I travelled from Asheville to Wilmington via Hwy 74 thru Charlotte. Did a drive-by tour of downtown Charlotte....that was nice and proceeded onward. Tip: don't ever take Hwy 74 out of Charlotte. The road-side strip malls, car dealerships, fast-foods restaurants and intersections drag on for about 20 miles beyond the city limits. Hence, it took an hour for me to get to a speed zone higher than 45mph.
Although, I do recommend Hwy 74 to be the chosen path into Wilmington, it takes you over Cape Fear and into Historic Downtown. But I didn't stop downtown at first...I drove straight to the beach...Wrightsville Beach, which is about 8 miles from Wilmington proper. I arrived around 6pm, checked out the beach and walked along Johnny Mercer's fishing pier.
view of bridge over Cape Fear as seen from the Waterfront.
Voyager Carolina on Cape Fear (from Waterfront)
As I was strolling along the waterfront I noticed a crowd milling around a stage. There was about to be a live show, so I found a place on the steps where many others had staked their territory and asked a gentlemen if this was a festival or something they do on an annual basis. He siad, "no, they have live music on the waterfront every Friday night during the summer". AWESOME! For those of you who know me, know I love live music. Tonight featured, "Same as it Ever Was", a band committed to Talking Heads cover songs. I sat back and enjoyed the show.
from the steps looking out toward the cape; voyager in the background.
I actually think I took a picture very similar to this when I was in Hawaii.
Same picture with camera set on 'sunset' mode....still figuring out the camera.
band and crowd
I had checked into a hotel earlier in the day, so when I was heading back I was reflecting on the day in Wilmington. From the moment I crossed over Cape Fear I felt like this was a place I could stay. There was a natural small town feel even though there are 93,000 plus people living there. The layout of the town/city; the feel, the people, the character just absolutely made me feel "at home". I decided to stay a second night to check out the community some more.
On Saturday morning I woke up and drove downtown to walk around in the daylight.
residential sidewalk near downtown
waterfront walkway
alley from front street to water street
Chandler's Wharf along Cape Fear
This is just a door on an abandoned building, and I love it.
After downtown I spent the rest of the day driving around and getting familiar with the area, the neighborhoods and becoming more and more convinced this is the place I want to stay.
On Sunday morning I naturally woke up around 6am and decided to go to the beach. At 6:30 in the morning there were a few people fishing off the pier, a few people running, a few people walking, one man was taking photographs, one guy was sleeping and another was already in his beach chair lathering on the sunscreen. I sat and stretched, watching the sun rise over the ocean. Finally, a beautiful sunrise, I grabbed my camera to take a picture and...."need to replace batteries". But that is ok, because by this time I had decided Wilmington was the place and therefore, I would have plenty of opportunity to capture the sunrise.
With my decision to settle into Wilmington for a while I decided to go back to Durham where I could stay with Jenn while searching for a job and a place to live. However, my travels are not over....they have only just begun.
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