Jay Gaulard Blog

The Azalea Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina

This post was written by Kristin Gaulard

If you’re the type of person who sees a beautiful garden and can’t wait to get home and incorporate some of the ideas you’ve seen into your own backyard, take the garden tour some year at the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina. I’ve been lucky enough to have lived in Wilmington since 1998 and this tour is the highlight of the year for me.

Of course you can also attend the street fair on the beautiful Cape Fear River, or attend one or two of the “big name” concerts given in the auditorium of the UNCW campus, or take the home tour of some of the gorgeously restored homes in the downtown area, or attend the parade chock full of princesses and queens from local communities, etc., etc., but to my taste the garden tour beats all the other festivities.

A ribbon cutting at the most impressive house on the Friday of the festival starts the tour and can be attended by anybody who buys the $15 (early bird) or $20 ticket. Every cent of the proceeds which is collected by the Cape Fear Garden Club goes back to community beautification and conservation.

Not only is the home surrounded by colorful gardens exuding Southern charm, but it is adorned with high school-age belles, dressed in handmade antebellum hooped gowns, holding their delicate parasols and escorted by the extremely handsome Summerall Guards from the Citadel, South Carolina’s state-supported military college. Lording over all these youths is the queen who is the center of attention for the week.

But for me, the best part is the exploring of the gardens on the tour, which range from the manicured lawns and flower beds professionally done by landscape artists, to the hidden “secret gardens” in small spaces overflowing with the imagination of dedicated gardeners. As an added bonus, each garden has one or two of the belles welcoming you, usually with her skirt spread out under the shade of a live oak tree and her curls bouncing under her parasol.

If the hot sun gets to you, a few of the gardens are designated as “night-time” gardens and there is a magical quality walking through these special places which makes you realize how beautiful a spring evening in the South can be. As you can see I’ve been completely won over by the charm and friendliness of my new home state!

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Bear Mountian Dogs Walk For Cancer

Well, it’s another year for the Bear Mountain Dogs Walk for Cancer. I think it might be the “Dogswalk” for Cancer though. I did a post on this last year, so you already may have an idea of what goes on with the walk, but I may have better photos this time. Of course, I brought the camera with this in mind.

So basically what happens is this…you register for the walk and you go there and walk. Around the lake that is. Of course, there is the whole park to explore afterwards if you want, but the basic jist is the walk around the lake. If the Bear Mountain Inn is open, you can hang out in there too. Today, the Inn was closed for renovations.

So here goes…

This is the Bear Mountain Merry-Go-Round. This is where some radio personalities and vendors set up shop.

Ahh, the walk begins. The photo above is the first leg of the walk around Hessian Lake. The whole walk isn’t even that long…maybe 3/4 of a mile.

Who else but Holly and me? Laura took about five pictures of us on this bench, but this was the best one. Holly freaks out a little bit when the camera comes out.

These are just more pictures of Hessian Lake, from different angles. In the last one, you can see the top part of Bear Mountain Bridge.

This is a very important shot that Laura took. Doesn’t it look like I am standing on the edge of the picture?

Another important shot by Laura. Her whole family was impressed by my balancing skill.

Here we go down the last leg of the walk. This is a slight decline heading towards the canoe area and back to the big field.

Finally done. I don’t think we were as tired as the dog in the picture, but it’s a decent little workout.

After the walk is finished, some people come up to you and hand you a bag with little goodies in it. Mostly it is promotional items for dog food companies, but sometimes you get lucky with a frisbee or something. Also, the big thing is to walk around and visit all the tables giving out free stuff.

Another year down and a good tradition followed. Till next year!

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