Kindred Spirit Mailbox-Sunset Beach, NC

A few years ago I heard about a mailbox (Kindred Spirit) on a beach off the coast of North Carolina. I blogged about it and thought that if I was ever that way, I would make a trip to see this interesting mailbox. 

Fast forward a few years... My mom and I always read Nicholas Sparks books. As it is our tradition, she buys his books the day they come out, reads it, and then gifts it to me. I am a proud owner of all of the Nicholas Sparks books. Well his newest one "Every Breathe" came out in October and as tradition goes, I was given the book. To my surprise, he got the idea for the book from Kindred Spirit!

My mom and I talked about how great the book was and decided this year, for our annual Birthday adventure (we have the same birthday), we would go to North Carolina to see the Kindred Spirit mailbox! We mentioned it to my cousin who also loves Nicholas Sparks so she and her husband decided to meet us there for our adventure!

We stayed at an adorable Airbnb in Wilmington, NC for the weekend and on Saturday morning started our adventure to Kindred Spirit. Kindred Spirit is located on Bird Island in Sunset Beach, NC which is about an hour drive from Wilmington. We found some directions online and it said to park on 40th street, where there are only about 4 parking spots available as it is pretty much a residential resort area. Once you are parked, you walk down a long boarded walkway to the beach. When you get on the sand you will see a sign that says Kindred Spirit is to the right (away from the pier) and to walk about 1.4 miles and it will be up in the sand dunes. There used to be a flag that you would be able to spot, but I think hurricane Florence might have taken that down as there wasn't one there when we went to visit!

The walk was very relaxing. It isn't a very crowded beach and the sand is flat and compact (so much so, that you can ride your bike on it). It was a warm day during our adventure, but there was a refreshing breeze which made it nice. 

We were walking along and I was the first one out of our group to spot the mailbox and I got so excited! There was no one there, so that gave me a good chance to get some photos and enjoy the moment with just the four of us!

After we were there for about 20 minutes, several groups of women started gathering on the beach to visit the mailbox, so we were glad we had a little while to really take in the excitement of it all and read some of the letters inside. After I read a few, I wrote a little note myself in one of the notebooks.

Then we headed down towards the water where I gifted my Mom and Cousin with bracelets I had made to remember the trip by. They both loved them and were excited to wear them. I also have similar ones that I have made and they are for sale in my Etsy shop!

If you ever get the chance to check out Kindred Spirit, I highly recommend it. Some of the locals in town said it has gotten busier now that Nicholas Sparks has written about it, but in the cooler months, it is less crowded. Check out their official website for more info.

xo,

ellen