Road Trip 2010: Day 5 of 17 (Wrightsville Beach to Cedar Island)

I took the kids to the pool in the morning while Helen packed up

Helen looks on from our room on the second floor

Early kitchen at the Wrightsville Beach History Museum

Helen holds Adam so he can see the model

Helen had fun explaining all the old time kitchen gadgets to the boys. She recognized a lot of the gadgets from similar ones in her mother's, aunt's, and grandmother's kitchens.

The history museum is in an old cottage that was moved to the current location

In Wilmington, art work is encouraged along the fence that separates ongoing construction

A rainy morning along the Wilmington river front

Battleship North Carolina across the river from downtown Wilmington

Can't let a little rain get in the way - weather is just a state of mind

Unexpected spur of the moment experiences like our visit to the Hot Pink Cake Stand are one the things that are so fun about our road trips. Helen thought the place and the cupcakes were "beyond cute".

We drove across the river to see the battleship and the weather started to clear

Hot Pink Cake stand from across the river at the battleship park

After touring Wilmington and realizing there was no way we were going to make it in time for the last ferry crossing to the Outer Banks, we stopped for an early dinner in a little town called Sneads Ferry hoping for some more great local seafood

And once again we were not disappointed

We had been told that a place called the Green Turtle was the best place to eat but it didn't open for an hour so we found the Riverview Cafe and it turned out to be plenty good enough for us

We went out of our way to see the city of New Bern, which is the birthplace of Pepsi Cola. It was a really cute and beautifully laid out waterfront town. We had fun finding all these painted bear statues scattered around the town.

We stopped in this neat old general store in Beaufort, NC for some ice cream and directions to the ferry across to the Outer Banks

It was about midnight when we reached the very isolated Driftwood Motel (the only hotel) in Cedar Island, NC, which is where the ferry departs to the Outer Banks. The decor was a little dated and the town felt like it was located at the end of the world.

Helen had to put a piece of luggage under the bed to make it level

Looking over the map with the boys before bed

Tuesday June 1, 2010

After breakfast and a morning swim at the hotel, we toured around Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington. Wilmington was charming like the other coastal towns we've visited.

We drove north along highway 17 and were looking for the town of Sneads Ferry where we heard there was some tasty seafood. Somehow we ended up at the gates of the Camp Lejeun Marine Base. The guard stopped us and, as if it wasn't already obvious, we explained that we were from out of town and we were looking for Sneads Ferry. He told us that we had missed a turn. We asked him if we could pass through the base after we were done in Sneads Ferry. He told us that we weren't supposed to, but he would let us if we drove slowly and behaved. We weren't really sure what that meant.

We turned around and headed back to Sneads Ferry. Adam really had to use the bathroom and the only place around was a barber shop. Helen took Adam in and said that it was full of young men getting military hair cuts and the whole place stopped when she walked in. She had to use the bathroom too, but didn't feel comfortable given the circumstances.

We found Sneads Ferry and were looking for a restaurant called the Green Turtle, but it did not open until later. We talked to someone else that pointed us to the Riverview Cafe. I really wanted to make the last ferry across to the Outer Banks, but it became obvious that we weren't going to make it so we settled in for an early dinner. The dinner was delicious and we overstuffed ourselves...again. Helen wanted to split a dinner, but I wanted my own big seafood platter. I said, "I'm on vacation".

We asked the waitress about going through Camp Lejeune to head north and she said that it wasn't really allowed and that everyone had to go back to highway 17 and go around the base. Given the guard's strange instructions to us earlier, we decided to go back to 17 and go around the base. The base is really big and you could see the military influence in a lot of the towns for miles around. There were many houses flying the Marine and United States flags.

Since we weren't going to make the ferry we decided we had time to go a little out of our way and see the town of New Bern. It was a cute little waterfront town and seemed to be very clean and well planned. We love it when we run into cute towns like this and we discuss how we could live in a town like this.

Our goal was to get to Cedar Island which is where the ferry departs so we could take the first ferry over to the Outer Banks in the morning. We took our time in some of the other waterfront towns along the way and it was getting later than we wanted. Our atlas was lacking detail for the area so we were feeling a little antsy and we weren't quite sure if there were any hotels in the area. We stopped in a quaint little town called Beaufort and went into a cute old general store for ice cream. There were a couple lady workers who were getting ready to close for the night and they were super nice and helpful. They told us that the only place to stay in Cedar Island is a place called the Driftwood Motel. They dialed the motel and let me make a reservation. Then they gave us some instructions on catching the ferry and told us how they had just been on the ferry the day before for a Memorial Day outing to the beach.

The roads were dark and poorly marked. We got lost for a little bit along the way, but finally made it to the motel about midnight. The worker came out in a wife beater teeshirt looking tired and disheveled. He was nice enough and told us about the free breakfast in the morning that he would be getting up to make in a few hours.

Let's just say that the room was somewhat below Hampton Inn standards. We laughed about it and I'm sure we'll always remember it unlike the most of the other hotel rooms we stayed in. We settled in for a little rest and set our alarm for 5 am so we could catch the sunrise ferry in the morning.