TRAVEL DIARY: WILMINGTON + WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH PART 2
After our paddle boarding lesson, we decided to spend an hour at the beach before grabbing a late lunch! I had already decided that I wanted us to visit Poe’s Tavern for lunch after our lesson! I first discovered the restaurant on Instagram after seeing a picture of one of their burgers. I knew I had to have it! Our tour guide from Taste Carolina told us Poe’s was great which was all the confirmation I needed. She did warn us of a long wait so I was a bit worried since we had a full itinerary. Somehow, I was able to quickly get us two seats at the bar even though the wait was crazy long. I held up my phone and asked the bartender “what burger is this? I want it!” He laughed and told me it was “The Sleeper,” a beef burger with roasted garlic blue cheese and buffalo shrimp. OMG! It was so good. I still dream about that burger. Michael got the sesame seared tuna salad and it was really good, too. We also split chips, salsa and guacamole which was fresh and tasty. We can’t say “no” to chips and guac!
After our lunch, we got ready for our sunset cruise with Wrightsville Performance Sailing. Unfortunately, it was so windy that day, we didn’t get a chance to go on our sail. However, they were so nice and let us tour the boat and marina. It’s on our list to do next trip!
For dinner, we visited the Oceanic Restaurant in Wrightsville Beach. The restaurant sits right on the beach. The Oceanic probably has the best view of any restaurant in Wrightsville Beach. We grabbed a seat on the deck overlooking the beach and it was perfect. We ate at 5:30pm and were able to catch a peek of the sunset over the Intracoastal Waterway during dinner. I saw another table eating the lobster rolls appetizer and they looked so good, I had to order them! They were really good. We also ordered the calamari appetizer. For our entrees, I ordered the seared scallops limoncello risotto cake and sriracha lemon butter sauce and Michael ordered the Eastern NC watermelon & grilled shrimp salad feta cheese, cucumber, pickled red onion, fresh mint, sunflower seeds, arugula with balsamic glaze. The perfect dinner! For dessert, we headed back to Wilmington and grabbed vegan ice cream from Boombalatti’s Homemade Ice Cream and walked back to our hotel.
On Sunday, we tried to squeeze in a few more stops before we headed home! We woke up early to journey to Carolina Beach and get some donuts from Britt’s Donut Shop! The drive was only 20 minutes and there was no traffic on our way. Britt’s is a very popular staple so there was already a pretty long line when we got there. We ordered half a dozen donuts and some waters and ate our donuts on the boardwalk. They were the best donuts I have ever had! If you can stop there, you should. Just remember to bring cash. They don’t take credit cards. When we got back to Wilmington, we went to Bespoke Coffee & Dry Goods so I could grab a hot chocolate. I love hot chocolate with my donuts and I’m not a big coffee drinker. Bespoke had a cool vibe and a surprising amount of vegan offerings. I ordered a hot chocolate with almond milk and we grabbed some vegan pastries to take home with us. So yummy!
During our gourmet food tour on Friday night, we passed by a really cool t-shirt shop called HeyTVM. We made a point to visit before we left so Sunday morning was perfect. We dropped in and grabbed some cool hats, t-shirts and postcards. I love to collect t-shirts and hats from our travels. I think we are building quite the t-shirt and baseball cap collection between the two of us.
Before we left town, we stopped by Robert’s Grocery. I have LOVED Robert’s Grocery chicken salad for years. There are only a handful of places to grab some here. If we had more time, we would’ve grabbed some magazines and smoothies too and headed to the beach. I recommend stopping by Robert’s and grabbing snacks for the beach. I purchased one of their delicious ice cream sandwiches, for the road.
Thank you Wilmington and Beaches CVB for sponsoring this post!