A surprise dinner at Wilmington

Hi there F&F ,
Day 13.
Today you get two days as Wifi not so good where we were docked in Wilmington.We are so glad we made this diversion.Maybe wouldn't return except for the restaurant but more later on that one! We woke up to a cold , windy and cloudy day. Would have been easy just to stay curled up with a book for the day in the cosy boat ,but we need the exercise ( one downside of cruising is lack of  opportunity to exercise) And as for trying Pilates on the boat, forget it!We set off to explore the town and find the trolley tour of the historic area and check out the restaurants for our evening meal tonight. Turns out the trolley tours are not operating  in December expect for Saturdays, so armed with a map we did our own.This town is full of lovely old homes one after another. Each with a plaque giving the history of the house. We also made a lovely River Walk along the Cape Fear river where there are lots of shops and restaurants all with a view of the river. We picked out a nice looking restaurant called Pilot House on the waterfront ( a favorite with the locals )  and returned  there after a leisurely afternoon. The waitress suggested where we should sit even though it was free sitting.Turns out we were put next to a group of 6 business people  who were fairly noisy , but in a happy kind of way. But so what, the meal was fabulous ? I had salmon en papilotte which I would go back for any day! When Graeme asked for the check, the waitress said the table next to us was paying our check! Turns out another couple had sat at our table and then asked to move because of the noise . So,we walked out having had a free meal.Extraordinary! We walked back along the waterfront.Apparently there were meteor showers in the sky thought we didn't see any. There is quite a current running in the river so we heard a fair amount of slapping on the hull when the tides changed.But ear plugs really help so we were not too bothered.
Over and out
Erica