Last day before heading home!

Weather is really yukky today. But we are not about to stay cooped up in the condo, no matter how nice it is! Not raining - yet - but the wind is ferocious.

We drove into town (New Bern) and found yet another quilt shop. Woo-hoo! The New Bern Fabric Center is a very nice shop with wonderful staff, and they are the local Bernina rep. There was a Pfaff dealer down the road but they weren't open. At the fabric center, I picked up some seersucker to make me a summer dress and some quilt fabric as well.

After that, we headed to our main destination for the day - the New Bern Antiques & Collectibles Mall. Nice shop! A lot of stalls for individual/independent vendors to display their wares.

We were deceived by the size - it seemed small from the outside - but it has several wings! I found a Spode thimble to add to my collection and a Pfaltzgraff cake plate (for $5!!!) for a friend. Not a bad day!

Got back to our condo to find a message from the welcome center - the weather is to get rather ugly and we need to be on the watch for it! OK. We can do that.

All right, no more posts till we get back. Happy weekend everyone!

More of the"tourist thing"

OK, it is now Wednesday. This time, we drove to Aurora to the Fossil Museum. Very small, seemingly dead town, but a nice little museum. Seems to focus mainly on sharks. To be fair, they do have other exhibits, but those were in the minority. Across the street they have the Fossil Museum Learning Center where they have exhibits of fossils that they believe to be 500 million years old. AND, they have a small parking lot filled with gravel, sand, seashells, and fossils that you can dig through to see what treasures you can find. nuff said!

Doing the "Tourist Thing"

OK, yesterday's weather was a bit "iffy". In fact, it rained off and on most of the day, but that might have been our "new" location. Tom and I drove about 45 min to go over a bridge to one of the islands, not far from the Outer Banks. Atlantic Beach to be exact, to the historic site of Fort Macon. By all accounts, this fort was really a kind of a waste, protection-wise, but it's certainly interesting. Look it up sometime! And wouldn't Tom be great as the next Vanna? lol


But I forgot something! (How on earth could I?) BEFORE we went to Fort Macon, we stopped by one of two quilt shops in the area (Morehead City). Sew It Seams is a charming little shop filled with brights and batiks - loved it! Didn't buy anything there, but wouldn't mind going back.





After visiting Fort Macon, we drove back to Morehead City to another quilt shop - The Quilted. This shop is half designer fabric and half quilt shop. Beautiful fabric! Brights, Orientals, Batiks. Picked up some fabric there. She had a beautiful quilt that she had designed and made for their shop hop 2011. SHOP HOP!! Did you hear that? I couldn't believe they'd already had their shop hop, but it seems it's the first week of February to help beat the winter doldrums. (Shall we compare "winter doldrums" notes?) But I gotta figure out the dates - looks like the hop is held Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon. Hard to get a condo for those days. it's usually Fri to Fri, Sat to Sat or Sun to Sun. hmmmmmmmmmm

Well, anyway, after that we ate lunch at Cox's - good home-cookin'. Tom and I shared the pot roast with baked sweet potato and corn (asked for carrots, but that's OK). Then on to our next adventure . . . . . . . .

The Maritime Museum in Beaufort. It was interesting, fun, short, but want does one want for free? The museum's focus was on Blackbeard and his ship, Queen Anne's Revenge.

After that we were two tired little puppies, so we decided to take the free ferry back to the mainland. By this time, the wind is really picking up. If we were required to stand on the deck, it would have been quite interesting. As it was, the captain (or whatever you call him) was finding it quite challenging to line us up with the dock so we could drive off. The wind just wasn't cooperating.

Obviously, we made it back to the condo for some rest. See you tomorrow!

Cap'n Tom

Went for a walk before lunch, after the meeting at the Rec Center to welcome us and tell us all about everything available in the immediate area and fairly close by, as well. We can even get on the ferry to the Outer Banks, if we choose.

Well, we spent part of this afternoon on a sailboat with Captain Melinda. She is one awesome sailor. Very enjoyable sail on her 43-foot sloop. Center is a pic of Melinda talking to one of the other passengers. You can't tell from this pic how TINY she is. She has sailed this sailboat to the Bahamas and back, by herself. Above is Tom, enjoying the cruise.

Below is Cap'n Tom! Actually, he was the helmsman. He spent a good 45 minutes steering after we were in full sail.

It's been a glorious day! Beautiful, sunny, nice breeze, great day for sailing!! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

New Bern, NC

Home of Pepsi-Cola! It's beautiful down here!!!! Warm, sunny, interesting. Our condo is on the Neuse River. Sorry, no beach! There is a pond right outside our unit and there are a total of 3 "observation decks." Here is a picture of me, last night on the deck right outside our door.

There is a trail around this particular pond that is about 5/8 mile long. Tom and I have walked it a couple times already. You know Tom, he's already ridden his bike (included with the condo) seveal miles.

We have no internet in the condo - have to go to the recreation center behind our unit (couldn't get connected, though, until one of the staff helped me!) or back to the welcome center - over 5 miles away.

We attended a wonderful Easter service yesterday morning at Tabernacle Baptist Church in New Bern. Saturday, we walked around historic downtown New Bern. Saw the pharmacy where Pepsi Cola was first made. There are several different tours we want to check out, too. Shortly we are going on a sailboat around the river. Don't know if it will take us to the ocean or not.

Getting lots of reading and resting done! We've been fixing Homemade Gourmet-very easy, very quick meals. So far, we've fixed Corn Chowder and Tres Queso Breakfast Skillet. Yummy!!!! And Saturday, we picked up fresh produce at the Farmer's Market for a great salad!

Gotta get off here and start having fun! Watch for more tomorrow!!!!