Back from vacation
inspiredsports
Posts: 5,501
Wow!
My wife, 3 daughters. son and I just spent 10 amazing days in Wilmington, NC.
This vacation evolved as a dart thrown at the board. We've vacationed in Hawaii every odd year since 2004, but it wasn't financially in the cards for 2010. I know the mountainous western end of NC pretty well, but the home we were going to rent there ended up being rented before we made up our minds. My wife suggested the coast, but the homes there were 3X more than my budget. Then Wilmington came up; 1/3 the price of Wrightsville / Carolina Beach / Surf City / etc., and only a 15 minute drive.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR OWN WILMINGTON RESIDENT TONY MILLARD for a slew of great recommendations. I'm embarrassed I didn't get a chance to stop by, but you know how vacations go.
The large, gracious city home (with pool/sauna/hot tub
) we rented was located in the historic Carolina Heights neighborhood.
We swam in our pool several times each day and made the reasonable drives to the beautiful white sand beaches at Surf City, Topsail Beach, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Fort Fisher SRA.
We grilled steaks, chicken and ribs and went through several 6 packs of beer, Mikes Hard Lemonade and 2 gallons rum and vodka mixed into every iced summer drink imaginable
.
Wilmington has great food, great shopping, beautiful southern architecture, boat rides and gambling on the Cape Fear River/Atlantic, and lots of Civil War era history. We also discovered the TV show "One Tree Hill" is filmed there and my 3 girls are huge fans so we visited about 20 locations where various scenes were shot since the show premiered in 2003. Dawson's Creek was also filmed in Wilmington.
One amazing side note: The home had a decent stereo system I suffered through for the duration of our stay. When I cranked my system up today, it was (still is) an aural ****. Such Good Sound Quality. Coming home to my rig was my favorite part of the vacation 
My wife, 3 daughters. son and I just spent 10 amazing days in Wilmington, NC.
This vacation evolved as a dart thrown at the board. We've vacationed in Hawaii every odd year since 2004, but it wasn't financially in the cards for 2010. I know the mountainous western end of NC pretty well, but the home we were going to rent there ended up being rented before we made up our minds. My wife suggested the coast, but the homes there were 3X more than my budget. Then Wilmington came up; 1/3 the price of Wrightsville / Carolina Beach / Surf City / etc., and only a 15 minute drive.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR OWN WILMINGTON RESIDENT TONY MILLARD for a slew of great recommendations. I'm embarrassed I didn't get a chance to stop by, but you know how vacations go.
The large, gracious city home (with pool/sauna/hot tub
) we rented was located in the historic Carolina Heights neighborhood.We swam in our pool several times each day and made the reasonable drives to the beautiful white sand beaches at Surf City, Topsail Beach, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Fort Fisher SRA.
We grilled steaks, chicken and ribs and went through several 6 packs of beer, Mikes Hard Lemonade and 2 gallons rum and vodka mixed into every iced summer drink imaginable
.Wilmington has great food, great shopping, beautiful southern architecture, boat rides and gambling on the Cape Fear River/Atlantic, and lots of Civil War era history. We also discovered the TV show "One Tree Hill" is filmed there and my 3 girls are huge fans so we visited about 20 locations where various scenes were shot since the show premiered in 2003. Dawson's Creek was also filmed in Wilmington.
One amazing side note: The home had a decent stereo system I suffered through for the duration of our stay. When I cranked my system up today, it was (still is) an aural ****
. Such Good Sound Quality. Coming home to my rig was my favorite part of the vacation VTL ST50 w/mods / RCA6L6GC / TlfnknECC801S
Conrad Johnson PV-5 w/mods
TT Conrad Johnson Sonographe SG3 Oak / Sumiko LMT / Grado Woodbody Platinum / Sumiko PIB2 / The Clamp
Musical Fidelity A1 CDPro/ Bada DD-22 Tube CDP / Conrad Johnson SD-22 CDP
Tuners w/mods Kenwood KT5020 / Fisher KM60
MF x-DAC V8, HAInfo NG27
Herbies Ti-9 / Vibrapods / MIT Shotgun AC1 IEC's / MIT Shotgun 2 IC's / MIT Shotgun 2 Speaker Cables
PS Audio Cryo / PowerPort Premium Outlets / Exact Power EP15A Conditioner
Walnut SDA 2B TL /Oak SDA SRS II TL (Sonicaps/Mills/Cardas/Custom SDA ICs / Dynamat Extreme / Larry's Rings/ FSB-2 Spikes
NAD SS rigs w/mods
GIK panels
Conrad Johnson PV-5 w/mods
TT Conrad Johnson Sonographe SG3 Oak / Sumiko LMT / Grado Woodbody Platinum / Sumiko PIB2 / The Clamp
Musical Fidelity A1 CDPro/ Bada DD-22 Tube CDP / Conrad Johnson SD-22 CDP
Tuners w/mods Kenwood KT5020 / Fisher KM60
MF x-DAC V8, HAInfo NG27
Herbies Ti-9 / Vibrapods / MIT Shotgun AC1 IEC's / MIT Shotgun 2 IC's / MIT Shotgun 2 Speaker Cables
PS Audio Cryo / PowerPort Premium Outlets / Exact Power EP15A Conditioner
Walnut SDA 2B TL /Oak SDA SRS II TL (Sonicaps/Mills/Cardas/Custom SDA ICs / Dynamat Extreme / Larry's Rings/ FSB-2 Spikes
NAD SS rigs w/mods
GIK panels