Atlantic Beach, Fudge Town

Since Jennifer's mom Laura and her husband Graham live in Alliance, North Carolina, we're able to make the 3-hour drive several times a summer, and have relatively quick access to the beaches in places like Atlantic Beach.

So we left Friday evening for Alliance with the Traveling Roths and Rabin in the truck.

We went to Atlantic Beach on Saturday.
Why this beach, other than the convenience?

• the beach is wide
• you can bring your dog (not that we did)
• you can bring your beer (not that we did)
• no beach tags
• free parking

(the beach is ~ 200 meters directly behind us here. Convenient!)

Another reason for choosing this beach is because of the Italian Ice place on the "boardwalk." (It should really be called "sidewalk," as there are no boards involved.) They get their stuff from somewhere in Philly, and it's the only place we know of in NC where you can get any Italian Ice. Tristan got Watermelon, Zoe got Tropical Passionfruit, Jennifer got Lemon, and I got Banana Dacquri. All for $5 (plus tax).

To be fair, Atlantic Beach is a little rednecky. One of the unwritten rules are that if you're female you must be > 150 lbs, wear a bikini, and have a tatoo, or several. I did not photograph this, so you can put away your eye bleach.

We took Tristan's obligatory Muscle Man photo:

Not to be outdone, Zoe offers her Muscle Woman pose.

We got cleaned up at the free showers, and headed up the street to Beaufort, home of one Blackbeard the Pirate.

Beaufort has been renamed to "Fudge Town" by Zoe, so here she is posing in front of one of the fudge stores.
We checked out the town a little, and took a few pictures by the waterfront, because the light was great.
Going on the recommendation of Mark Leedom, we decided to eat at Clawson's. We didn't know anything about the place really, other than that someone had recommended it, and that put it one notch above any other place in town.

Clawson's did not disappoint. The inside was really cool and eclectic. Since it was shoulder season, there were no crowds.

I enjoyed the "Four for $4" beer sampler, with somebody's IPA, Hell's Angel, Dead Guy Ale, and Yuengling Lager.

Zoe did not enjoy the beer sampler.

Since they had Shrimp and Grits on the menu, Jennifer and I had to try that. Zoe had chicken fingers while Tristan had pasta with tomato sauce.

We went back to the second fudge place for dessert; maple fudge for Jennifer, ice cream for Zoe and I, and a gigantic lollipop for Tristan.

Tristan swears he's never going to get a lollipop that big again. This I find hard to believe.

We walked around the town a little more, then headed back to Alliance.