More Pender County Restaurants! Keep checking our Facebook page daily for changes and new restaurants adding Take Out Options! We are still encouraging you to pick up your breakfast, lunch, & dinner from our local restaurants & businesses.

What are you craving? Need a break from cooking here are some great places in Hampstead to order take out, delivery or to go! Also check out places in Burgaw, Surf City and more to satisfy those cravings! Burrito Shak is our newest addition. They just opened back up for take out today! Check them out and other restaurants that are providing take out, delivery and curbside! Call ahead and pick up at the curb!

You can still support your local restaurants and businesses while practicing social distancing! Support your favorite local businesses & shops! Call ahead to check hours & availability, place an order, & some offer curbside pickup! Many of our favorite shops have much to offer from kid favorites, to puzzles, arts&crafts, gifts for any occasion, greeting cards, clothing, candy, & fudge! # shoplocal...

It's DINNER TIME!!! Take a break from cooking and pick up one or more of the great take-out options in Surf City! You can still support your local restaurants and businesses while practicing social distancing! Many places even deliver! *BE SURE TO CALL AHEAD*

Support your local businesses & shops that are still open and operating at this time as the COVID-19 has impacted our business & tourist communities! Tourism is here to support your businesses. Tourism is working to also share other businesses & local shops throughout Pender County! #shoplocal #supportsmallbusinesses #shoppender

Eat Local Burgaw! Support your local Restaurants! The Town of Burgaw is still up and running just in a different way. Be sure to order your take out before you have to cook more! Stay tuned for our eateries that are open on Topsail Island , Hampstead, North Carolina and other area's of Pender County! A page designed with local resturant menus and information on open eateries. Call the restuarants for more...

There’s a song by the Who called “Who Are You.” And with 107 turtles in house we’re sometimes asking not only who they are but where they are. When I say that there are turtles everywhere I really mean that there are turtles everywhere! Normally we have turtles in two areas; Sea Turtle Bay (the big house) and Sea Turtle Sick Bay, the first stop for any new admits and turtles requiring on-going...

ROCKY POINT – For those under the age of 60, it’s almost impossible to imagine segregated public schools. African Americans were taxed to support a public-school system, but it was up to them to build schools and provide bus service for their children. In 1917, the African American citizens of Rocky Point collected $400 for a four-room school building. The county and the Julius Rosenwald Fund supplemented...

Sea Turtle Hospital News Update Space – the final frontier (Star Trek music plays in the background….) Maybe, but if you’re a sea turtle the chances of blasting to the moon are slim to none. However there is another frontier - our oceans - and our turtles have been exploring it for eons. They’ve seen things we humans will never see and they’re telling us about what’s going on...

Founded in 1903 as C. Harrell and Sons, Harrell's Department Store has been owned and operated by the Harrell family for 116 years . (Yes, you read that right!). Vernon Harrell, the current owner and manager of the store, began helping at the family business at just 13 years old. In 2016, when Vernon's father Charles passed away, it was Vernon's turn to carry on the family legacy. Vernon now owns the business...

Carolina Sisters is the brain&heart-child of Angie & Kelly Longley -- lifetime friends who became actual sisters. Located at 115 S Wright St. in Burgaw, Carolina Sisters is your one stop shop for everything fashionable. Their shop-- full of trendy clothes, jewelry, and accessories-- is perfectly accented by both sisters' welcoming and warm personalities. Tastefully styled shelves and decor boast a variety...

“Rusty, funky, and junky” is how Jennifer Matthews, owner and operator of The Old Farm Shed, describes her eclectic mix of wares. The store, which is now located at 111 W Fremont St. in downtown Burgaw, originally occupied a much smaller footprint upon its opening in 2014. Matthews opened The Old Farm Shed to fill what she saw as a gap in the downtown shopping scene, and it looks like her vision was 20/20! Her...

Persistence, support, and a love for the game. To the sports fans among us, these are probably qualities that describe your ideal athlete. If you're a Burgaw resident, you're lucky enough to have someone like that right in your backyard. We’re talking about Desmond Jordan, of course, a third generation Pender County resident, and the owner, operator, and lead trainer at The House of Gains. Nestled...

