13 June . 2025
From Block Parties to Ports of Call: Riverlights Neighbors Travel the World Together
Moving to a new community means all kinds of other new things, not the least of which is new friends. But here at Riverlights, itself still new and in the making, everyone is arriving within the span of several years and that creates a palpable sense of people building community together. It’s a social, friendly, easy-going, “We love it here!” kind of place.
And that is especially true on Conescu Loop where neighbors Kim and Kerstin, their husbands and many other couples have become such devoted friends they even travel together. Overseas! For weeks at a time! With even more neighbors joining. More on that later.
Kerstin and her husband arrived in June, 2021; Kim and her husband just seven months later. They met shortly thereafter, discovered all kinds of similarities and knew instantly they had found “their people.” Retired and relocated from the Virginia/DC/Maryland area, both were looking for a community that catered to their stage in life. But neither wanted an age-restricted or gated community and they each wanted to be no more than a day’s drive from the friends and family they’d left behind.
“We were looking for a walkable community that is also close to everything, and Riverlights is exactly that,” explains Kerstin, adding, “it’s just a 15-minute drive to everywhere you want to go, the beach, downtown, even the airport.” Kim adds, “music, entertainment, the theater -- Wilmington offers all of it and Riverlights makes it all so accessible.”
But while Broadway touring productions at the Wilson Theater and headline acts at Live Oak Pavilion may keep these Riverlights residents happily entertained in their new home city, it’s undoubtedly their neighbors that keep them happily entertained at home,
Their group of Riverlights friends has swelled to more than 60 people with whom they regularly gather. One couple will host the Christmas party, another the New Year’s Eve party, another Valentines. Thanksgiving, Superbowl, birthdays and retirement parties – they are all excuses for a neighborhood potluck and everyone shows up.
“But we don’t wait for holidays or planned celebrations,” says Kerstin, “Bloodies for sunrise are a perfect excuse to gather!” One of the neighbors has an app that follows the nearby Port of Wilmington traffic. “We hear a container ship will soon be passing and we all head down to Smoke to watch it glide past,” says Kerstin, referring to Riverlights’ restaurant, Smoke on the Water, which is also where the friends often gather to enjoy sunsets over the Cape Fear River.
“It’s a wonderful life here,” Kim says. “Mahjong, bocce ball, pickleball, the dog park – it’s just a very social place to be, there are so many activities.” Even when it’s time to unplug and head to the beach, Kim and Kerstin share that beach gatherings are more fun with the crowd. Securing their annual beach parking passes has become a required part of their getting-ready-for-summer routines.
But about those international adventures: with most of the group now retired, there is also the time to travel and travel they do. In January, 2024, the two couples spent five weeks on a South Pacific cruise with ports of call in Australia and New Zealand, then extended their time together on Fiji. “And we’re still friends!” jokes Kim.
Indeed! The couples, together with other Riverlights’ friends, rendezvoused in southern Spain for a European getaway, and they’ve also enjoyed a 7-week trip of back-to-back cruises, with ports of call in ten Asian countries.
While reflecting on the joys that come from their age and stage of life and their delight in Riverlights, the two friends are aware they sound like “we drank the Kool Aid,” admits Kim. And certainly, all this friendship does become its own tonic when life gets serious. “This is a community that shows up,” says Kim, “they are here when you need them.”
When illness or family sadness encroaches on the day-to-day, the Riverlights friends are ready to serve. Meal trains, dog walking, errand-running -- it all shifts into high gear, according to Kim. “This is a community that is here when you need us,” she says. And they both agree, that’s what makes Riverlights absolutely feel like home.
Which is why, even with all their splendid travel together, the friends admit one of the best parts of every trip is coming home again.