This past weekend I visited beautiful Wilmington, North Carolina, for a bachelorette trip . . . the last toast on the coast for my friend Vanessa! Me and four others stayed in a stunning, two- story stilt house right across from Kure Beach (just 30 minutes outside of downtown Wilmington.)

First things first: checking out the beach, and then I was instantly reminded I was overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and not the Gulf, as the water was much cooler and the waves were much bigger than the Gulf. The waves were quite intense as they were nearly hitting the stilt houses on the beach. Of course, Hurricane Erin had a lot to do with the intensity of these waves. There was a little bit of flooding downtown by the river court, but other than that we did not see any other flooding during our stay.

The next day the waves did calm down a bit, and we were able to enjoy the day at Carolina Beach. We woke up early to watch the sunrise that morning and then returned a few hours later to catch some UV rays. It seemed as if everyone else had the same idea, as the beach was packed. It was filled with all ages; most remained on the beach itself with a handful cooling off in the water. The waves were still somewhat intense, and those in the water definitely needed to be ready when the waves came through. I myself was nearly knocked down on a couple occasions. After a few hours at the beach, we decided we were ready to have dinner and explore downtown.

After showering and getting all the salt and sand off of us, we got dressed and made our way to downtown Wilmington. First stop was dinner. We decided we wanted a laid-back atmosphere that offered a little bit of everything, so we picked Rebellion. Walking in, I noticed the lighting was dim and the walls were lined with brick. This casual restaurant offered both indoor and outdoor seating. A large bar with many types of drafts and bottles of bourbon was placed behind. TVs were scattered all throughout with some sort of old football game playing, exciting those for the upcoming season.

We were seated fairly quickly at a high top where we were all greeted by a kind server as well as waters all around. I then ordered an expresso martini (not my usual) because I had skipped coffee that day and really needed some sort of caffeine to continue functioning. Looking at the menu, I knew immediately what I would order. Under appetizers was the West Virginia pepperoni roll, the tasty, delicious rolls I was introduced to during my time at Marshall University. A pepperoni roll is exactly how it sounds, basically a pizza wrapped up; Rebellion glazed its version with a delicious garlic butter and everything seasoning, making it even tastier after dipping in marinara sauce.

We also ordered a few other appetizers for the table, one being beef nachos. These were huge and had everything you could possibly want on nachos. They did have a spicy sauce drizzled over the top that gave a bit of a kick.

We finished up dinner and drinks at Rebellion, then went on to explore downtown Wilmington, eventually ending up at a karaoke bar.

Come back for Part Two, where I write about all things downtown!

— Megan Gragg, account executive