5 - Topsail Island, NC

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Hey everyone, welcome back to the Biscuits and Gravy podcast. I'm Michelle, I'm your host. And today we are talking about Topsail Island, North Carolina. So if you didn't listen to my last episode, I would suggest you go back and listen to episode number four, which was about the saltwater sweets on Topsil Island, because really the whole reason that we went to Topsil Island was for the saltwater sweets. I had learned about them through

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some other accounts on Instagram and it looked like a really neat place and it did not disappoint. So if you haven't listened to episode 4, go back and listen to that one. And I would suggest that you guys try Saltwater Sweets. Honestly like it was it was more than I expected. It was clean. It was comfy. It was they had all the amenities that you could ever imagine at.

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a place that you stay at the beach. They had bicycles to rent for free. They had a ping pong table. They had corn hole. They had, they have a washer and dryer in every room. They have a full kitchen, fully equipped with all of the things that you would have at home. So it was amazing. I highly, highly recommend, and I've already heard from some people.

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had listened to the episode and decided to book their vacation this year at Saltwater Suites using our 10% off discount code. I'm so thrilled for you. I can't wait to hear how your vacation turns out. If you missed that code it's BISCUITS2023 and that'll get you 10% off your total for your trip.

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until the end of the year. So book your vacation in the next little while and get 10% off. So today's episode, I just want to kind of run down the other places that we visited while we were on Topsell. We were not familiar with Topsell. I think Adam used to go when he was younger, like very young, so he did not really remember anything about Topsell and I had never been to Topsell.

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So it was a whole new experience. We had read that it would take 30 minutes to drive from one end of the island to the other. And I just thought that was crazy. I did not realize it was that big. So the first night that we were there, I had heard about this little taco bar called Shaka, Shaka, taco.

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That's hard for me to say, I don't know why. Shaka taco. And they have all kinds of tacos. They had, I think I got a fish taco. Adam got some sort of taco bowl. So he had like some pico on the side and beans. And I think he had some sort of fish.

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Possibly and he is it might have been pork. I can't remember. That's the problem with doing these episodes long after I Go somewhere. I need to just get in the habit of Immediately recording the episode when we get back from some some trips so that I don't forget anything and I know some of the kids got like nachos like chicken nachos there It is all outdoor seating

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I think it's a pretty happening place. It was busy when we went that first night and that was a Sunday night. And it's right there on the main street, right there kind of in the center of the town. And I believe just from looking at their social media that they have a lot of.

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live bands that play out there and some different things. They have a good Instagram account if you want to check them out. It's very interactive. So, Shaka Taco. It was very good food. It's not... I would say it's not going to be a place where you just leave feeling stuffed unless you unless you get more than one dish.

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I feel like the portions were pretty small, but that could be a good thing that you don't leave feeling sick because you're so stuffed. So I would not count that as a negative towards choco taco at all. Okay, so we spent most of the time just relaxing. I think I said this in our...

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episode about saltwater suites that really we wanted somewhere to stay that was going to be comfortable enough for us just to hang out around the hotel because we work so hard. Our family just, you know, we work really hard. We have, we work full time from our farm.

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and my husband also works full-time off the farm and we have other properties and things that we have to manage with animals and things. So we work all the time and when we go on vacation we aren't really the people that will go go go and do all the things while we're on vacation. We really go on vacation to rest because since we do work from home it is very hard to rest here

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When we go on vacation, we want to have somewhere that's comfortable enough just for us to sleep in You know watch some TV. We don't do a whole lot of that at home and Just relax just you know sit and read and drink coffee and walk out on the beach and that kind of thing. So So that's really that was really our goal So we didn't really go to a lot of different places while we were at Topsil Island, but We did one day

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ride from one tip of the island to the other. We had heard from an employee at the saltwater suites that there was a bookstore that the kids might like that was called quarter moon and it was towards the southern end of the island. So we visited quarter moon. They have a bookstore, they have coffee there, it's a wine bar. So it was a really neat little place. It was small.

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But it was a neat little place. I was glad we got to go in there. The kids had fun looking at the books and all the little knickknacks in there. They had like art prints for sale and all kinds of stuff. That was just kind of a very eclectic mix of goods in that store. So we enjoyed that. Another place that we stopped was, well, I have

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The boys in my family, including their father, are, they are ice cream addicts. And I mean that literally, they are. I don't love ice cream. I will eat ice cream every once in a while. It's not my favorite, but it's not anything that I ever crave or like I've got to have ice cream or anything like that, but it is for my boys. And so,

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they had been eyeing some ice cream shops for this entire trip. So we ended up going to an ice cream shop called Sweet Island and it was, um, it was right there in the middle of town. Um, I was kind of concerned, not concerned, but I was kind of just a little bit, um, hesitant because it looked very commercially just, you know, like a chain kind of.

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ice cream place and I really love to patronize places that are just you know smaller locally owned little hole-in-the-wall places, but We did stop at this place and they had really good ice cream. It was very touristy because You know they had it was just like any kind of beach Store they had all the little knickknacks with you know, Topsoil Island on it and

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actually... funny... I actually bought a little silicone wedding band. And so that's where I got my silicone wedding band. It was very cheap. And yeah, but the ice cream was good. The staff was very friendly. So that was a good start for everybody. I think everybody was pleased with that.

