I visited a small beach called Holden Beach about a week ago. Its south of Wilmington with about a 30-35 minute drive. I knew there was a Holden Beach, but I had never been there before. I’ve been to Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, Oak Island and Sunset Beach, but never Holden Beach. I say once you’ve seen one beach, you’ve seen them all, but this beach was rather charming. Its small, (compared to some of it’s sister beaches) serene and rather pristine. Its probably one of North Carolina’s best kept secrets.

Heres are some pics (unaltered)








That's me Parasailing ...

The first picture is of Wilmington’s historic down-town River Walk section. The empty dock you see directly behind the sailboat is where the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Diligence stays moored.

http://www.uscg.mil/lantarea/cgcDiligence/

Diligence was featured in the 1980 film: The Island (along with her sister ship the Dauntless)


The second picture is from the NC Battle Ship Memorial, the home of the USS North Carolina (BB-55) She is the most decorated battle ship of WWII, earning a staggering 15 Battle Stars. She is also one of the most famous battle ships of WWII.

http://www.battleshipnc.com/index.html

I always found it quite strange that they filmed so many movies there. Some random city in North Carolina? It's not exactly Hollywood, is it?
Actually, I think I have might have visited Wilmington once, I don't remember too well. I even took a few pictures while i was there. Here's one of them, and Neptune you can tell me if this is or isn't Wilmington, I not 100% sure



Btw, I think the picture was taken from some old WWII battleship we visited that which was docked in the bay.

I also saw this beautiful Honda Accord SE-i (a very rare trim level made only for the 1989 model year) in the parking lot of the battleship site

The reason so many major motion picture films and TV-Shows are filmed in and around the Wilmington area is because Wilmington is home to EUE / Screen Gems Studios, the largest full-service film studio on the east cost. Also the fact that North Carolina offers ridiculous filming incentives, dosen’t hurt either.

http://www.euescreengems.com/#

I checked wikipedia and it looks like they've filmed many movies and tv shows in Wilmington. Michael Jordan was born there! The only major movie filmed in Bloomington, Indiana where I live was Breaking Away.

I’ve been here in the Wilmington area all my life (born and raised here) I actually thought of moving once, (further down south) but nothing ever came of that. But I figured where else other than Hollywood, do you get to see Katie Holmes, Julianne Moore, Martin Lawrence, Lake Bell, John Travolta, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Queen Latifah, Jessica Biel and Sandra Bullock – just to name a few. I guess that’s one of the perks of living here.

Hahahaha...that was the first post when I realized you were in Wilmington too. I love it here. We visited Wilmington (originally from the Washington DC area) since about 1999 when friends moved down here (good friend was a stand-in on Dawson's Creek) After a few years of visiting we bought our first house that we've been renovating about 5 years ago, then bought the house we're living in the year after that because we thought we could keep an eye on our contractor. Then when he totally started to screw us over we moved down the next year to keep an eye on him...which after that he went MIA. So I've only been officially a Wilmingtonian for about 3 years.

I had a bunch of friends go to Australia for the Y2K New Years...I so wanted to go but we didn't plan ahead. One day we'll make it over there.

Victoria, Australia? I certainly was way off ...
I would, at some point, like to visit Australia (I’ve never been there)

No, I live in Victoria, Australia! But I would love to vist, seing i've only been to the West Coast of USA (California and las Vegas).

I don’t know ahight personally, just here on the site. We realized we lived near each other after I made a comment about a Ford dealership here in Wilmington (See link below)

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=62197

I take it you live near Wilmington, or at least in North Carolina, no?