Ghost Walk in the Carolinas: Ocean Isle Beach Date

For this year's beach date, J and K hopped an island or so over on the Brunswick coast, leaving Holden Beach for a short time at Ocean Isle Beach.  The main attraction?  Ocean Isle Beach Ghost Walk, a summer activity available two evenings a week at present.

OIB Ghost Walk is a small operation with owner-storytellers who recount ghostly experiences had by individuals they've met personally.  The owners are also educators by day, so they carefully analyze the stories as they craft them from sources for recounting on the tour.  This gives the tour a special first-hand feel and an openness to questions, discussions, and deeper connections to local history that's not characteristic of all ghost walks.  Quite honestly, we really admired them for their zeal for their community and their scholarship.  Our favorite tales included connections to WWII submarines off the North Carolina coast and an absolutely fascinating story from Hickory Hall Mansion in Calabash.  The tour is also a great deal--just $10 per person, and a small book of stories is also available for purchase.  What's this?  Clearly, it's part of a non-existent military training mission. Take the tour to learn more.

Ocean Isle itself was a pleasant visit.  The character of the beach put us in the mind of Wrightsville--a little more bustling than Holden but not approaching Myrtle in its busy-ness.  On the tour, you'll be outside--and you'll get to step a bit on both sand and streets.  Dress comfortably.  There are no gimmicky sound effects and no visually scary moments; this is a fine tour for interested older kids. You'll meet the walk very near the place that emergency vehicles can enter the beach near the pier just over the bridge on the island.  We arrived early, and we asked some local business folks if we were at the right place--they didn't know, but we were.  Then, the tour operators reassuringly arrived in OIB Ghost Walk T-shirts.

If you go, consider also visiting the Museum of Coastal Carolina, a history/science museum started by local volunteers that has evolved into a facility broader in scope than most similar local museums. We haven't been yet, but there's at least one story from the museum on the ghost walk, so visiting would tie nicely to the ghost walk experience.  The museum is very near the pier where you can meet your ghost walk crew, as are several beachwear/surf wear shops, restaurants, and a well-tended modest putt-putt course. We ate at Provision Company, famous for bad parking, good food and great views, before leaving Holden.  "Pro Co" is a fine place with kids, but the atmosphere is currently lost on our young ones, so we find it better for a date.

Simple Provisions: Holden Beach, NC

One of our simplest Halterman adventures is one of the best:  the annual trip to Holden Beach, North Carolina.  Simply put, Holden is an outstanding family beach full of lovely rental houses on an island in Brunswick County.  In about an hour, you can be in the hustle and bustle of Myrtle Beach, but the rest of the time, you can bask in Holden's calm.  It's the perfect sit-and-read-and-talk beach. 

We discovered a new "cheap date" this year:  the Provision Company restaurant.  It has a great atmosphere, an outstanding view of the Intercostal Waterway, good food, and really bad parking that they treat as a mark of pride.  For a touch of Key West in North Carolina, we recommend it.  For a sweet treat afterwards, cross the bridge and head to Sunset Slush for gelati, a blend of Italian ice and ice cream.  Take advantage of the Town of Holden Beach's Parks and Recreation tide dye program in the high season and make a tye dye T-shirt for $3 at the pavillion under the bridge--and since you'll be standing in line in the heat, it's another good excuse to visit Sunset Slush.  It was a bittersweet season making our last trip to the now-closing Lowell's Bookworm, a "bookstore in the classic tradition" we've visited many summers.  Yes, we bought their commemorative T-shirt.  When out shopping, you should still stop at Sugar Britches on the causeway for unique items including etsy-esque handmade jewelry--it's going strong.

This year, we stayed at an outstanding beach house--Hobbs Realty's Carolina Peach.  The owners post the story of their exceptionally clean, attractive home in its dining room, and we felt connected to them even though we've never met.  We also saw our first mama turtle (if you don't know about the Holden Beach Turtle Watch, you should) and drove to Wilmington, NC, for Guinevere Lawton to meet her namesake Great Uncle Lawton Halterman.

If you go, don't miss the Holden Beach pier, profiled on our previous blog and a great experience for young kids.   

Relevant Twitter Handle:
@HoldenBeach

Myrtle Date 2011

Again this year, we were blessed with a trip to Holden Beach, NC, in mid-summer. Holden is an excellent beach for relaxation--and it's close enough to Myrtle Beach, SC, when relaxation isn't in order. Our beach house check-in time was a late 4:00, so we went to Myrtle on our way south. We also came back as "just a couple" for an anniversary date.

The best part this year? Pirates' Voyage, the new Dolly Parton Dinner Attraction that replaced the Myrtle location of Dixie Stampede. It was lots of good fun with the same tasty food you've heard about from Dixie Stampede fans. Most importantly, the wonderful creamy veggie soup is still served! The show included tumbling, juggling, diving, sea lions... more than we expected in some ways, but we missed the blacklight skeletons featured in the YouTube promo. Watching everything come together organizationally was a special pleasure for Kim.

We enjoyed a lunch at Planet Hollywood. The service was less than spectacular (but still friendly) and the esprit de corps was not as "cool" as Hard Rock. However, the food--right down to Elijah's kids' meal--was spectacularly presented, and we liked the memorabilia displays, especially the spinning aircrafts near the bar/hostess stand. While this location is the only one with which we are familiar, the restaurant chain's publicity materials lead us to think this one is more casual than some.

For shopping, it was Barefoot for us--including the inexpensive jewelry store Black Market Minerals for some good deals.

If you go, use your American Express to book advance tix to Pirates' Voyage, saving money and time. Arrive when you can get in (about 60-90 min. before your show), visiting the gift shop right away when it's at its least crowded. Eating at Planet Hollywood? Head to nearby Broadway at the Beach (a place deserving of a visit of its own, anyway) in search of coupons. We wound up with $10 off lunch thanks to a retro wear store's giveaway. Barefoot Landing is also worth its own visit--especially if you take in Alligator Adventure. We really love the seaside atmosphere of Barefoot. Use the blog search tags South Carolina and North Carolina to find more of our impressions of the area.

Relevant Twitter Handles:
@PiratesVoyage
@BroadwayatBeach
@BarefootLanding

Relevant Websites:
Pirates' Voyage