A Little Fun ... A Little Sun ... A Little Moon

That’s a not-so-good picture I took of the eclipse yesterday, but, hey, I’m no Ansel Adams, so there. Carlos’ office closed early and had a bit of a BBQ-Viewing Party, featuring Sun Pop—and Diet Sun Pop, a woman exclaimed—and Moon Pies for dessert. It was a cool experience watching the sun disappear—and I kinda wished that when the sun came back our long national nightmare ... _____ ... would be over; but, alas.

Tuxedo went into hiding as soon as the suitcases appeared last week and stayed there until it was time to say Goodbye ... and then he came out for Angry Smooches.

Off we went to ... Wilmington, North Carolina, right along the Cape Fear River. Carlos had to attend a seminar there and I tagged along for some time off. They say—and I don’t know who ‘they’ are—that Wilmington is a little like Charleston, but in reality, Wilmington is a little like Charleston’s older spinster sister who never got out much. It’s cute—lots of great restaurant, brew pubs and bars—but it lacks the elegance of Charleston, the snootiness if you will.

We stayed at the Hilton Riverside, right along Cape Fear River, though we had the ‘historical’ view and not the ‘water’ view; meaning we saw Old Town Wilmington, which actually was a pretty sight.

While Carlos was in meetings from 9 to 5, I wandered the Riverwalk and throughout the downtown area; Wilmington is an old city, so the architecture of the buildings and the houses is really something; it’s also known as Church City because it has so many churches and while I am not a fan of much of what goes on inside a church, I do love the architecture of them.

And I do love a good old church cemetery, to, though this one was gated and I couldn’t go inside.

Wilmington has some gorgeous homes in the historic district, as well as this Confederate Monument on 3rd Street, and not one protestor demanding it be removed ... yet.

I love this building—the original County courthouse—because of the architecture, of course, and because it looks strikingly similar in size and deign to the Bellingham Courthouse where Carlos and I were married; it was kinda fun seeing the sister building on this coast.

We found several very cool places to eat and drink and drink, from Tapas and Shrimp and Grits ...

to Reuben’s and Brisket sandwiches and beer, to pizza and beer, to pub food and wine; you could definitely eat your way through Old Town.

After Carlos’s meetings were done we stayed an extra day-and-a-half and we got to have some fun time, and relaxing time, and shopping time, and just get away time.

Then, after a two day work week, and a six-day weekend, it was time to return to real life ...

.

Luckily we’re off to Charleston next week, so there’s’ that!