The Chef and I are home one week now after our exploratory trip down in Wilmington, North Carolina, where we’ll soon count ourselves as residents among the local population. David had some promising interviews and we managed to find a place to live, a gigantic list item ticked. These images were made on a single sweltering, windy afternoon, really the only time we were actively engaged as tourists. On another rainy afternoon I made this website for David so prospects would have a handy link to some of his work. Disclaimer: I’m not a web designer, but still managed somehow to at least get the job done.

I’ve never seen Wrightsville Beach so crowded, nor so windy; still picking grains of sand out of my camera bag and the crown on my Apple watch. But after the year that was 2020, simply sitting on the beach under the shade of an umbrella was so restorative.

Wilmington has sprawl, not unlike my erstwhile hometown of Knoxville, and so I’ll get used to the traffic that comes with that again. The scenery helps make up for it.

We stayed at a fabulous, peaceful Airbnb that was perfect for us. After our day at the beach we left supper to the professionals at Topsail Steamer, an interesting dining concept aimed more at feeding a crowd than a couple. We managed to stretch it into several meals.

The balance of our week away was devoted to time spent with my kiddo over in Asheville, about which more soon, together with some observations about travel during COVID.