Hello lovelies! This whole week we are on vacation, but I can’t resist posting this fun peek at our time in Carolina Beach, NC.

One of the first things we did was stop at the Fort Fisher Aquarium. No matter how many aquariums I go to, I will always love going to see all the different species of wildlife, and marine life.

The albino alligators are my favorite. Alligators are quite a bit smaller than their crocodile friends. You had to really squint to see that little tree frog on the left. He is definitely the master of hiding from predators. This little green snake on your right stared very intensely at my camera when I pointed it at him. I don’t think he appreciated his photo being taken.

Every time I went to snap a good photo of this sea turtle he would turn his head, and start swimming away.  The stingray up top was all too happy to have his photograph Very curious little creatures. The starfish is my favorite! 

It’s amazing how well they feed these sharks so they don’t attack the smaller fish swimming with them. Sharks are not like people, they don’t have to snack in between meals.  Seeing the kids reactions are always priceless. Most of them are seeing the aquarium for the first time. 

Love these jellies. So beautiful, and vibrant against that bright blue background.  Mikey, and a couple more of the divers at the aquarium put on a Q&A + Feeding Display for the kids to watch.  We found these cute little turtles just sunbathing outside, as we made our way toward the exits. A few of them came swimming over to see if we had any food for them.

Our next stop was at the beach not even a mile up the road from the aquarium. At the time not very many people were there, so it felt nice, and not overly crowded.

It started getting a little dark, so we thought it could storm. Luckily it did not, but we made it back to our hotel room just in time before the rain hit. That’s all it did for about an hour was just rain. I took a nice nap, felt refreshed then we headed back out to enjoy the evening.

The next morning we headed out to the Kure Beach Pier, and this was what I was greeted with. Ohhhh, so beautiful, and peaceful!

It was amazing how far you could see just standing up on the pier.  This guy was trying to catch a wave the whole time we were there. There were a lot of junk waves, but he did manage to catch one good one, as you can see below.  After enjoyed a nice morning at the pier, we headed to Downtown Wilmington so we could catch the Henrietta III cruise and lunch. We had an hour to kill before we boarded, so we walked around the downtown area. 

I didn’t get time to go into this boutique, but I loved the colors, and display in the window. So cute!
The horse-drawn trolley just finished their tour when we were entering.  The smells coming from this store were heavenly! It wasn’t a strong spice smell, so it didn’t overwhelm you when you walked past it. Unlike some stores who over-scent their location(Abercrombie & Fitch), this smell made you want to come in.  This beautiful hidden treasure was simply called, “The Coffee Shoppe”. Decorated with artwork, and local photographs. And the sign outside this shop made it feel so personal, as if you would walk in, and they already knew your name.

I tried the French Vanilla Frapp., and it was delicious! I love discovering places like this. It’s not a very touristy place, but rather a taste of the local flavor.

I honestly wish I could think of this artist for the life of me, because I wanted you to check out their work. I’ve been searching for hours, and still haven’t found any information about the artist. 🙁 But their work was really beautiful.  So I was pretty much in love with this sun hat, and it worked well, except for when the wind would pick up. But I wanted to wear something that was cool, but still looked stylish. 🙂  The next few photos were taken aboard the Henrietta III. I didn’t photograph our lunch because I wanted to have that time to just enjoy my family, and our time together.

There are so many Cyprus trees around that the main river is often nicknamed, “The Golden River”, because the sap gets into the river. Just over this little marsh area is where another body of water joins this one, and is called, “The Black River”. There are more Cyprus trees over in that area, and their is so much sap that gets into the river it literally looks much darker than this one.  The day after, and sadly our last day we did board the U.S.S. North Carolina. It was very hot, and humid that day so I did not take quite as many photographs. It became quite miserable to be on the deck, and felt worse inside because of the lack of air. It gave you a sense of what our poor navy had to go through during W.W. II.

I hope that you have enjoyed these images from my little travel diary, and there will be a vlog soon so be looking out for that. It will probably be posted next week.

What place do you recommend I travel to next? Leave a comment down below. I love traveling, and really hope to start traveling more soon. 

Love,