Celebrating Father's Day at the Fort {2016}

Last year, we celebrated Father's Day and our anniversary by visiting the Biltmore Estate.  This year Father's Day fell a few days before our anniversary, and Eddie had scheduled his first Sustainable Forestry Teacher's Experience in New Bern, NC for the following week.  Before we headed to New Bern on Sunday, we wanted to spend the day with our favorite Daddy.  Since Daddy and his boys love history and especially military history, I thought visiting nearby Fort Fisher would be a good start to the day. Since it was Sunday and Father's Day, the state historic site didn't open until 11:00 so we had a little time to kill before going to the Fort.

Daddy put in a request for doughnuts, and we obliged.  He wanted to try a local doughnut shop in Carolina Beach that is very popular, but the lines were always so long that we just didn't think it was feasible. Instead, we headed to the closest Krispy Kreme and were delighted with some hot and freshly made glazed doughnuts as well as some of our favorite assorted doughnuts.  Even though Mattox had started the day not feeling very well with a slight fever and cold, he ate his share of doughnuts too. 

Next, we headed back down to Fort Fisher which is at the very southern tip of the island where Carolina Beach and Kure Beach are located.  Here is a brief description of the fort and its history from the North Carolina Historic Sites page:

Until the last few months of the Civil War, Ft. Fisher kept North Carolina's port of Wilmington open to blockade runners supplying necessary goods to Confederate armies inland. By 1865, the supply line through Wilmington was the last remaining supply route open to Robert E. Lee'sArmy of Northern Virginia. When Ft. Fisher fell after a massive Federal amphibious assault on January 15, 1865, its defeat helped seal the fate of the Confederacy. Visitors are invited to tour the remains of the fort's land face featuring an impressive reconstruction of a 32-pounder seacoast gun at Shepherd's Battery. Shaded by gnarled live oaks, a scenic trail leads tourists from the visitor center past the gigantic earthworks and around to the rear of the fort. Guided tours and wayside exhibits provide historical orientation. Other exhibits include items recovered from sunken blockade runners.

At the dawn of the American Civil War, the Confederacy took control of a neck of land in southern North Carolina near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and constructed what was to become the largest and most important earthwork fort in the South. Two major battles were fought there, and many Union soldiers received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their gallant participation in that fighting. Today only a few of the mounds remain, since much of the fort has been eroded by the ocean.

Much of Fort Fisher has been lost to the ocean since it was just constructed of huge mounds of earth to hold the large guns of the battery defense that protected the important access to the port at Wilmington, but the landscape surrounding the Fort is still beautiful. I wish I would have known that this sheltered beach at the tip of the island would have been a much nicer place for my kids to play in the ocean, but there aren't any bath houses or showers which would have made it very difficult to clean up after a day on the beach.  We all still enjoyed a nice walk on the beach and putting our toes in the ocean one more time.  

Evan loves a big gun!

Daddy and Mattox checking out some of the big cannons used to defend the Fort at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. 

I thought it was kind of sad that the biggest cannon, the Armstrong Cannon was "stolen" as a "trophy of war" after the Fort was finally lost to the Union.  The real Armstrong Cannon that defended the Fort can be seen today at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  

This fence was recreated to look like the original one that was built around the original Fort.  We will later tour a "real" fort made from stone further north up the coast of North Carolina.  That one looks a bit more exciting, but this one really has such an important history to our nation. 

Mattox still wasn't feeling great and was enjoying snuggling on his daddy.  He has really turned into a Daddy's boy lately. 

I love the look of this beach with the large rocks placed to help prevent further erosion. 

And the ocean here was calm and serene and just felt so nice. 

Still trying my hand at nature and wildlife photography. 

We could have stayed here all day and enjoyed the view. 

I just love these twisty old Live Oak trees.  I guess I would say the Live Oak is my favorite tree.  They can really withstand a lot and are one of the few trees that could thrive in the harsh environment of the North Carolina coast and constantly being battered by rough winds and even hurricanes.  They grow twisty and slanted in the direction the wind pushes them away from the shore.  They are also evergreen (don't lose their leaves in winter) and provide the nicest and fullest shade canopy.  It is like walking in an enchanted woodland.  You can see some beautiful old Live Oaks in Charleston, SC along the old battery too.  We actually planted two Live Oak trees that were just seedlings at our first house close to the northern Outer Banks, and they have really thrived.  They have grown from grass stage to about 20 feet tall in less than 10 years.  

We took Daddy to eat a good ol' country style meal at the College Diner in Wilmington before we made the long drive up Highway 17 to New Bern.  Mattox wasn't in the mood to eat very much, but he enjoyed helping feed Evan his shrimp and drank a lot of drink.  Brody was enjoying a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs. 

These boys sure do love their Daddy!  

