Beach Overload: Alternate Fun for the Dog Days of Summer

With so much going on these days at Carolina Beach and Kure Beach, it's easy to overlook some nearby attractions.

Located in the heart of Wilmington, Jungle Rapids is just 20 minutes from Carolina Beach, and is a terrific place for fun of all sorts. The park features a water slide, go-karts, laser tag, a rock climbing wall, and miniature golf plus free parking.

For more information please visit www.junglerapids.com.

Hey Chowder Head! Michael's Seafood Restaurant Competes on National Stage

Michael and Shelly McGowan of Michael's Seafood Restaurant in Carolina Beach are in Rhode Island this week for the Schweppes Great Chowder Cook-Off. The couple have been invited to compete in the Newport event before, but have always declined.

This year, though, "Captain M's Seafood Chowder" will compete at a major cook-off that expects to attract 30,000 people.

Each entrant is expected to bring at least 120 gallons of chowder, but just to be sure the McGowans decided on 200. Mike and his team prepared chowder for four consecutive days and built a custom cooler to fit in the back of his truck.

The heaviest load they'll carry, however, is the hopes and dreams of the entire state of North Carolina. Congressman Mike McIntire called to offer support, State Senator Julia Boseman drove from Raleigh to give them a state flag to fly at the contest, Governor Perdue sent a letter, and the state Senate issued a proclamation.

Talk about a pressure cooker.

Rides! Cotton Candy! Hot Dogs!

It's official: The Carolina Beach Town Council this week approved a proposal for putting amusements on the Boardwalk -- beginning this summer. Rides will be open till 11pm on Sunday through Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Click here to see a layout of where the rides will be set up.

Time your Ferris Wheel ride right and you could see fireworks from a most enviable location. Fireworks displays in Carolina Beach are scheduled for Friday, May 22, every Thursday beginning June 4 and ending Aug. 27, plus 4th of July (Saturday), and Friday, Sept. 4.

CAPE FEAR QUIRK: Unseasonable, unreasonable cool temps continue

It's been an interesting winter here in Carolina Beach, and in the Cape Fear region and Wilmington, NC area in general. And by interesting, we mean "colder than a witch's thorax." While the mercury zoomed up to 70 last Friday, we were treated to rain (which we need) all weekend, and temps plummeted again to sub-freezing last night.

Because this latest cold snap came with a threat of snow (which would be our 3rd experience with the white stuff this year), area schools had delayed openings. That's probably a quaint idea to those in the northern part of the country. Just the threat of snow, and even just a dusting, can close schools. Can you imagine if accumulations were more like half a foot, or nine inches? Kids would be idle for days, mucking up parents' carefully calibrated schedules. And the local hardware stores would sell out of their 2 or 3 snow shovels in a matter of minutes. Pelicans at Carolina Beach State Park might get little ice cubes in their next mouthful of fish.

Fear not, though. Before you can say "hazy, hot and humid," we'll be basking in the warm glow of spring and summer sunshine. The only question remaining is: When will it be warm enough to swim in the ocean without a wetsuit? Last year, I swam comfortably on May 10. Can it warm up enough for that date again this year? Stay tuned.

By the way, the long range forecast according to the revered Farmer's Almanac calls for temperatures above normal through June, with temps below normal and precipitation above normal July through October.

Looking back: Carolina Beach in 1897

I’ve come across an intriguing piece of propaganda put out 10 years ago by the Federal Point Historic Preservation Society. Entitled “Carolina Beach: The Mecca of Excursionists and a Delightful Ocean Resort,” it was published in 1897 by The Wilmington Messenger, and features facts and figures and observations about everyday life in our area back then. Written in an overly formal, almost Elizabethan style, some of the data is debatable, but maybe readers can weigh in with their opinions.

In 1896, it says here, the steamer Wilmington, “which conveys passengers to the beach,” sold 32,000 round-trip tickets. But the following year, Captain John W. Harper bested that figure by nearly 20,000. The beach was in vogue. Among beachgoers about half were from Wilmington and half “from other sections of the adjoining states.” Children under 10 were admitted free, so the total number of passengers was significantly higher.

Carolina Beach was “opened” in 1885 and Captain Harper and the town were “associated together in the public mind.” That remains true to this day since Harper Avenue is a main access street to the ocean, and lies at the very heart of today’s central business district. Harper appears to have been a small-town robber baron of sorts — “a man of executive capacity and experience,” – and most likely associated with big NC names like MacRae, Kenan, Cameron, Jones and Trask. He not only owned and commanded the steamer between Wilmington and the beach; he also organized the New Hanover Transit Co., which constructed the railroad, and “located the resort at the lower end of Masonboro Sound immediately on the Atlantic Ocean.” Not surprisingly, he also owned a controlling interest in the beach.

