NC Trip - Part III - The City

I love Wilmington, NC.  We've been there many times, so enjoyed our stay at the Blockade Runner and eating at Flaming Amy's Burrito Barn.

 3-7-12 - Wrightsville Beach is the best

Our next stop was Charleston, NC.  We started with the Charles Pinckney National Historic site, the highlight of which, for me, was this lizard.  Just kidding, Pinckney was the youngest delegate to help draft our constitution and was an institution in South Carolinian politics.  Did you know that South Carolina was the first to secede from the union?

 3-7-12 - Reincarnation of Charles Pinckney?

The next day, we rode the ferry to Fort Sumter.  What an amazing ride.  You see the city, the forts, dolphins, and seagulls who keep pace at eye-level right with your boat.

 3-8-12 - Mine!

3-8-12 - Entering Sumter

3-8-12 - View from the battery

3-8-12 - We went to Fort Moultrie too.  Awesome.

I really loved Charleston.  It wasn't my first time there, but downtown is so vibrant.  We enjoyed Market Street and King Street.  It helped that the weather cleared up and soared into the 70's.  I laugh as I look back at all of our beach pictures with Alison in her winter coat and hat.

 3-8-12 - Random Bird

NC Trip - Part II - Lighthouse Alley

Could I turn into one of those people who decorate their bathrooms with framed cross-stitches of lighthouses?  Perhaps I could!  We first stopped at Bodie Island Lighthouse in Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  It had a neat boardwalk to a marsh lookout where Nathan and Alison spent a lot of time birdwatching.

3-4-12 - Bodie Island Lighthouse

3-4-12 - View from the Marsh

We spent two nights in Buxton, NC in a condo right on the beach (super-cheap because we didn't realize the weather in March in the Outer Banks is kind of icky).  The first day, we stopped at Hatteras Lighthouse.  It had a nice museum with some stories of the numerous shipwrecks off the coast of the Outer Banks.  At one point, a young navy private's parents found his name tag washed ashore before they had been notified of the wreck.

 3-5-12 - Hatteras Lighthouse

There is a nasty battle going on in this area between the residents and the National Park Service, which had to start charging for permits to drive on the beaches this year.  A sad output of the vicious cycle that is: economy is bad->people lose jobs->government doesn't make as much money in taxes->government can't support as many services and has to start charging for them->people get mad and elect Republicans->Republicans cut taxes->Park Service receives less money->Park Service has to charge for more services....wait, I don't really see how this is helping....But, I thought the wooden "Death to NPS" ornament on one guy's lawn went a little too far.

We took the free ferry to Okracoke Island.  Unfortunately, the wind was so strong that day that our car was literally sandblasted and we couldn't play on the beach.  We did, however, have a nice walk in the woods, saw Okracoke Lighthouse, and ate at an amazing restaurant called Dajio.  Please don't forget to try Dajio when you visit Okracoke.

3-5-12 - Okracoke Ferry

3-5-12 - We weren't the only ones waiting for Okracoke Ferry.  Mine?

3-5-12 - Okracoke Lighthouse

3-6-12 - Windswept

The next day we took the ferry to Okracoke again to catch another one back to the mainland.  Thirty minutes before we were scheduled to leave, they canceled our ferry and made us take one three hours out of our way.  We were all thrilled.  I was happy when we finally arrived at my favorite beach hotel: The Blockade Runner in Wilmington, NC.  I can't wait for Sami to move back to Wilmington so we can visit more often!

3-7-12 - Blockade Runner

Sami's Married!

My little sister got married this weekend in Wilmington, NC.  She had a gorgeous ceremony & reception!

First things first - I and her friend, Meredith, were in the wedding party, so we threw her a bachelorette bash Thursday night.  I can't give you the details to protect the innocent, but we started with dinner and ended at 2am at a Cowboy Bar called City Limits.  Sam had a great time as you can see form this photo (all others have been destroyed. :)

Samantha holds her own on the mechanical bull!

I also got stopped near the UNCW campus by a mandatory drunk driving checkpoint.  This was pretty fun, since I was probably the only sober person on campus that night.  The cops, however, apparently didn't believe that I hadn't been drinking (I don't think anyone in that town believes that the MN driver's license is real), so I got to take a breathalizer test on the spot!!  Double zeroes, baby.

