Weekend in New Bern, NC Part 2

Joe and Karen's house

We left Joe & Karen's cute house around 9 Sunday morning to head to Swansboro which was about a 45 minute drive.  They had a place they wanted us to try for breakfast which was filled with Elvis and Marilyn Monroe tchotchke.  A tight little space, filled to the brim which tells you the food must be great.  We were not disappointed.

 Yes.  Those are hot apple fritters…deep fried, sprinkled with powered sugar and topped with whipped cream and cherries.  Holy cow were they good!  As they were an appetizer for breakfast, it's a good thing the four of us shared this order.  Apparently they also have banana and peach in season.  The owner, Yana, was an older woman with big white hair, bright clothes and big 'ol smile on her face.  I stopped after we ate to tell her how wonderful our food was and she couldn't have been nicer.  Been running the place for 30 years.

 After breakfast we headed across the street to a wonderful shop run by an artist.  Karen bought some things for their house and we had a long conversation with the lady who owns the place.  She's in a wheelchair but is a painter and has several other shops in other towns.  She was delightful telling us about her history and how she and her husband rehabbed the awesome building.  People in the south are so friendly and fun to talk with.

We drove further along the water into Beaufort (Bofort) and did a little more shopping in the the cute places along the water.  The weather was so nice!

 We didn't need lunch but we did feel compelled to stop for a blizzard at DQ on the ride home.  When we arrived Tom and Joe moved a treadmill upstairs while Karen napped and I read.  After a couple of hours we went to a great Mexican restaurant for some yummy food then stopped at the dock to see their new boat.  Not great photos because of the dark but it's awesome!

 One of two bedrooms.  Nice kitchen space and two bathrooms with showers.  Lots of outdoor space as well.  And yep, had to try out Tom's new eye piece.

The rest of the evening was spent playing with Maggie and Marina while watching the Academy Awards.

We got up the next morning so we could see Joe before he took off for work.  The big TITAN storm was moving in so we decided we had better leave as well.  Worst case if we had to stop somewhere to wait out the storm we could.  Had a quick breakfast at the house then followed Joe into town.  He had wanted to show us Mitchell's Hardware store but it had been closed on Sunday. But it opened bright and early Monday morning so we got to check it out.  What fun!

This is Mitchell's bear.  New Bern is jam packed with bears dressed in all different types of clothing, costumes or just decorated up really cute.  The town itself is very charming and we had a great time.

We finally headed out and made it about a couple of hours before it started raining, then sleet then snow once we hit VA.  But because everything was closed there was hardly anyone on the road for the most part so driving wasn't that bad and when there were a lot of cars we were going slowly so it was fine.  We made it home by 5pm safely after a wonderful (and warm) weekend AND Tom had Tuesday off so we got to have that "day after" vacation!