We recently took a trip to visit the North Carolina coast to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
My husband and I first met in North Carolina when he was stationed at MCAS Cherry Point 9 years ago, so it’s a special place to us.
We truly had the best time so I’m recapping our trip and sharing some of my favorite places and things we did.
We decided to rent an Airbnb for our trip. We have only stayed in them a few times but I’ve come to prefer them over staying at hotels, especially with having a toddler. I love having the extra space and coziness. We found the cutest Boho themed Airbnb, just a few minutes away from Topsail Beach in Sneads Ferry.
The house was so cute and cozy, it was perfect for relaxing after spending the day at the beach. We would definitely stay there again. The listing is linked at the bottom of this post if you’d like to check it out.
The first morning of our trip we drove over to Jacksonville to get some breakfast. We ate at Blend Nutrition Bar.
Blend is a health based cafe specializing in acai bowls, smoothies, pressed juice and even coffee. This place is super cute and we absolutely loved it, especially Bronson! We orded avocado toast for me, teddy bear toast for Bronson, and a Nutella waffle for my husband.
I also tried a chai latte with oat milk, and everything was delicious. We actually went back the next morning because I had to have the avocado toast again!🤤 On our way out, we went around the back to their wall murals to take some instagram photos. Overall we had a great time.
From there we headed back towards Topsail beach to spend some time there before getting rained on.
Topsail is a beautiful beach and a great place to take photos. It also wasn’t very crowded either of the times we went.
Later that day we headed out for dinner and decided on a restaurant with a modern Mexican cuisine in Sneads Ferry called Agave Azul.
My husband and I both ordered enchiladas and Bronson decided on a soft taco. The food was delicious and filling, the staff was friendly, and the restaurant was decorated beautifully. We loved it!
After dinner we stopped at a touristy little beach shop so Bronson could take some photos with the giant shark out front, which of course he loved!
The next day was our actual anniversary, so we got dressed up and headed to the beach with my phone tripod to take some photos. Here are my favorites. This beach is so pretty we actually just took photos in the parking lot next to our car, can you tell? 😅
Afterwards we got changed into swimsuits and spent a few hours soaking up the sun.☀️
For dinner that night, we wanted to eat at a nicer restaurant. Most dining options near us consisted of a lot of seafood which isn’t my thing so we decided to venture out to Wilmington. We ended up at The Melting Pot, which was our first time there.
The food was amazing and filling and we’re pretty sure it’s Bronson’s new favorite place. 🥰
And of course we stopped and took some more photos with my tripod before going in and eating. I was a little bummed because I actually thought I had forgot the tripod but my husband surprised me by packing it in the car and stopping at a cute spot to take our anniversary photos. He’s the best!🤍
You can check out my blog post about all the outfits I wore on our trip here.
The next morning we checked out of of airbnb and headed to Camp Lejeune. We stopped at the Starbucks on base for a quick bite, then we checked out Onslow beach to search for shark teeth. We ended up finding so many, while Bronson played in the sand and water. Afterwards we headed to New Bern and checked into our hotel for the night.
We got cleaned up and headed to Downtown New Bern. This area is beautiful and rich with history. We walked around and checked out some shops and boutiques.
We opted for a fast bite to eat for dinner and then headed to The Black Cat Shoppe to begin our ghost tour.
I love everything spooky so I make sure to do a ghost tour every time I travel somewhere new.
They’re also great if you love history, and are a fun way to learn about where you’re visiting. You also get a look at places you wouldn’t normally see when traveling.
We ended our night with some laughs from the tour and new knowledge of New Bern.
We’re also planning a quick weekend trip back to visit Tryon Palace because one, we didn’t have enough time this trip to visit and two, because I’m a huge Outlander fan. 🙃
The next morning was our last day in North Carolina so we checked out of our hotel and drove out to Atlantic Beach. This beach is gorgeous, but we only spent a few minutes here because the clouds were super dark and we could tell a storm was coming in.
We then decided to spend some time at the North Carolina Aquarium while we waited for the storm to pass.
My husband actually took me on a date here when we first met, so it was nice to go back again this time with our son.
After a couple of hours of exploring the aquarium, we headed back to the beach! We stopped at a beach store and I bought this cute tie dye loungewear set so I’d have something dry to ride home in. We had enough time to take some cute pictures and go for a quick stroll on the beach before it started raining again. ☁️
We headed back home afterwards.
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