Sam recently moved to Massachusetts, so this may be the last time we visit Wilmington and we needed to live it up while we had the chance.  Nathan and I stayed at the Blockade Runner hotel on Wrightsville Beach.  Although it was too cloudy each day to see the green flash, we did enjoy the very beachworthy weather (80's in October!) and took full advantage of the beach (we saw dolphins almost every day)!  I also met up with a woman who was on the Corporate Service Corp Tanzania 3 team, Gloria.  We'd worked together via the phone, but had never met in person.  She showed me around the South side of Wilmington and took me to Carolina Beach State Park.  I bet you thought Venus Flytraps lived in abundance in the deep forests of the Amazon, right?  Me too.  Apparently, they only live within 75 miles of Wilmington, NC and that's it!  They are also incredibly tiny!  I got to see two patches in the wild, which was, well, wild.

Wild Venus Flytraps

Ok, back to the wedding.  Sam had been planning to have the wedding outside in Greenfield Park, but all week it was threatening to rain.  It was touch-and-go there for a while, but we all arrived at the park at 3:30pm to sunshine.  The place is gorgeous - a lake, beautiful trees, and Sam walked over to the ceremony on a bridge.  Colors were ivory and wine.  Look at Sam all grown up!

 

The ceremony was short and this turned out to be key.  Five minutes after it ended, we heard thunder.  We scrambled to simultaneously take pictures and get chairs and music equipment into the cars.  Just as we'd finished taking the basic set of shots (the last few were quite dark), it started to rain.  We'll have a good picture of the wedding party running to their cars.  About a minute after we got into the cars, it started to pour.

The reception site was the Best Western Coastline Convention Center in downtown Wilmington, a cute little brick building on the river.  Dinner was awesome, then we danced the night away (wait - did I say we?  I meant Adam's family - they are much more outgoing and comfortable with their moves than we are!).  Actually, I felt a little overpowered by Adam's family; our side being so far away, we barely rounded out one 8-person table.  The rest of the 63 guests were Adam's.

Anyway, Sam had fun.  She and Adam left in style at 9pm, riding in a limo all the way to Raleigh to catch an early flight to St. Lucia for their honeymoon.

It was a VERY successful day.  The only thing that "went wrong" is that the black chairs Sam ordered turned out to be white.  This is by far an improvement over Nathan and my wedding, in which the officiant forgot to have our witnesses sign the marriage certificate (the one thing that needed to happen to make it official)!

Congrats Sami & Adam!!  Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

  

Getting Ready

Meredith, Sami, & Me

Sam & Adam (Picture Courtesy of Nathan King Photography, Inc)

Table Decorations

Cake Cutting

 

First Dance 

 

Amber & Nathan

Mom & Dad

Ring

Dancing - Sam & Adam's Dad

Get-Away Outfits

Working Vacation

Despite the horrors of my job currently (which you read about in my last post), I was finally able to pull myself away and take my vacation to visit my sister, Samantha in Wilmington, NC this week (sans work laptop, I might add!!).

Wilmington is right on the Carolina Coast and is currently 14 degrees warmer than Rochester, so I can't complain. I met my parents here, not for a relaxing beach vacation, however, but to help my sister finish off some planning for her wedding in October.

First order of business: meet her fiance, Adam. Check. Adam is great! We spent most of the day yesterday hanging out in an Old Chicago restaurant watching the Badgers lose against Xavier. I'm happy to say he has my official and enthusiastic seal of approval. He and Sam are great together.


Second order of business: cake, dresses, flowers, see venues, and maybe a few things I forgot about. I started the day today calling a half-dozen wedding cake places to see if we could set-up a cake-tasting. This is easily one of the best parts about wedding planning and although Sam had her heart set on one place, I convinced her to try several before choosing because, let's face it, what do you have to lose? (Except trying several fabulous cakes for free if you just go with the first place you see.)

Adam took a half-day to spend the afternoon with us, so we got to do some fun wedding and non-wedding things too. First stop? The beach! Even though it is just March and our temperatures were in the 60's, the ocean was dotted with surfers and the beach with mostly naked people. I guess some of the North Carolina students get together in large groups to rent out the beach houses to live in during the year, so they were out doing what college students do best - avoiding their homework.



After that, we drove downtown to take a look at the conference center where the reception will be and the park where the ceremony will be. The conference center room was open, so we broke in and took some pictures.


The place where the ceremony will be, however, was not open. When we drove up there were huge semis parked along the road supplying power to what I thought was maybe U2 on tour or something. Everywhere people were sitting with large cameras waiting to take pictures and the cops were keeping people from getting to Sam and Adam's actual wedding site. A guy came up and told us to clear off the path because they would need to bring equipment through. It turns out that they were filming a scene for the show One Tree Hill, which is filmed in Wilmington (Dawson's Creek, apparently was filmed here too)! I took a picture just in case there were any famous people out there, but I don't watch the show (and neither do most locals), so I may never know!