Thanksgiving in Wilmington, NC

My wife and I take a trip every Thanksgiving.  Our family is spread out all over the world (well at least California and Japan) and it makes no sense to us to have the traditional Thanksgiving feast for just the two of us.  Usually we travel to Charleston, Savannah or St. Augustine.  Our son that is currently in Japan has mentioned that he may want to attend the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (for surfing reasons, I am sure) so we thought we would go to Wilmington this year.

First we went to the UNC-W campus and I must say it was impressive.  It is a "planned" campus, meaning it is relatively new.  A lot of red brick building and laid out logically as a college campus.  After that we spent the rest of the day in downtown Wilmington.  Wilmington is not a tourist area so the downtown area was deserted.  About the only thing open was the Battleship North Carolina.  The battleship seems to be the biggest attraction in Wilmington.  However, we did not visit it.

Battleship North Carolina

We found a bar open in Carolina Beach and that is where we had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

The next day we went to Wrightsville Beach, NC just to walk along the beach and see the ocean.

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

As you can see, those beaches were also deserted.

The next day we returned home.  Wilmington is a nice place but a little low key (and cold) this time of year.  I am sure there is a lot more going on in the summer months.  I believe we will head further south next Thanksgiving.