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One evening we drove off the island and I'm trying to remember how long it took us to get there but we went to Sneeds Ferry which is very close to Topsill Island. It's just on the mainland and I think it took us probably about 30 minutes or so to get there but I had heard about a restaurant that had really good ratings and a lot of people online were talking about it and it was called

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but it so it was a great setting and I am a sucker for a great atmosphere great setting for a restaurant sometimes I can forgive uh even not the best food for in place of a really good atmosphere um but we got crab legs well okay I take that back we did not get crab legs Travis got crab legs our oldest son um

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and he had never gotten crab legs before. And let me tell you, crab legs ain't cheap. And we are not used to ordering stuff like that, but they are delicious. So we all kind of shared a little bit with him, but they were really his. And I was glad he ate them because of all my children, he is my pickiest eater. So, but he does love meat. So I'm glad that he ate his crab legs and he loved them.

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Adam got some sort of fish stew that was good. The girls got salads. I think they got shrimp salads. But everything was good there. I was pretty pleased with it. And like I said, the setting, being on the water is probably my favorite part, even more so than the food.

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So then we headed out. We stayed Sunday to Wednesday. So the two full days that we had there, Monday and Tuesday, I just shared with you about what we did those days. One day we, I don't think we went anywhere. We really just relaxed and spent time on the beach and that kind of thing.

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It was super windy when we were there, so we didn't spend like hours and hours on the beach, but we did walk out there. The beach was not crowded. It was amazing. This was the middle, no, excuse me. This was the end of April that we went beginning of May, and it was pretty deserted. So I was surprised. I don't know what Topsoil Island looks like right now, mid-June. I don't know, but

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When we went it was very nice and not crowded at all. So the last day on Wednesday when we headed out, we had, again, my family loves donuts and things. I'm not a big sweet person. I just don't eat a lot of sweets. And so they wanted some donuts, because that is like a beach necessity is that you always have to get a box of donuts wherever you go.

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So we went to, on the way out, we went to Daybreak Donuts, which happened to be right beside of Sunrise Bagel Company. And I had heard about both of these places from some other Instagram accounts. And so I was curious to try them out. Of course, Adam, I let Adam just go in and order. He was like, you want me just to surprise you? I was like, sure. He knew that mama doesn't love donuts for breakfast. Like I...

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want food. To me, donuts are not food. So much to the dismay of my family, I don't serve stuff like that at home very much like sweets and things because I just feel like we should probably start our day off on something better than that. But this was vacation so I allowed it and Adam picked them up some

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regular glazed donuts and some, I think they were like cinnamon blueberry donuts maybe or something like that. They looked good. I don't think I actually tried any. I might have tried one of the cinnamon ones at some point during our ride home, but I don't remember anything about it. But the kids liked it and Adam liked it and said they were good. But he did go over to Sunrise Bagel Company and got me a delicious bagel.

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It was a bacon, egg and cheese bagel and it was so good. I was like, wow, I should eat every sandwich on a bagel. This is amazing. So I was pretty pleased with my breakfast, of course, that day going out. And the kids were also because they don't mind donuts for breakfast at all. Mama's the only one that has a problem with that. So that was our trip to Topsil Island. It was...

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Really fun, I anticipate us going back again next year. As I said in the saltwater suites episode, saltwater suites is actually building another, it's called a resort, a saltwater resort, and they are gonna have a pool there and a conference center. So it's gonna be a little bit bigger of a property.

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than the Saltwater Suites, but Saltwater Suites was very, very comfortable. Like I said, all of you that have booked your vacations there already are in for a treat, I believe, because it was a very unique stay, very comfortable. The check-in and check-out process is super easy. They give you a code. You don't have to go check in at an office like you do at some hotels.

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it was just it was so easy and so minimal that that's what i love. i love ease, comfort, simplicity in a vacation. i don't like to have to interact with a ton of people or anything like that. and they have it's very modern as far as like the way that you communicate with them. if you if you need to they have inside of the door they have a qr code that you can scan if you need

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need to get in touch with the office for any reason then you can do that. But like I said so many amenities, so much comfort, I really just don't have anything negative to say about saltwater suites. But we do anticipate going back again next year hopefully to stay at the resort to check that one out and do a review for you guys on that just to compare it to the saltwater suites. But it's by

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owner so I believe it's going to be very very similar and I anticipate it being the same level of comfort and convenience and everything so so if you guys want to book your own vacation to saltwater sweets and check out Topsoil Island for yourself don't forget to use our discount code Biscuits 2023 for 10% off I will put that as well as their website which is saltwatertopsoil.com

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That is how you will use your code to book your vacation. And booking direct with them will give you the cheapest rates that you'll find on the internet. So not going through any kind of third party or anything is your best option to book directly with Saltwater Sweets. And then using our discount code on top of that will give you a really, really nice discount. Something else that Saltwater Sweets does well

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that you know a lot of these condo style places require a minimum stay of like three days at least. Well saltwater does not do that. You can stay one night if you want to. You do not have to book for several nights to get a booking. So that's another great feature about this property. So all right well that is all for today's episode. I hope you guys are having a great summer so far. We are having so much fun.

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just taking a break from school and relaxing. I'm doing lots of reading and I'm actually doing some knitting which I have not sat down to do in probably years, honestly. And this week, I've been watching Murder, She Wrote a lot. So that's like my oldie but goodie show when I'm wanting to relax and just, you know, chill out and sit and do some knitting.

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snuggle with the kids and things because you know it's hard to find stuff online but it's hard to find things to watch with your children that are appropriate for everybody and that is entertaining for everybody and my kids actually like that show as well so so that's what we've been doing this week but I hope you guys are doing well and enjoying your summer and please check out our Instagram

18:12
it's Biscuits and Gravy podcast on Instagram and then also our website where I will actually add some pictures from our stays. So each episode has its own page on our website and I upload pictures that you won't be able to see. Obviously listening to a podcast but if you click through to our website you'll be able to see the pictures that are associated with our cert our

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Particular stays that we're discussing on the on the podcast. So and that's just biscuits and gravy podcast calm So thank you guys for listening. I look forward to talking to you again soon. Bye