It’d been years since I just watched the sunrise with no place to be and no one around. It was 6:17 a.m., and my 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter was still fast asleep in our oceanfront condo’s king bed. I had a hot mug of coffee between my hands, keeping them warm as the soft cool sea breeze washed over me. It was now blue hour, the moments before the sun peeks over the ocean’s horizon and starts to wake up the world. The rhythm of the waves was mesmerizing, allowing me to drift away in my own thoughts. There wasn’t a phone alert and vibration to ruin the mood. I was, for the first time in weeks, completely at ease and relaxed.
I hadn’t come to Kure Beach, a small beach community at the end of a peninsula in southern North Carolina to unplug, it just happened.
Kure Beach- pronounced Kur-E was the cure for my overworked brain and tired muscles.
While planning for our beach trip, I knew we wanted to stay oceanfront. The two-bedroom condos available to rent from Palm Air Realty, colored in pastel Key West hues, were the perfect backdrop for our getaway. With my parents in tow, we knew we wanted a small kitchen area and a deck so we could cook one or two meals in and have that ocean view as our backdrop.
Each morning we woke up and took a long leisurely walk on the beach and most of time, we were the only people along the coast. My daughter and mother usually ran ahead, while my husband and I hung back to soak it all in.
Our first morning we dined at Kure Beach Diner. Augustine had pancakes the size of her head, and I tried the ginormous biscuit. The portions were large, the food was delicious, and the view wasn’t horrible either as we could easily see the rolling waves from our booth seats.
Afterward, we walked the length of the fishing pier, where we would later rent a pole and strike up conversations with the locals, including the pelicans that called the end of the pier home. We caught a few fish and watched as others caught a lot more. Again, though there was casual conversation that flowed like the current, there wasn’t any pressure to be somewhere else or a feeling like we were on a timetable.
Another afternoon, after a long nap, we wandered down to Fort Fisher, where we took a tour of the Civil War battlefield, watched the surfers and built a sandcastle near the dunes.
Our guide at Fort Fisher, Ray Flowers, has lived in Kure Beach his entire life. After his continued visits to Fort Fisher as a young child, he knew he wanted to work there too. His passion about its history was electric, and, while I didn’t know if I would care too much about this particular two-day battle in 1865, his passion made me fanatical about it. It’s such a rare gift to do something you truly love, and Ray’s commitment and love really left an impression on me. I’m so thankful he was our guide.
After the tour, we stayed around the area for sunset, where we walked across the same battlefield lawn and watched the sun sink behind the Intracoastal Waterway.
We drove back up to the pier and had our final dinner at Freddie’s Restaurant (next to Kure Beach Diner). I didn’t know what to expect from an Italian restaurant at the beach, but their seafood special pasta was divine and put me in a food coma for the rest of the night. We loved their wine selection too and it really put a proper cheers into our entire stay.
Kure Beach, I can’t thank you enough for your hospitality. You recharged me in a way I didn’t even know was possible, and my entire family can’t wait to plan a return visit.
