Wilmington

After a great six-mile run through the Georgetown historic district, we departed for Mount Pleasant, the Myrtle Beach area, and Wilmington.  The brief trip through Myrtle Beach included a good lunch at the Flying Fish in Barefoot Landing, but the place was a marked departure from these historic cities we had been visiting.  Fat, cigarette-smoking, tattooed folks seemed to be everywhere, taking photos of themselves at places like Tiki Jim's with their faces poking out the holes of jungle cut-outs saying things like, "They'll ne'er believe this back home!"  Am I a travel snob?  I guess so.

Like Beaufort, Wilmington was a city we had never visited before, or at least not more than a brief stop.  Home of the battleship North Carolina (which we did not tour), we found ourselves again in the Riverfront District along yet another river, this time the Cape Fear River.  Wilmington seemed to be a cosmopolitan city - lots of music, theater, folks sitting outside little restaurants relaxing with a glass of wine after work, and fit-looking runners up and down the boardwalk.

The homes here were not as stately as in Beaufort, but to me just appeared to be gorgeous - all of them from the late 1800s, and very well-preserved.

We stayed in a little B&B not far from the Riverfront, a lovely house that reminded us both of Martha's grandmother's house - "Mamah" - in Raleigh.  Wide front porches with porch swings.

Inside, there was beautiful detail everywhere - oak handrails and paneling, just lovely to behold!

I walked around the neighborhood the next morning (with no camera in my hand), marveling at the homes and yards.  I wasn't sure what "zone" this was, but in one 100-foot stretch I passed a Japanese maple, a live oak, a magnolia, a crepe myrtle . . . and yes, a palm tree.