Wilmington, It's A Wrap

Here's brief description of a few activities we enjoyed from our month long stay in Wilmington, NC.

Historic and Beautiful Arlie Gardens

This huge live oak is known as The Arlie Oak.  It dates back to 1585 and is one of the oldest in the Carolinas.

Although it's early November, we did find a few flowers still in bloom.

Spanish moss drips from the old live oaks that encircle the large lake within the gardens.

Christmas decorations were being installed for the annual Arlie Gardens Holiday Light Display.

This warm day brings out a few butterflies as well.
Maybe a Great Spangled Fritillary

Could be a Meadow Fritillary

 Created by artist Virginia Wright Frierson, The Minnie Evans Bottle Chapel is in honor of Wilmington/Wrightville native NC artist
Minnie Evans. 

When we arrived, the chapel was being repaired/restored by Francisco Castillo of CGC Historic Restorations.

Close up views of a "mosaic assortment" all created by various bottle shapes and colors.

Is it a butterfly wing or a cat face?

Close up views of the various bottle colors, styles and textures used in the construction of the Chapel.

Ceramic Water fountain by Hiroshi Sueyoshi

Child-inspired mosaic tile emblems encircle the base of the Chapel.

More of that draping Spanish Moss..

Cameron Art Museum

Artist-made seating by American artist Tom Spleth

On view now "State Of The Art", an exhibit where any NC artist within a 24 hour period could bring in one work and it be accepted for display. 

A whirligig by NC artist Vollis Simpson.

Those blue cylinders seen on the outer edge of the center circle are the dishwasher utensils baskets!

A stroll along Wilmington's two mile long Riverwalk.

Folks, that's a wrap from Wilmington.

The month of December will find us at my Mom's enjoying time with her and our family plus those yearly appointments.  We plan to spend the winter in Davenport, Florida working on the motorhome's yearly maintenance and enjoying time with friends.
More Later.

Cape Fear Kite Festival

The month of November finds us enjoying the city and surrounding areas of Wilmington, NC.  Our first weekend here we had a memorable visit with a dear friend, Christy Stephenson.  Time spent catching up, eating out, enjoying campfires, laughing and sharing stories from the past year made for another "time swiftly flying by" moment.  That same weekend was the Cape Fear Kite Festival held at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area near Kure Beach.  Here's way too many pictures from our visit to the Festival Sunday afternoon.

It's 1:00pm and the fog rolls in to create a neutral sky background for all these colorful kites.

We are surprised at the size of some of these kites.  This "snorkeler girl" was huge.

Notice all of the sections pieced together to make this wind sculpture.

Ahhh...Here comes the sun!  The skies clear up and it's finally warmer too.

The Kite Fliers use cords to maneuver the wind-stuffed sculptures to fly higher if they get, well..flatter.

Here you can see many different cords connecting each section to a main cord.

And sometimes we noticed more than one kite connected to a single holding cord.  These main "holding" cords were anchored to the ground with sand bags.

There was such a variety of kites in all colors and sizes..even pigs that fly.

These double gray whale kites were impressive.

Around 2:30 or so, we noticed the participants winding up their wind sock-type kites and calling it a weekend. 

We sure are glad we caught this festival at the last minute..it was a visual treat.

More Later from the Wilmington area.