Southport & Ferry to Fort Fisher Aquarium

We planned a day trip to Southport, NC and all the way to Wilmington, NC.  We had lots of things planned.  However we discovered there was not enough time in the day. Dusty got up at
6:30 am and fixed us a big breakfast.  We took off by 8 am.  We arrived in Southport a little after 9 am.

This is Fishy Fishy Cafe on the water.  We walked around on their outdoor porches.

On the porch of a restaurant there were these mileage sign posts.  One above and one below.

As we were standing there, this beautiful catamaran was leaving.

We

We saw the paw on the side and thought about Clemson.  We wondered if they put a teal color to match the sails instead of the usual orange for the paw.  It turned out that the name of the boat was Sandy Paw and did not have anything to do with Clemson.
We walked down the street to the "River Walk" and saw some pretty houses.

Even though this picture is a bit washed out you can see the beautiful oak trees.

This is one picture window of a house. 

This is the sign at the start of the "River Walk".  We actually walked on a wooden pier out through the salt marsh to the inter-coastal waterway.

We saw the Coast Guard patrolling.  Otherwise all was quiet.  It was still early in the day.

You can see a small part of the walking pier in the foreground.  This is a pretty house across the way.

Here's a house with a 3rd story viewing balcony.  This picture was taken from the walking pier also.

We visited the Maritime Museum in Southport.  This quilt was at the front door.

This large quilt was at the exit of the Maritime Museum.  It highlights many of the interesting places in Southport. There was a lot of work in these quilts.

Next we went to the city Waterfront park.  We sat on a swing at the edge of the water.

We could see Oak Island lighthouse.  It is still an active lighthouse.  We did not have time to actually go tour it.  We watched several types of boats travel thru the channel.

Talk about a home away from home.  This boat had to be at least 40ft long.

It was fun to watch this large cargo ship go by.

Based on the model on the side of this boat it was 40 ft long.  The number of large boats was amazing.  As we headed to the ferry to Fort Fisher we came upon an old cemetery.  Dusty enjoys roaming thru old cemeteries.  

It was a pretty cemetery with lots of large oak trees.  
Then I came across a family plot for the Price family.  Price is my paternal grandmother's last name.  We headed on to the ferry to Fort Fisher & Aquarium.

Here we are lined up to load onto the ferry.

All the cars are loaded and the ferry is fulling away.  See the bridge raising?

This is taken from the top deck of the ferry.  There were only 14 cars on the ferry.  All cars are on one side of the ferry.

This is the view as we were first starting out of the cove.

We passed another ferry heading to Southport as we headed to Fort Fisher