I confess that our original plan was to spend a few days chilling with friends, grownup style, in the gracious, magnolia-shaded southern city of Wilmington, North Carolina. We’d watch the sun rise over the narrow tidal creeks of the Intracoastal Waterway, stroll the historic Riverwalk, admire the 18th century mansions, and feast on fresh-caught seafood and decadent Southern desserts (which we most definitely did). I didn’t expect it to be a family destination. I was so, so wrong. Consider the following:
Battleship North Carolina
Our first clue is the jaw-dropping sight of this ominous 729-foot World War II vessel with an imposing battery of nine 16-inch guns looming 10 stories high over downtown Wilmington. The most decorated ship in the Pacific Theater, she earned 15 battle stars. Besides daily self-guided and docent-led tours, monthly interactive programs take visitors behind the scenes with period-dressed interpreters and interactive living history events. Remaining this year are Battleship 101 on Oct. 12, and Battleship Alive! on Sept. 28 and Dec. 7. BattleshipNC.com
Flesh-Eating Bog Dwellers
Sharp eyes are needed to discover the tiny, wide-open spiked jaws of the Venus flytrap lurking low in the bog along the Flytrap Trail in Carolina Beach State Park, but those lean, mean, red-veined bug-eating machines called green pitcher plants, up to 30 inches high, are easy to spot. Only Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors finds humans tasty, but even touching one of these rare, protected carnivores is a felony and can chomp a big chunk out of your wallet.
Hey, is that Jamie Lynn Spears?
The time-warped beach town of Carolina Beach, with her huge summer pop-up Coney Island-style midway and 50s-era family motels and eateries, along with her laid-back sister, Kure Beach and Fort Fisher four miles down the strand are super-popular film locations. Think Zoe 101 and Zoe 102, Dawson’s Creek, The Summer I turned Pretty, and all those gushy Nicholas Sparks movies. Locals are accustomed to casting calls and working movie crews. I fantasized about being cast as an extra in the adorable doggie-focused rom-com Merv, but alas, production had just wrapped when I arrived.
Pegasus, Penguins, and Octopi Overhead!
Kites are always flying over the windswept North Carolina coast, but families in town Nov. 1-3 shouldn’t miss the Cape Fear Kite Festival, the last event of the professional kite-flying season. Starting with Friday’s “Night with Kites,” the sky is awash with sea creatures, storybook characters, and super-heroes all weekend. Food trucks, live music, and festival booths abound. VisitKureBeachNC.com
Kayaking, Fossil Hunting, and Civil War artifacts
The peaceful bays, marshy creeks, and uninhabited islands fringing the Intracoastal Waterway are a kid-friendly kayaking dream. Check out Zeke’s Island Family Adventure for ages 3 and up at KayakCarolina.com. Finds on Shark’s Tooth Island include Native American, Civil War, and Colonial-era artifacts, megalodon teeth, and – of course – sharks’ teeth. SharksToothIsland.com
Fort Fisher: The End of the Confederacy
Fort Fisher was the last remaining supply route for Robert E. Lee’s blockade runners bringing supplies to Wilmington, which was under siege. On Dec. 24 and 25, 1864, the fort held off 55 Union warships with 600 guns. It was a Christmas miracle! But in January, when 58 more warships showed up, conducting the greatest land-sea bombardment of the Civil War, the fort fell. Three months later, so did the Confederacy.
The Wreck of the Condor and the Lady Spy
North Carolina’s coast has earned its title, Graveyard of the Atlantic, with over 2,000 shipwrecks since the 16th century, including Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge. The famous Confederate blockade runner Condor lies just 24 feet underwater off Fort Fisher’s beach. The only person lost at sea from Condor was a proper socialite-turned-spy named Rose O’Neal Greenhow (aka “The Wild Rose of the Confederacy”). After Condor successfully slipped past the Union blockades, it ran aground. Fearing capture and execution, Rose demanded to be rowed ashore. Tossed by rough seas and weighted down by her billowing skirts with a fortune in heavy gold sewn inside, she drowned. Her Confederate flag-bedecked grave is in Wilmington’s Oakdale Cemetery.
Perfect Short Trail
Fort Fisher State Recreation Area encompasses 300 acres of wide, sandy beaches, sea-oat covered dunes, salt marsh, and maritime forests. My fave is the 2.2-mile Basin Trail that traverses all these ecosystems, including a long, low boardwalk through vast open marshland.
And back downtown…
I love the Wilmington Railroad Museum, ranked among America’s top five. There also are pirate tours, ghost tours, horse-drawn trolley tours, family-friendly foodie and walking tours, and water excursions. In the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science and the Children’s Museum of Wilmington, kids can do cool stuff like crawl into a beaver lodge, feed a Venus flytrap, operate an International Space Station-style robotic arm, brush giant teeth, visit a life-size skeleton, and way more. WilmingtonAndBeaches.com