The Kure Beach Cure

Friday, August 29, 2025
A short while ago, friends Bob & Yvonne (Bob and I go back as far as middle school) invited Brugger and me to accompany them on a somewhat impromptu trip to Kure Beach, NC (that's pronounced like "Curie," I believe), which is a few miles south of Wilmington. Early this morning, Ms. B. and I shot out of bed (as in crawled), fashioned ourselves into marginally functioning (read heavily caffeinated) human machines, and set out on the road. We drove until we stopped for a delicious lunch at La Cabana Mexican Restaurant in Rockingham, NC, and, after more driving, we stopped again for a geocache just this side of Wilmington. We arrived in Kure Beach around 4:00 p.m., where we met our friends at a nice little AirBnB unit right on the beach.

After some adult beverages and legally actionable banter, we wandered the area for a bit, and I hunted an Adventure Lab cache at nearby Fort Fisher State Recreation Area. Afterward, we drove a few parsecs north to Carolina Beach and enjoyed excellent food & drink at Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar (their Dark & Stormy cocktail, a concoction of Gosling's dark rum and ginger beer) almost turned me into a rum fan; typically, I am not really.

For the rest of the evening, we engaged in a pleasant, mellow round of conversation, which resulted in our solving every problem in the world today, except for those we did not. Those we shall tackle tomorrow, perhaps.

Saturday, August 30, 2025
Our sleeping quarters are a little cramped—bunk beds adjacent to the living room—but for me, not altogether uncomfortable. Ms. B. had a somewhat more restless night. Anyhoo, we all rose reasonably early, and Bob prepared a mighty fine breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs. And, of course, there was coffee. Gallons and gallons of it. This was all very good.

I set out geocaching shortly thereafter. I walked southward toward Fort Fisher to hunt the physical bonus cache of the Adventure Lab I'd completed yesterday, which I found with no difficulty. Several other caches lurked relatively nearby, so I continued my trek by way of roads, trails, dunes, and marshes, all of which were scenic and buggy. There were so, so many mosquitoes, and I had failed to bring the bug spray I keep in my car. Silly me. Still, it was a great 3.5-mile walk, and I found all the caches I'd set out to find.

Once back at our lodgings, I found the rest of the gang out lounging or walking on the beach. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon relaxing in the sun (well, more overcast skies), occasionally being attacked by bitey flies. Except for the flies, this is all much better than being slapped in the belly with a wet trout.

Later in the afternoon, we hauled ourselves the twenty miles up to Wilmington—a slow and arduous crawl, for the most part, with the Labor Day weekend traffic out in full force. We stopped at an ABC store and a Publix to pick up provisions for later—Gosling's Black Rum and some ginger beer to make Dark & Stormy cocktails, which I'd enjoyed at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar yesterday and decided to give 'em a go myself. Then, for an early dinner, we chose Prost Biergarten, a German-themed, if not truly German, tavern in Wilmington's historic district. I had Jaeger Schnitzel, which was very satisfying and definitely sufficient to fill me up for the rest of the evening. Once we'd successfully completed our dining duties, we wandered around the riverwalk for a while, and I went after a couple of Adventure Lab caches.

Back at our place, I made Dark & Stormies for the lot of us—excellent!—and we hung out telling war stories and playing Uno till way too late.

Good, good stuff.

Sunday, August 31, 2025
There be a lot of wind this morning, and the seas are as rough and choppy as I think I've ever seen them. There's a cluster of rocks not far down the beach called the Coquina Outcrop, and it's the site of an EarthCache, so I wandered that way first thing. Interestingly, the rocks are socked in with foam that looks like dirty soap suds from all the saltwater churning.

Bob made another of his delicious breakfasts; this time, biscuits with sausage gravy and eggs. After chowing down, we decided to head over to Southport, not far away mileage-wise, but it's across the mouth of the Cape Fear River, so we took the ferry over from the nearby Fort Fisher ferry port.

We spent an hour or so wandering around town, the others mostly shopping, while I hunted caches (successfully, I'm glad to report). We settled in for a time at Silver Coast Winery for some very welcome refreshment, and then we had a late lunch at Edgewater 122 on the riverfront, not too far away. It was an appealing place, but since I hadn't had a single mouthful of anything healthy in several days, I opted for a chopped salad with shrimp. It was fine, but it wasn't long before I found myself craving a cheeseburger. I didn't get one.

The next ferry back to Kure Beach was full up, so we took the much longer, overland route, and hey, for once, we didn't encounter any major traffic hurdles. Back at our lodgings, we spent some time on the beach with plentiful Dark & Stormies. Good stuff all around.

A pleasant evening indoors, mostly playing drunken Uno. Then we had to do a spot of clean-up and packing since we're leaving early in the morning.

Monday, September 1, 2025
Bob & Yvonne were up before the sun, and Brugger and I groaned ourselves back to life not long after. Just before leaving, we managed to get a few shots of the bootiful sunrise. The trip home was relatively easy; our early departure allowed us to miss the worst of the traffic fleeing the beach after the long weekend. I snagged an Adventure Lab cache at a rest stop along the way. To ease us back to reality, we stopped in Greensboro for lunch with friends Terry & Beth at La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant, which was delicious.

Then a couple of more caches to wind it up.

It was a great Labor Day weekend with good friends (times two, counting Terry & Beth!), and I expect we'll all be traveling again soon. All of you travel safely as well. And g'night.