The Wilmington was 135 feet long, double decked and could carry 600 passengers per trip. Beachgoers boarded the steamer in downtown Wilmington, at the foot of Market Street. Soon they were swiftly gliding down the river, a “broad and beautiful stream, passing on either side scenes of historic interest and natural attractiveness.” Invigorating sea breezes swept up the river while “passing ships, steamers, tugs, both domestic and foreign, engaged in local, domestic, and foreign commerce.” The trip was 15 miles and ended at the pier of the New Hanover Transit Co. Passengers road by railroad car for three miles “through woodland scenery” until landing at Carolina Beach, “in jumping distance of the great Atlantic ocean.” The excursion from Wilmington took one hour and 15 minutes, roughly twice the amount of time it takes today.

Carolina Beach was well selected, “a stretch of 20 miles of wide, hard, smooth beach sloping gently to the ocean, extending northward to Masonboro inlet, which divides the beach at Wrightsville, and southward as far as the celebrated Fort Fisher.” The temperature of the ocean water is discussed in great detail and compared favorably to those to the south (“too warm and insipid”) and further north (“chilled, one can remain in it but a few moments”). Carolina Beach, on the other hand, is the Goldilocks of resorts, with water that is “neither too warm nor too cold.” In fact, “it is nothing for surf-bathers to remain in the surf for an hour, with impunity, and as in this time one is undergoing continuous active exercise, accompanied by the pleasure of bathing, the benefit is greater than where his bathing is made necessarily short by the discomfort of the water.” With impunity!

And the weather? It’s just perfect! People flocked to the beach to breathe the “pure air of the ocean” and for the sea breezes that “make it always cool and refreshing … [Visitors] to Carolina Beach need never expect a temperature that would exceed 78 degrees.” True, possibly, before the days of motor cars and aeroplanes and other man-made things that have contributed to our era’s Planet Microwave. But temperatures today regularly exceed 78 degrees (sometimes, to the delight of locals, even in the winter months), and July and August highs are typically in the 90s. Those cool and refreshing sea breezes can sometimes feel more like a blow dryer on a hot and humid summer day. Shoot, even summer nights can be in the low 80s. That's why we have air conditioning.

The fish “usually landed by sportsmen” were sheep-head, pigfish, drum and sea-trout, and all might be on the menu at the august Oceanic Hotel restaurant, along with soft shell crabs, “shrimps,” and oysters. The proprietor, however, “does not undertake to serve Delmonico meals” (a swipe at the highfalutin north?) and would gladly accommodate a “limited number of transient boarders.”

In 1897 there were 40 cottages at Carolina Beach, most owned by residents from Wilmington, Charlotte, Fayetteville and Siler City. “The housewife has comparatively little trouble in keeping house.” It doesn’t sound like there was much to do, which would positively paralyze today’s visitors. “Time passes not in the nervous and enervating excitements of fashionable life, but in the quiet, peaceful life and occupation suggested by the fresh air and the natural environments of the place.” The management is praised for preserving order, “although there are few temptations to invite on the part of anyone the least disorderly conduct.”

And, it must be said, this is not the boondocks! “One is not here out of the world; for the papers are delivered by 7 o’clock in the morning and there are two mails a day each way to Wilmington.”

What did the future hold for Carolina Beach? More visitors and more development, naturally. “Captain Harper realizes that in another year he will be under the necessity of running two instead of one boat to the beach.” Ka-ching. “Carolina Beach is no longer an experiment … Enlarged hotel facilities will come … The prospect of this pioneer of seaside resorts along the Cape Fear shores is bright, and is destined to become one of the famous resorts of the Atlantic seaboard.”

Carolina Beach and Kure Beach news

Greetings from Carolina Beach! This is the first post for United Beach Vacation's new blog.

It's been a very mild winter so far with many days in the 60s and 70s and lots of great long walks on the beach. Our drought continues, which is not so good for our area but is golden for people who love the beach. Our good weather is about to end this weekend, however, with overnight lows predicted in the 20s and rain forecast for Saturday, Jan. 19.

Quick news: The building that burned down at the Ocean Dunes condo complex in Kure Beach is currently under reconstruction and will be ready for the summer ... authorities have ordered the sand bags protecting the Riggings condominium to be removed, but this is an ongoing battle going back years ... horses are now permitted in Freeman Park (north Carolina Beach) during the off-season.