Day Tripin'

Last week during our vacation to Holden Beach in North Carolina, we had a few stormy and rainy days. Luckily there weren't any huge downpours that lasted all day, but toward the end of the week the weather was overcast with off and on light rain. On Friday, we decided to jump on the car and head north to the community of Southport, which is a lovely marina town located on the Cape Fear River.

On the way up to Southport, JJ and I stopped off at a few beach towns and enjoyed spending the day together on our last day of vacation. Our first stop was at the Island Brew coffee house in Oak Island. With yummy lattes in our hands, we cruised over to Beach Road and admired all the great ocean front houses and stopped off at one of the public beach access spots to grab a few photos.

Just north of Oak Island, is a small beach called Caswell Beach. JJ's family vacationed here once when he was younger and he remembered seeing lots of wildlife near the houses close to the ocean. This beach is also home to the Oak Island Lighthouse, which sits on property owned by the US Coast Guard. This lighthouse is one of 6 operating lighthouses in NC.

We then headed up to Southport, in hope of catching the ferry over to Bald Head Island. What I didn't know was that the ferry only runs until around 5pm and we didn't get into to Southport until 2:30ish and we were starving for some good lunch! We opted to save the trip over to Bald Head until next summer and make it a day trip, giving us plenty of time to enjoy the island and tour Old Baldy Lighthouse. (A former co-worker and friend is very familiar with Bald Head Island, so Blond Across the Pond, I'll need the lowdown on the must-do's before our trip next year!)

Our first stop in Southport was at the Visitor's Center, where we gathered some maps and then we headed over to the Fishy Fishy Cafe for lunch along the river. This place was great! The lunch menu offers tasty seafood choices and there was a nice selection of beer & wine to choose from making for a relaxing afternoon along the waterfront. I had the Shrimp BLT, which was fresh sauteed shrimp, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and a basil aioli sauce wrapped in a flour tortilla. JJ had the Fried Shrimp platter and this was some very good fried shrimp. The breading they used was a very light and almost had a flaky texture, not like that thick breading you'll find where you can't really taste the shrimp. Fishy Fishy Cafe has a nice lightly seasoned breading that compliments the taste of the shrimp. Not only was the food great, we enjoyed the nice laid back atmosphere out on their covered porch watching the fishing boats getting ready to take to the sea. I'd definitely recommend checking this restaurant out if you ever visit Southport, NC.
After lunch we road around the quaint town, checking out all the cute shops. The town is made up of tree lined streets, and beautiful historic homes. If it hadn't been rainy, we would have probably done the walking tour that the visitor's society recommends. Instead, we stayed dry and drove the streets of Southport to check out this charming community. I did grab this nice picture of one of the many trees that line the sidewalks. The limbs of the tress on each side of the walkway create this beautiful canopy effect as you walk along these streets.

I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour of the Southport, NC area. Check it out someday if you're ever in the southeastern coast of North Carolina, I think you'd enjoy it in person as much as I did.