A Wilmington Birthday

Happy Birthday to the love of my life, my bestest friend and fellow adventurer, the kindest man I've ever known and the one I'm blessed to call my own. Happy Birthday, John! I hope (even though you have to work) you have an awesome day and I'm glad we had a great weekend together.Today, John turns 28. We celebrated over the weekend by going away to Wilmington and staying in a bed and breakfast called Camellia Cottage. We spent the days exploring the area and just relaxing. The bnb was aweeeessssoooommmmmmeee. The house was a little over 100 years old and had 5 rooms, each with their own bathroom. Ours was on the second floor and was beautiful! We arrived a little later on Friday and were met with an envelope on the front door with our key and a welcome message. We snuck into our room, explored the house (which was full of old vintage radios and awesome antiques) and then headed out to explore the neighborhood because it was still light out. I showed John the waterfront and after awhile, we ran across a cigar shop called The Cigar Exchange and we decided to check it out. Little did we know we would end up spending the rest of the evening/night there. We picked out a cigar each and enjoyed chatting it up with the owner Lior and some of the locals. I've only ever been to two cigar bars and two things have happened each time. 1. I seriously impress some middle-aged man because I smoke ACTUAL cigars and not some girly coconut flavored cigarillo. (I politely declined a coconut flavored cigarillo from "the impressed man" (he said he buys them for his wife because she likes em) and we agreed that we liked our cigars and coffee unflavored.) 2. John and I end up talking with a complete stranger for LITERALLY hours. This time, we talked to a nice lady named Andrea or "Drew." We talked about everything from the military to weddings and bridezillas to age to cigars to the local area...it was great. At the end of it, Drew gave us her number and said to give her a call next time we were in town if we needed a place to stay. Later on, we talked to our hosts at the bnb and they said all the locals are friendly like that and literally offer you a place to stay. I heart Wilmington.The area has some amazing old churches and buildings and on our walk home I tried to capture a few. John finished his cigar and I played with the camera. I dig this one.
Saturday we explored the town some more (which was all walking distance from the bnb), had lunch (which included getting a sampler at a brewery), got an ice cream cone (because it was SO hot) and on our way back to the bnb got stuck in a huge storm. We were okay for a second under a tree covering...until it REALLY started dumping. So we ran back to the bnb (running in flip flops in a rain current isn't easy) and were completely soaked. But completely happy. John out-ran me because his shoes were more run-friendly than mine and I just laughed hysterically while I tried to wade my way through the torrent of rain in the streets. We had a good time. Our hosts got us some towels, we dried off and took a nap. In the evening, we went to The Little Dipper which is an awesome fondue restaurant I've been hearing about for forever. Highly recommend it if you like fondue and just good eats. They wished John a happy birthday and gave him a piece of complimentary cheese cake...which we almost had to completely abandon because we were SO stuffed. And we don't abandon cheesecake easily. After dinner, we wandered the downtown area some more and found ourselves back at The Cigar Exchange. We enjoyed yet another cigar and then went to a local bar and I had my first car bomb. WOoooooo!!! And I made an amazing discovery. The past few times I've been at a bar I've asked the bartenders if they know any good drinks (not shots) with Baileys in them. And every time I've been met with the glazed over look of a cow looking at an on-coming train. You know the one I'm talking about. Well FINALLY...I found a bartender who knows Baileys. She was the skinniest person I think I've ever seen (almost)...and not in a healthy way. But she mixed a MEAN drink and made me a drink and a shot with Baileys that were both AWESOME. She was super nice and I just wish we worked somewhere in the area so I could go back to her for more Baileys drinks. The first one had Baileys, Amaretto, and Malibu in it. Which sounds DISGUSTING, I know. But it was friggin awesome. The shot had baileys, creme de menthe (which I could live on) and something else. It tasted like an Andy's mint. SCORE. I've gotta learn how to recreate those two.We spent our time a the bar watching a fight and glimpses of the World Cup and I made up really flamboyant dialog for the fight because we couldn't hear anything.
Oh...note: the breakfasts at our bnb were AWESOME and although you had to sit with the other guests there, they were ALL really nice people and we enjoyed chatting it up and getting to know each other. One couple was on their 7th visit to this particular bnb.The next day, we did our last breakfast, bid our hosts farewell with a big hug (they were SO nice...felt like family at the end of our stay) and then headed to a nearby Aquarium. We like Aquariums. It's funny how you think you have little to say about an event and then when you revisit it by looking at your photos, you suddenly are brimming with stories. That's how I feel about this Aquarium. One second it was a one sentence line in this blog and then it just kept growing.
I didn't get to pet sting rays (one of my favorite things in the world) but I did get to hold a GIANT hermit crab... ...and I did get to pose inside a giant crab (notice how tiny the holes are to the right and left...not easy to get in and out of!)... ...and did get to see some seahorses (holding hands <3)......and I got to watch a octopus change colors while he napped in his little cave. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen. One of those things where you think to yourself "If I saw this in a movie, I'd think the CGI was really fake...but...this isn't a movie...this is real life." It's the weirddddest thing. John got a video of a little bit of it. Maybe he was having bad dreams...the octopus. Not John. After chancing upon some turtles that were sunning their feet, we headed home.We both agreed it was a great, great weekend. Exactly what we needed.
John loved his Art of Shaving stuff as well as the old school shaving set (I made him open it on Friday night because I was SO excited...TOO excited). He was very surprised by the whole present and kept asking me how I thought of it because he loved it so much. SCORE!!
P.S. I received my first postcrossing postcard!! Portugal!