2 but 3 crane game stuffies.

Our last event of the trip was visiting Airlie Gardens where we all enjoyed walking off our sweet treats and soaking up more outside time.

Enjoy Your Company

Sometimes snafoos happen on a trip, but over the years we’ve learned to adapt to situations and be patient with eachother. We try to remind each other why we’re on the trip, to spend time together, see new things and slow down.

It seems trivial to say that enjoying your company is a goal for a trip but it really is the opportune time to not worry about other outside stressors and simply focus and love on each other.

Stop to Smell the Flowers

This is all about slowing down. I can be guilty of over scheduling our lives. On a trip we plan for the things I listed above but we hold on to our plans quite loosely. We want to make sure that there’s enough time on a trip for Felicity to stop and smell the flowers. For her to point out little details we would have never noticed. There’s enough running around in our day to day. The theme for our trips right now is Linger.

Linger in bed a little longer. Linger on the dock so we can watch the boats surge by. Linger in the bookshop to find one more deal on a magic tree house book. Linger at the coffee shop to chat together as a family and savor our brew.