Pine Knoll Shores/Atlantic Beach- reasonably $$, family-friendly accomodations?

[BetsyPage]

As a NC native, I'm shocked and aghast that my 5 yo has spent about 30 minutes playing on the beach on a day trip, and my almost 3 yo has never been, lol. Anyway, I'd love to do a short weekend trip to the beach and also visit the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

So, looking for advice/ideas for:
-When this spring/summer we should go
-Where to stay, or how to find a place to stay (some kitchen facilities a plus, even if just a mini-fridge)
-Favorite restaurants etc that kids are welcome at

And any other neat things to do in the area. I have very fair-skinned kids, so we will probably need some activities not on the beach...

Thanks!

[gemasita]

We stayed here once: http://www.williamandgarlandmotel.com/. The decor is outdated but it's cheap and we cooked meals in the room. The mobile homes are probably pretty roomy and still cheap.

Fort Macon is lots of fun and free!

[BetsyPage]

Yeah, we have visited Fort Macon many times, that's really the place I know about. I love it! We used to go to this area all the time growing up, but we usually stayed on my dad's sailboat docked near New Bern and drove over.

Thanks for the recommendation!

[ktarsha]

Oooh, I love the aquarium! Fort Macon is good, too. If you go in mid-June, there's an arts festival in Swansboro; not sure of the dates, though.

I don't know about accommodations, but we're all about the restaurants:
Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City has been a standby for my family as long as I can remember. The kids will enjoy watching boats tie up right outside the restaurant.

The Big Oak is our favorite place to get shrimp burgers.

For breakfast, we like Yana's in Swansboro. There's also a restaurant at the end of the same street that we enjoyed for dinner. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the name of it was The Gourmet Cafe.

Also, fairly good for kids, and serving the absolute best crab bisque I've ever had, is the Channel Marker.

[gemasita]

We LOVE Swansboro! Although we don't have kids. We did kayak there last time. They also have kite festivals sometimes. Take a kite, definitely!