h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Back to the trip...

The 15th was the one day that we had planned out before the trip--we found something that looked cool, that was free, and is open Tuesday through Saturday.

The girls got to ride their first ferry, from Southport, North Carolina (about half an hour from where we were staying) to Fort Fisher. They thoroughly enjoyed it, though if the ride had been more than the roughly 35 minutes it was, boredom may have started setting in, since the feed-a-coin-into-it telescope was not working (it ate someone else's quarters).

Fort Fisher protected the last open port in the South during the American Civil War. It was the site of the largest amphibious battle of the Civil War. When it fell, the blockade runners could no longer make it to Wilmington, and the war ended about 3 months later. At the site of the old fort, there is a museum, and there are remnants of the earthernwork fortifications. https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/fort-fisher/history

Our next stop was the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher ( http://www.ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher ). That was very good. It has riparian, swamp (Luna the albino alligator!), and 2 stories of marine exhibits--with one tank being 2 stories high. There are loggerhead sea turtles, various sharks (including at least one hammerhead), various rays, horseshoe crabs (in the tidepool touch tank), and much more.

After the aquarium (which we closed out at 5pm) the girls were wanting to boogie board again. We'd put the boards in the trunk, just in case, and we did end up going to Kure Beach, near the pier. Not really near, but certainly in sight of it. It was a bit cooler than it had been a couple days earlier, and the beach was a bit steeper (though still sand), so the girls decided to *not* use the boards, after all--which I think was a wise choice. However, with the beach being steeper, there were a *lot* more shells up where the sand started to flatten out.

Come dinner time, we went to a place in Carolina beach that I can whole-heartedly recommend, Hang Ten Grill. As the name of the place suggests, the food names (especially burger names) are surfing themed, but I don't care how goofy the name is, a burger marinated in soy sauce with wasabi mayo and avocados is wonderful.

We drove the long way back to the AirBnB instead of taking the ferry again, for a change of pace (if we hadn't, we wouldn't've been in Carolina Beach) and so that we wouldn't be tied to the ferry schedule. When we made it back, we packed what we wouldn't need in the morning, to make departure easier, and slept well.

Wow - that was a busy day A great variety of activities, too

So the car went on the ferry with you? The Mersey Ferry doesn't have car transport, but Liverpool is not very far from Southport, Merseyside

Yes, it's a drive-on ferry. Going by the schedule, it seems to be mostly for commuters--it runs more often and for longer on weekdays, though it's not bad on weekends.