Mr&Mrs Badman are in town

On Saturday 22nd September my lovely Mum and Step dad did the 9andahalf hour flight to Charlotte, NC and then the connecting flight arriving in Wilmington where I was excitedly waiting for them. They’re staying for a two week trip in Wilmington and what is Mum’s first time in America. We picked up the keys to their rental Chevy and cruised along the highway to their home for a week. I say cruised but figuring out how to function this beast of a car proved to be slightly problematic but after a short stint on the left-hand side of the road we were off and running.

After some confusion with the maps we finally found the entrance to Mcrae Street, which was on first impressions quite something as we were instantly reminded of the Caribbean. The street is full of brightly coloured shanty town-like houses with an array of curious dark faces peering at us from their rocking chairs on their respective porches. We smiled back apprehensively completely aware of how incredibly foreign we looked. We finally found our house number, slightly overshooting as Mum attempted to located the brake, we got out and looked up. The house is fantastic and all-American with its wooden slates, wrap around porch and, of course, rocking chair.

The next morning, Sept 23rd,  I woke up to the smell of fresh coffee and padded into the kitchen for some marmite on toast with banana. It’s the little things you miss. After breakfast we strolled down a couple of blocks until we were in the downtown Historic District with the sunshine beating down on us and the birds chirping happily. We had a lovely walk around, me pointing out the sights and showing off my new home before hopping onto a boat tour down the river learning some more about the history of the area.  Then my favourite time of day after dinner, lunch! We went to a lovely restaurant and sat out on the patio overlooking the cape-fear river and ate fresh salads, finally embracing some healthy food after all the burgers.