Airlie Gardens

Swan on the lake at Airlie Gardens

All the guidebooks I've read on North Carolina seem to highlight the annual Azalea Festival in Wilmington as one of the most popular events in the state. Although the Azalea Festival didn't quite look like the pictures in the guidebooks (most of the guides used had this picture), the Airlie Gardens did provide a beautiful setting for a spring outing!

Southern Belle for the Azalea Festival

The gardens are home to over 100,000 azalea plants - and countless spring bulbs, so there was plenty of color to go around! The Azalea Festival originally focused on these plants; however, today, it seems to serve more as a festival of antebellum culture (the "flowers" of today's festival are the young girls who parade the festival in the traditional hoop skirts worn before/during the Civil War Era. Sadly, this was the only belle that I saw at the garden (there was a large parade and festival in downtown Wilmington, so I'm sure most of the belles were there.)

Fountain in the Spring Garden at Airlie Gardens

For me, the highlight of the garden was its true Southern charm, with twisted oak trees shrouded in Spanish moss. The garden's small ponds, which were surrounded by these trees, also served as the home to white swans and dozens of turtles; it was nice seeing a mixture of animals and plants.

Wrightsville Beach

After my walk around the gardens, I continued a few streets further east to Wrightsville Beach. Sadly, the parking situation was less than desirable at the beach (one lot wanted $20 to park for the day!) Since I wasn't planning to stay at the beach all that long (I didn't have my swim trucks...and it was far too cold to get in the water), I just parked my car illegally and ran towards the beach long enough to snap a couple pictures.

After my brief beach outing, I started downtown to attend the actual festival. Sadly, the traffic situation for the street festival was even worse than that at the beach. Since I didn't really need anything from the festival booths (and was likely to only buy high-calorie foods), I skipped the street fair and began my 2-hour trip back to Fayetteville.