Wilmington + Carolina Beach [Part 1]

"There are too many North Carolina beaches for you to see in your four years here."

I can't tell you how many times I'd heard such a phrase. As someone who was born and raised in the land-locked state of Kentucky I don't think my brain had really processed this thought. We now live in a state on the East Coast, and that's pretty dang cool. What better way to relish in our staycation than a quick trip to the beach!

Wilmington, NC was the closest beach destination, I'd been told, so this is where our beach journey begins. A quick 2.5 hr (or so) drive - which is ludicrous compared to the minimum 9 hours we previously experienced in Kentucky, and you're suddenly on a gorgeous beach in a quaint town with history.

We started our day at the Eternal Sunshine café. Keep in mind, this is one of the first big cheat meals we've had since starting Whole30, and breakfast is our favorite meal by a long shot. Eternal Sunshine had an entire menu for eggs Benedict (my favorite!!).

Parker got the Kickin' Benedict with jalapeño toast, house-made sausage, and chipotle hollandaise with a side of grits with pimento cheese. Grits and pimento cheese are not necessarily my favorite foods, but put them together and magic happens.

I got the Eternal Sunshine Benedict with a croissant, avocado, bacon, and classic hollandaise with a side of "home fries" that were really skillet potatoes. I think we can all agree that anything with bacon on it is only going to be better than the original (unless you don't eat pork, then I get that). Also I am officially an avocado fanatic thanks to Whole30.

After brunch, we changed into our swimsuits and took the 20 min drive to the Carolina Beach Fishing Pier. It. Was. Gorgeous. The pier reaches out about 700 ft into the Atlantic and is sturdy but just worn enough by storms to have some serious character. There were an impressive number of legitimate fishermen on the pier as well. I only wish we could've seen someone catch something really exciting.

I honestly wonder what these men behind me do for real life jobs as this was a casual Thursday morning and they were doing some serious fishing. 

This time a random stranger graciously offered to take our picture. 

But what I would've paid to see a shark come up on someone's fishing rod. Yikes.

Of course you can't go to the beach without some actual beach lazing. We went on a weekday, but with it being peak season, the beach was surprisingly empty and quiet in the best way. Further down from the pier were several cars, almost like a football tailgate, parked in the sand - something I had never seen before. Right in front of where we posted up, there was a nice handful of people surfing. I didn't think this was possible on the Atlantic side of things, but the waves were actually impressive and the current very strong. 

True life: eating Whole30 snacks on the beach. You can't go wrong with baked sweet potato cubes. 

We really got the perfect amount of R&R on the beach and with a drive equivalent to Louisville to Henderson (still blown away by this). After spending a few hours laying out, we headed back to our AirBnB much closer to downtown Wilmington. See more about our evening activities on my next post!