Brandy Metzger
Oak Island Lighthouse
I decided that this summer my family and I would visit some locations within an hour of downtown Wilmington. Since I have always loved the quaint town of Southport, we decided to make that our first day trip. Because of its proximity to Oak Island, we also incorporated that into our visit.
Southport
Southport is such a lovely small town that is beautiful to drive and walk through. On the day of our visit, we parked out car and headed down to Waterfront Park which is located on the Cape Fear River. This unique park has wooden "porch" swings and benches set up along the river for guests to relax and enjoy the spectacular views. It also has a public fishing pier in which visitors can fish for free. My husband and I enjoyed relaxing while our 5 year old fed and chased birds.
Lunch time was upon us and we had a variety of restaurants to choose from. There are seafood restaurants along the river and many other culinary options available all within walking distance of the riverfront. We chose an old favorite, The Trolley Stop. This NC chain of hot dog restaurants, which originated in Wrightsville Beach, always provides excellent gourmet hot dogs. The Southport location is small but provided enough seating for those who wished to sit.
After lunch, we decided to wander around the downtown area. We happened upon many unique shops such as The Christmas House, The Prissy Parrot and my favorite Bullfrog Corner. This shop is fun for kids and adults. It is filled with candy, toys and books for kids of all ages. There is so much to see, you could spend an hour looking around!
Oak Island
In search of a more natural setting after browsing through some unique shops, we jumped in the car and headed toward Oak Island which is a short drive from Southport. Our first stop was at the Oak Island Nature Center. I had read about the center on visitnc.com and was excited to see what it had to offer. However, when we reached the site, the building was closed. We decided to check out the "talking tree" trail and unfortunately only one tree "talked" to us. The others were not functioning.
Disappointed in that stop, we headed over to the Oak Island lighthouse. My 5 year old had never seen a real lighthouse, so this was exciting for her. The lighthouse is open for tours on Wednesday and Saturday during select hours but since we were there on a Sunday, we could not get into the lighthouse. For hours of operation visit http://www.oakislandlighthouse.org/history/
Directly across from the lighthouse is a public beach access which we used to enjoy the sand and sun. Oak Island is a quiet family beach that offers a pleasant change of pace from busy, commercialized beaches. We enjoyed our time there and will definitely visit again soon!
