What's Wrong with This Picture? Plus Two Great Local Event Websites

The photo on the left is the Leland office of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty. There's nothing actually wrong with it, except there are no people in view. Well . . . that will change on November 4th from 5:30PM till who-knows-when the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce holds its monthly Business After Hours at and in front of our office. We'll publish a photo here of the event after that date, but wanted to go ahead and announce it now so you can make plans. Now, yes, we know it's Election Night, so we'll have a PC or two running with the election coverage in view.

I also "found" two great websites today. One is the Star News Online Visitors Guide site, which has gorgeous photography, loads of information, and a searchable events guide. It's a great way to keep up with the multiple events that happen in this festival-happy region.

Another nifty website is sponsored by the Wilmington Downtown Business Alliance . You can use that site to discover new places to dine, shop, or stay as well as things to do downtown. There's another events calendar on that site, plus you can sign up to have event announcements e-mailed to you. Getting yet more e-mail may sound like a drag, but the latest one announcing the bands playing at local (free) events was so dramatic and well done it lead me to the DBA website . . . and ultimately with sharing it here.

Great Ice Cream AND a Foot-Stompin' Business After Hours

What an afternoon! Marge and I started our late afternoon at Flavors Ice Cream, a new ice cream parlor opposite Waterford in Leland (on the right end of the Salty Dog Exxon station and convenience store). We met with Michelle Morris, one of the owners and had some fabulous Hershey's ice cream - for the record, Marge had a single scoop cup of butter pecan and I had a double scoop cone of a marvelous concoction called Denali Bear Claw (or something like that). Stop in sometime. The shop is brightly colored, squeaky clean, and the ice cream is awesome.

There's a juke box in the corner and seating inside and out. Bring you sweet tooth and indulge.

Our next stop was a North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours. Held the first Tuesday of every month, these events are growing in popularity, in the quality of the food provided, and even in the entertainment. This month's Business After Hours was hosted by Sheila Hanby's Capeside Animal Hospital in front of Waterford. Sheila pulled out all the stops with
catering by Charley MacGrooders including passed roast beef and shrimp hors d'ouevres with spicy jambalaya and pot stickers, plus beer, wine, soda, nice desserts and some suspicious-looking syringes filled with something red (one suspects but doesn't know for sure, the something red rhymes with "jello shots").

The foot-stomping music provided by a seven-piece bluegrass band, an impromptu gathering of musicians that may or may not have called itself the Hometown Bluegrass Band (depending on who you talked to) was a big hit. This was business networking at its best: good food, drink, music, and friends. Thanks, Sheila, you set the bar high.

Contest #1 - Name the Hotel Chain

OK, so the name of this contest is . . . . "Name the Hotel Chain". If you can tell from the slick new slab in this photo which hotel chain is going to pop out of the ground in the next 12 months or so, and if you're the first one to comment on this blog with the correct answer . . . . than bada bing! You win a prize! The prize could be lunch in the restaurant that may or may not be built beside the hotel, but that's pushing it out too far. So . . . the prize is an autographed copy of the Eleventh Editon of the Insider's Guide to North Carolina's Southern Coast and Wilmington.

Now, granted, it will be autographed by me, so that part has no value, and it's not exactly the latest edition (2004) but it is a cool guide loaded with many interesting tidbits about our area.

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