Carolinas Trip

This post is quite belated but I wanted to take a bit of time to talk about my recent trip to the Carolinas to see family. As I was deliberating over where I wanted to go for my winter break from college, I realized it had been a long time since I visited them and figured it be a pleasant opportunity.

I had my eye on flights for a few months because prices fluctuated a lot. It was actually my first time booking a flight and flying by myself, so I was a bit nervous about getting lost in the airport or missing my flight but I didn’t have any issues. For some reason I actually really like the atmosphere of airports in general. If I had to travel for work or deal with layovers frequently I’m sure it would wear off.

Greensboro

For the first few days I hung out around Greensboro and visited family. Back west we don’t have Bojangles, KFC is hit or miss, and Cane’s is expensive. So, in true American fashion the first thing I do after sitting on a plane all morning is to get some good fried chicken.

Downtown Greensboro was nice to walk around and I enjoyed the Guilford Courthouse Military park. Lot of interesting displays on the Revolutionary War.

Winston-Salem

Before heading east to the beach, my grandmother showed me around Old Salem. The district had a lot of cool historic buildings and is more or less untouched. Apparently they throw a lot of themed events on holidays and weekends, but we went during a weekday afternoon so things were pretty quiet.

We got a few cookies and cakes from a Morrovian bakery that still had the original stone oven.

Myrtle Beach

After visiting family I drove out east to Myrtle Beach just across the state line. It’s definitely not a winter town, things were very sleepy but most businesses were still open and there were quite a few people out and about on the boardwalk.

Myrtle Beach is a pretty popular summer and spring break destination for a lot of families. I certainly went a lot when I was younger. But in the winter things are much more relaxed. The water is pretty cold and I wouldn’t want to swim in it, but if you just want a cheap spot to be near the ocean, play some minigolf, and get seafood then it’s still a nice option.

Another thing we don’t have back west are Cookout restaurants. With how expensive a lot of fast food is getting, Cookout still seems to be fairly priced and pretty good. I like their milkshakes, and I can’t really think of another fast food restaurant that has as much variety except the expensive ones like Culver’s and Freddy’s.

Wilmington

Perhaps the thing I was most excited about was driving up to Wilmington to see the USS North Carolina museum. I’m not very interested in military history in general but I find the engineering that went into old battleships to be quite fascinating. I visited the Yorktown when I was a kid and always wanted to visit another one. The self-guided tour through the ship was fantastic and you can tell that a lot of work and care went into it.

It was a bit overcast but wasn’t supposed to rain until later in the afternoon. The tour takes you around the top deck of the ship and all over inside, including the engine room, bunk rooms, galley, and other areas. All in all I think I spent 3 or 4 hours in there.

Rather than drive back down to Myrtle Beach on US-17 the way I came up, I decided to drive down US-421 through Carolina and Kure Beach. Living in the middle of the desert, I have had nearly zero exposure to ferries in my life and have never used a drive-on one. I know a lot of people commute using ferries and they’re pretty boring, but I found the novelty of it to be fun. It had just started to rain as we crossed the Cape Fear River and was pretty much pouring by the time I got back to Myrtle Beach.

Calabash

The next day before driving back west to fly out I saw some family around Calabash. It’s a pleasant town on the waterway known for its seafood. I visited here a lot of times growing up so it felt a bit weird to be back years later. I had some very nice fried fish at a seafood restaurant and enjoyed the sunset. The atmosphere was really nice.

My last stop before driving back was the Calabash Creamery. Whenever I would visit family we’d always stop here, and I have pictures of me eating ice cream from here dating as far back as 2008 I believe. Prices are still great, and they have a lot of cool flavors. I remember the cinnamon roll flavor being quite good.

Conclusion