If it seems like almost every story coming out of our hospital these days is about cold stunned turtles it’s because the story at the hospital these days is cold stun turtles. How many turtles? Right now we have over one-hundred (103 and probably climbing) patients in house and about ninety percent of them are recent victims of the cold weather. And if you’re wondering where we put them all the answer is pretty...

Even though we’ve recently been appreciating those daytime temps in the 70’s cold stun season is definitely here. Right before Christmas we admitted 22 turtles found on North Carolina beaches - one good-sized loggerhead and 21 small greens. They were in pretty rough shape, sometimes more barnacle, mud and algae than turtle. Last week, two more were brought in. For years we’ve emphasized that our...

As the weather and the waters turn chilly, the doors of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital close to visitors – that’s human visitors, specifically. However, the hospital doors swing wide to accept new patients. And it’s time for an influx of cold stunned turtles. These poor little creatures get caught in chilly waters and it distresses their systems. Sea turtles, as in all reptiles, rely...

How about a “honey” of a story for Christmas week, and no cold stuns were harmed in this one. Back in June the fishing was good and the turtles were taking advantage of the easy pickings along the inshore waters. Regular readers know by now that it always seems to be the Kemp’s Ridleys who get themselves in trouble by eating anything dangling in front of them. This little critter was no exception....

He’s here – our first local cold stun of this season. And as usual it’s a little green who didn’t get the memo that he should have started heading out of Dodge and into warmer waters. On Nov. 14, the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation received a call from some very alert folks in Surf City who noticed a little turtle struggling in the canal on 9th Street. We’ve been passing...

The Hampstead Women's Club is returning with their biggest holiday sale of the year on Dec. 5, 12 - 6 p.m., Dec. 6, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 7, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Throughout the year, as the club receives holiday-themed donations, they save those speciality buys for this big event. The Christmas Bazaar is such an area favorite, known for great buys, shoppers line up at the doors on Thursday. Throughout...

PENDER COUNTY – Dust off the sleigh and get ready to mark your calendars for holiday events. There’s a tremendous amount of Christmas Spirit right here in Pender County. We’re going to list the events in chronological order. Several events kick off before Thanksgiving. There’s a reason for that! This year Thanksgiving is late, leaving only two weekends in December for holiday events –...

Sea Turtle Hospital News We’re all enjoying our spectacular North Carolina October weather, but Mother Nature will undoubtedly surprise us with a cold snap or two soon. And that means we’ll start to see our first influx of cold-stunned turtles. Hopefully most of these critters have started migrating either farther out to the Gulf Stream or headed south toward the Gulf Coast. But there are always stragglers...

VisitNC, the state tourism office, asked all tourism professionals across the state to think pet-friendly. They wanted people to submit applications for a dog travel agent who would demonstrate that we are pet-friendly North Carolina. Perhaps we are the most pet-friendly beaches on the Carolina Coast. And we wanted to woof about it. Lisa Sparrow of Starfish Realty raised her hand. She said she had the best travel...

Sea Turtle Hospital News The 2019 nesting season is coming to a close with 177 nests, just short of our record of 181. It’s been a hectic and grueling summer for our Topsail Turtle Project volunteers who have hoofed probably thousands of miles looking for tracks, spent countless hours on their knees digging up and relocating nests laid in perilous locations and then lost (and continue to lose) sleep as they sit...

Three hikes happening in Pender County BURGAW – Pender County is celebrating the birthday of the Mountains to Sea Trail (MST) with three family-friendly hikes in Burgaw, Currie, and Surf City. “We are pleased to host three birthday hikes this year,” said Tammy Proctor, Pender County tourism director. “Each hike is diverse and fun for all ages.” The hike in Burgaw, which will...

Here on Topsail that sound we’re now hearing late at night is the pitter-patter of tiny flippers scurrying down to the surf. With the official nesting season ending on August 30th our Turtle Project volunteers are spending much more of their beach time in the dark as hundreds of babies start that perilous journey, hoping to be the one out of the thousands of their siblings that actually makes it. Back at the...