Port City

Last weekend, I had a highly anticipated trip to Wilmington with my friend Emily. She grew up there and most of her family and friends still live there, so it was pretty sweet to get an insider's tour of the city. The highlight of the weekend was having zero parenting responsibilities. Jonathan and I did some time swapping and I'd banked some serious solo parenting hours, so I got to cash them all in and take the whole weekend off. I'll give the full rundown just so I don't forget. 

So Friday after work, we headed over to Emily and Calvin's to get packed up, and get Lola (their dog). We left Raleigh in a strong spring thunderstorm around 7:30, and got to Wilmington around 9:30. Emily drives really, really, really fast. After dropping stuff at Emily's parents' house, we headed downtown to Slice of Life for some pizza and beer, and then did a bit of wandering around in the rain until we ended up at Lula's. The pizza at Slice was amazing. And Lula's is down in a basement underneath The Little Dipper, and it reminded me so much Auntie Mae's in Aggieville. We met up with various friends of Emily and Calvin, and friends of Emily's sister Betsy (who is doing her residency, so all her friends are doctors and they were talking about assisting with laproscopic cholycystectomies and such). 

Blair and I both wore blue maxis and orange cropped cardigans... always fun to walk around town with your twin.

We headed back to the house for some sleep. I woke up at about 7 on Saturday and felt AMAZING. I didn't know I could sleep that late. I thought it was not actually physically possible. Of course no one else was awake, because 7 isn't exactly "sleeping on a Saturday" for most people. So I just hung out and watched HGTV and no one said MOMMYMOMMYMOMMY and it was so very nice.

After a trip to Trader Joe's to get a birthday gift for Emily's older sister, we got ready to head to the beach. We grabbed some amazing sandwiches at Chops, some cheap beer from the Food Dog, and took the back roads to reach Kure Beach in pretty much no time at all.

Wishing I could just eat my computer screen. If you to Wilmington, eat at Chops!

Commence the hanging out on the beach, listening to music, people watching, jumping in the Atlantic to cool off. Repeat. Amazing. I told Emily that if we could all just live on the beach, no one would need therapy. It was so, so, so nice. After we were sufficiently hot and my legs were on the verge of lobster status (note to self: SUNSCREEN), we packed up and headed back to the house for a birthday dinner for Emily and her sister. I got to meet her nephews and more friends, we did a bit of swimming in the pool, and then we geared up for the proper downtown Wilmington crawl. I had to visit all the places I've heard so much about from Emily and Calvin. We stated at Jacob and Kim's house and then walked to The Goat, where we pretty much had the place to ourselves. 

The gang, minus Emily, outside the Goat. 

 After that we made the long walk to The Blind Elephant speakeasy lounge. Because walking is always more fun with music, I decided to play Girl Talk the whole way there. I think it really spiced up the trek. The Elephant was really cool. Lots of people in flapper gear and incredibly strong, tasty cocktails. We didn't stay too long because it was packed, so we headed to another place nearby where I ordered water and got the scarlet letter of water-in-bar orders: the red solo cup. You could tell at a glance who was drinking water. Anyway, this bar had skee-ball, which is brilliant. But we had places to be, so we finished our drinks and walked over to the infamous Duck and Dive. I met Fred the cockroach, hung out on the patio, and sipped my delicious water while people-watching and noticing that my legs were literally (not literally) on fire. We grabbed a cab home, I tried to sleep on the kitchen floor but Emily convinced me to go to bed, and we all woke up around 10 the next morning.

10.

TEN.

A miracle.

And then, it was time for Sunday brunch. I have been on this planet for 31 years. I have eaten millions of approximately 33,945 meals. But brunch at The Basics? It was without question the best meal I've had in my entire life. I'm not kidding. I had the crabcake benedict. And coffee. And a mango mimosa. And all I can say is that if you're ever in Wilmington you HAVE to go to The Basics for brunch. It's not even an option.

I'm so sad that I'm not eating this right now. 

Feeling much more alive, we walked off brunch, checking out the Riverwalk and various little shops, until we made our way to the Shuckin' Shack Oyster Bar. 

River Walk

I decided to try an oyster. The flavor was fine. The texture was like chewing on a ball of semi-solid nasal mucous. Would not repeat. We watched North Korea and Algeria in the world cup. We ate delicious shrimp. We were exhausted and went back to the house for a nap. 

I woke up from the nap in time to see Portugal make that last-minute goal and tie the game. We packed up, grabbed the Cook-Out (did you know that they have tasty chicken quesadillas?!), and headed home.