surf city was stop #3, week 4. Honestly, it really was my favorite stop on the trip. I’m not sure what in particular drew me here, may8it was just my first beach spot and I knew I had to be by the ocean. The spot was absolutely perfect for both work and play. It was silent all day long. And evening time was also peaceful, just a bit busier. The camping spot was perfect in all the ways. Location and view, a few short term neighbors on the weekends but during the week I had a whole corner area to myself. At night along the marsh you could see little crabs reaching out of their holes LOL

I was also literally FIVE minutes from the beach and 24 hour pier. I was able to get in morning walks on the beach before work and spend the entire evening eating and walking the beach. There were tons of food options right at the beach.

I arrived Saturday afternoon, as I will at each new spot along my trip, Saturday is travel day for my life on this trip and this bronze challenges with each one. It also meant exhaustion but pushing forward anyways. If I had it to do over with the choice, I’d have stayed in each spot for 2 weeks. But that’s a budgeting of time and resources with much more plan and forethought, which wasn’t available to me when I set out.

anyways, on that Sunday, I was able to drive in to Wilmington and meet my aunt Saralyn (very affectionately to my, my Mitzie) she is, to me, the big sister I always wanted :). We had not seen each other in way too many years, and this was why I added this stop to my trip in the first place! We had the most wonderful time catching up and I am SO thankful we had this time together. She showed me all of the wonderful things about Wilmington too, we had such a wonderful walk through downtown and checking out (and cooling off) in the shops 🙂 And we got matching ankle bracelets to commemorate our visit ????

(spoiler alert) honestly, if Surf City wasn’t such a drive from Memphis, this would have been where we landed come October ????????????????

ok. Trying to think of meals I ate on this leg. Pizza, there was a great pizza spot right along the road up to the pier. I ate here twice during my week and loved it. The at Oswald great, a mix of local regulars and tourists, the beer was a good local craft selection (a must for a pizza joint imho) and a fast, right sized, crispy crusted custom. Fast pizza and beers so I can get to the beach for good beach time before dark!

the 24 hour pier was my wide awake at midnight crazy dream. I had to resist multiple times from spending money on sea fishing gear, which in hindsight, would have been a better investment than I thought.