Summer Adventure #1 ~ Carolina Beach

Whew!  It has been a crazy month for us.  We were away from home for over two weeks of June and that really threw off our schedules.  I am just chock full of excuses for why I am so far behind...traveling, coming home with a terrible head cold, buried under mounds of laundry, too hot to want to do anything, computer and camera issues, etc., etc.  Is summer always this way or is it just because ours is much shorter now?  The start of our traveling adventures in June began with a little weekend excursion to Carolina Beach.  Ever since the boys and I visited this Spring when we were in Wilmington, I thought it would be a unique beach experience to stay here.  It just has that old local beach town feel without the commercialization that other beach resort towns have now.  Most of North Carolina beaches are actually like this because most of the oceanfront has always been taken up by personal residences and left little room for large hotels and resorts to move in.  There are some bigger hotels being built in Carolina Beach now so we will see if it maintains its old school charm in the years ahead.  I do hope the town will continue to do more to preserve its older heritage.  We hoped to enjoy a lot of time on the beach this trip since we didn't get a lot of beach time in Florida, but sadly, the weather was crazy the whole weekend with really high winds making the surf really rough and bringing in storms at night.  We did our best to enjoy our time together before Daddy started his first teacher academy of the summer in New Bern.

The boys had to go to the beach our first day when we arrived, and of course, they couldn't resist getting in the water even in their clothes.  The waves were a little rough but not too bad this night.  

The gulls were flying right over our heads. 

They get so silly in the water running from the waves.

Mattox was just watching his crazy big brothers. 

Brody had to change his shorts before dinner.  He was soaked.

Mattox liked the feel of the water and wet sand on his feet. 

Mattox was very excited about getting out of the car after a long drive and getting to the motel room.  He was giving Brody's teddy bear big hugs.  I love those perfect smiles.  We went to the Sea Witch Cafe for dinner. 

Mattox showing off his cute lemon smile. 

We had to take pictures with these little photo props on the boardwalk again. 

Oh no, is that surfer going to get eaten by that cute shark?

Eddie and I posed for a "romantic" picture with the moon since it was almost our anniversary, and Brody wanted in the picture too.  

This kid really wants to be a surfer. 

I loved the sunset on the Boardwalk, but it was a prelude to some nasty storms rolling in. 

Resting on the swings before the storms arrived. 

We stopped for a cool treat, and the rain hit just as we were leaving the ice cream shop so everyone had to seek shelter and wait.  The boys watched the rain while they finished their ice cream. 

I think Mattox has great summer hair.  The rain and humidity just bring out his cute curls. 

Cute little beach bum.  It was too windy for an umbrella so I tried to make Mattox keep a hat on.  Backwards worked best as he kept pulling it off the other way. 

Daddy stayed close to the boys in the water because the waves were really big.  We don't often get "surfable" waves, but I said this would have been awesome surfing conditions. 

This cutie loved the water this time and really wanted to get in so I hated that the surf was so rough. 

Big brother helped him walk in the water.  Pay no attention to my crazy beach hair.  Remember, it was extremely windy. 

Mattox kept stealing my chair while Evan tried to catch a few waves. 

He didn't have to go very far to catch a decent wave to ride in. 

We really tried to do baby walking boot camp and did get Mattox to stand on his own a lot more, but he still refuses to take a step without holding on. 

Of course, the boys insisted they must play some putt-putt.  There aren't many options in this area, and this little course had not been kept up in recent years although I think they may be trying to renovate it.  They had put all new green surfaces on the holes.  It used to be a jungle theme with some pretty water features throughout the course, but they had all the pumps turned off and no water flowing.  I know it could look really pretty with the water turned on.  Brody did get his very first real hole-in-one so we had a good experience anyway.  He was really playing like a big boy and doing very well.  I made him do his Daddy's hole-in-one pose after the shot. 

Then, Evan couldn't be outdone and got a hole-in-one a few holes later. 

I loved watching these boys playing together.  

We saw elephants and rhinos. 

The boys also wanted to ride the rides at the boardwalk pavilion area, but I was so frustrated in the prices.  Don't these people realize they would make a lot more money if they made the rides affordable?  I mean it cost over $10 for Brody and Mattox to ride the carousel and for me to hold Mattox on.  That's ridiculous.  Most of the rides sit with barely anyone riding them all summer. 

These two cuties enjoyed their ride though. 

The only other ride the boys got to do was the fun slide since these two rides cost $20.  Sigh.  There were other rides the boys wanted to ride, but I just didn't see spending $40 for this mess. 

We decided ice cream was a better treat, and Mattox and I enjoyed a yummy italian ice and gelato. 

Then, the boys did get to dance a little at this little puppet show that a local church sets up as a ministry on the boardwalk.  They played current hit songs remade with a Christian message, and the boys were so cute dancing.  Brody had wanted to dance on the boardwalk, but the weather never cooperated to allow the musicians to get set up to play. 

We enjoyed a yummy dinner at the Lazy Pirate, and I ate all of that food by myself.  It was a yummy shrimp gumbo with corn bread and some bacon wrapped grilled shrimp.  Yum!