May 22, Wilmington, NC

Commercial port almost empty of shipping.

Big tugboats at the ready

Battleship North Carolina, now decommissioned and a tourist attraction

KOKOMO II tied up to the dock in the middle of town

Wilmington, NC is up the Cape Fear River about 15-20 miles from Southport and the Cape Fear Inlet. This is a really lovely town with a BIG commercial ship port, and a very nice downtown area on the River a few miles further upstream. We stayed right downtown at the foot of the street that is in the center of the historical area. Took a trolley tour of town and saw lots of pretty homes and churches, rode on brick streets and heard lots of history; both revolutionary war and civil war. The area never fully recovered from the civil war as the newer areas inland became the new centers for North Carolina. This town is now a large historical district (about 230 square blocks) and is still the way it was in earlier times. Pleasant to be here.