My “big trip” for 2026 looked a lot different than my usual solo adventures. My cousin currently living in South Carolina hosted her wedding just outside of Charleston in late September. I was thrilled for a return trip to charming Charleston, and my family decided to make a full road trip of it, with stops both before and after the wedding. And that meant traveling with the whole fam – mom, dad, sister, and brother-in-law. On the way down, we made one stop to check out Wilmington, North Carolina, making the ~8 hour Wilmington-to-Wilmington drive from our hometown in Delaware. We stayed two nights, arriving into town on the first evening, spending a full day checking out the city, and departing for Charleston on the third day.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn Wilmington-University Area/Smith Creek Station, which is conveniently located halfway between downtown Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, both areas that we checked out during our stay. The hotel is located in a commercial area near the University of North Carolina Wilmington campus, so there were plenty of restaurants around – after a long day of driving, we didn’t feel like venturing far and settled for the Buffalo Wild Wings across the parking lot from the hotel. We also frequented the hotel’s lobby bar a few times while we were there, enjoying some local craft brews served by a friendly bartender. The highlight of our stay, however, was the rubber ducks that the hotel had in each guestroom and around the lobby – one of whom became my new travel companion, Cletus, appearing in my travel photos throughout the rest of the trip. He is now the other “C” in my C to Shining C.
In the morning we hit the ground running with a visit to the Battleship North Carolina, the first of a class of ten fast naval battleships to join the fight in World War II. The USS North Carolina was deployed to the Pacific Theater after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and served in every major naval offensive to become the most decorated American battleship of World War II. Today it’s docked on the Cape Fear River just across from downtown Wilmington. Aside from my interest in World War II history, the battleship had been on my visit list ever since I saw it on an episode of Ghost Hunters years ago, though we didn’t encounter anything spooky during our visit. The self-guided tour of the ship takes you through nine levels – be warned that this means a ton of steep, narrow staircases, so you can skip leg day at the gym that day. I thought that I might become a ghost myself on a few of the staircases. In some areas, you can forego parts of the tour requiring more stairs and still meet back up with your group later on the tour, which was a relief to my mom who tired of the stairs quickly. Back up on the main deck, we walked all the way up to the bow, where we could see an alligator down below, sparking our realization that we were in gator country.
We had worked up an appetite on all those stairs, so we headed across the bridge to downtown Wilmington and had lunch at Rebellion NC, a whiskey bar with a great food menu. I had The Stahlburger, which came loaded with smoked jalapeno cream cheese, candied bacon, and arugula. I paired it with a big bowl of potato salad. Heavenly!
After lunch, we did some wandering around town. Rebellion is located on Front Street, which has a main street feel and is lined with shops and restaurants – on a future visit, I would love to come back and bar-hop here. We headed down to the Cape Fear riverfront, looking across swiftly moving waters at the battleship we had just visited. There is a visitor center at the riverfront, where we picked up a walking map of the town.
We next headed to check out some historic homes and mansions – Wilmington is full of historic architecture, with well-preserved houses from the Victorian and antebellum eras. Our walking path took us past the 1861 Bellamy Mansion with its Corinthian columns, the Georgian-style 1770 Burwin-Wright House, and the Italianate Revival 1852 Latimer House. All three houses are open for tours, but since we were limited on time in Wilmington we passed on touring and simply admired them from the sidewalk.
After a while of walking, with approaching rain and tired feet, we started heading back towards Front Street and stopped off in Ponysaurus Brewing Company, who have two other locations in Raleigh and Durham. With too many beers on the menu that sounded good, I landed on doing a flight, with my favorite being the mango guava wit.
We headed back to the hotel for an hour to freshen up before venturing back out for dinner. Just before sunset, we headed into Wrightsville Beach, a 4.6 mile-long beach island just east of Wilmington. We parked at Oceanic restaurant and before heading in to dinner, set foot on the beach and admired the water that is somehow a brighter blue-green than the same Atlantic Ocean we see back home up north. Even with storms in the distance and a cloud-covered sunset, it was a gorgeous seascape. We opted for deck seating at the restaurant despite some pretty strong wind gusts and enjoyed some delicious seafood – I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on some shrimp and grits being back in low country. After dinner, we walked the pier out over the dark waters.
Before leaving town the next day, we had one last stop. We had lunch at Cook Out, a southern fast food chain originating in Greensboro, North Carolina known for its burgers and BBQ. My burger was delicious, and at $50 for a family of 5, Cook Out came in as the cheapest meal we would have on the entire trip.
Between WWII history, historic architecture, local craft brews, and coastal views, Wilmington proved to be so much more than just a pitstop on our way south. It’s a city I’d gladly return to for a longer stay (and a proper Front Street bar crawl!).
With full bellies and Cletus joining the ranks as my official co-pilot, it was time to set our sights south toward Charleston for the main event: wedding weekend!
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