A Weekend at Ocean Isle Beach

Restaurants

Ocean Isle Beach offers an eclectic blend of popular restaurants:

What will you do during weekend visits to Ocean Isle Beach? A long-time OIB vacation resident shares her weekend plans:

Picking Up Essentials

A long weekend at the beach starts at the Eagle Island Produce and Fish Market. What a strange and wonderful place. It's an old roadside produce stand, fish market, and general merchandise store a stone's throw from the Northeast Cape Fear River, on a lonely stretch of Highway 421 just after exiting the 140 Bypass. You pass the market when you're driving south toward the Battleship North Carolina and Brunswick County.

This place has everything: live bait; fertilizer; fruit and vegetables; knick knacks and hardware; jam, jellies and preserves; smoked meats; candy; boiled peanuts; nabs and crackers; sodas and beer and a lot more. The fish market next door has a great selection of local seafood and has a reputation for carrying good local oysters when they're in season, too.

On Our Way

After filling the car with fresh fruits and vegetables it's a leisurely 40 minute drive on Hwy 17 from the Wilmington waterfront to Ocean Isle Beach. You'll feel the tension going away as you cross over the bridge and get your first glimpse of the intracoastal waterway and the beautiful ocean. You'll want to go slow, roll the windows down and take in the sights and smell the fresh salt air that soothes the soul.

We've Arrived

Quickly unpacking and a phone call to Causeway Gourmet starts the evening off with no worries. Order their Roasted Garlic & Red Pepper Humus, a zesty house-made chick pea dip with celery, carrots, olives, and grilled pitas for dipping, then share the Grilled Chicken Farfalle - bowtie pasta with chicken, sweet peas, and prosciutto ham in parmesan cream sauce or the Shrimp and Grits - sauteed creek shrimp in a mildly spicy cured ham, sherry, and tomato cream sauce over stone ground yellow grits… they deliver so you don’t have to leave the cottage and one meal is enough for two hungry adults. You have to save room for their famous Flourless 5 Spice Chocolate Cake or Key Lime Pie. Too many choices on their menu but these are my favorites.

Tomorrow I think I'll be tempted to break our vegetarian diet and go for the Jamaican ribs at the Sugar Shack. Better get there early … everyone else loves the ribs too!

First Full Day

Wake up to the sound of the waves and seagulls. Decisions, decisions. Do we cook breakfast or scoot down to the Inlet View for pancakes and boat watching? Pancakes win and so does the view. They have bands at night so we might come back for a seafood dinner and enjoy music under the stars. The rest of the day we spend on the beach, reading books, walking in the water's edge, looking for seashells and maybe a nap. It's a perfect day.

Friday evenings you'll want to meet your neighbors and friends for the free outdoor Beach Music Concert at the parking lot of the Museum of Coastal Carolinas on Ocean Isle Beach. Bring the cooler, chairs and enjoy watching dancers young and old as you listen to classic beach music sounds.

Another Beautiful Day at OIB

So many things to do, so little time. Golf for the guys and for the girls how about tasting the wonderful wines of La Belle Amie and take a vineyard tour. All in the comfort of a shaded, breezy, natural setting. Life is good.

Tonight lets take the kids to the Ingram Planetarium (5 minutes from Ocean Isle) with the recent installation of the world's third SciDome HD Digital projection system. They will have fun and not realize they are getting a science lesson.

Enjoying Our Last Day

Today is bike riding… lots of sidewalks and no hills or traffic to worry about. We can stop at the end of the island and look for turtle tracks or just watch the birds in the nesting area. Today we have to drive down to Calabash – got to have some famous flounder and hushpuppies overlooking the water and there's a new art shop I want to visit.

Already Planning for Next Time

Got to remember to check out OceanIsleBeach.com for activities. There's the NC Azalea Festival near Wilmington in the spring, the Blue Crab Festival at Little River in May, free concerts every Friday in the summer, the JollyMon fishing tournament in June and I need to make sure I don't forget to add the famous Oyster Festival in October to the calendar. So many options or just quiet time watching the waves.

Sometimes we hope it rains, then we can zip down to the outlets in Myrtle Beach and shop for bargains or get in the golf cart and go through Museum of Coastal Carolina. Another adventure we have to do this year is the Aquarium at Fort Fisher. We can have lunch in Southport, hop on the the ferry and spend the afternoon looking at all the beautiful aquatic life.

I'm so glad we've got the whole year to try and check all these OIB things to do off our list. There's something for every season. Most restaurants stay open year-round too so there is always a reason to come back to Ocean Isle Beach for a weekend during winter, spring, summer and fall.