Time out at New Bern!

New Bern, NC – Wednesday, 4/28

Denise was able to get a run in this morning and be back just as Mark was heading to go to work at the client. This was familiar running ground and there wasn’t too much new to see, except for more houses being built north of town on the Neuse River.

Early in the day she worked on emails and updated the last blog post, as well as talked to family members and work associates.  Later in the afternoon, she went into downtown and strolled through the shops, past a bunch of cafes, microbreweries, restaurants and small parks. 

She also went to the “Bank of the Arts” Craven Arts Council and Gallery.  Originally commissioned as a bank, it now serves as the seat of arts and culture for the area. There are changing exhibitions of various media such as painting, sculpture, photography, pottery and fiber art by artists of the southeastern United States, provided free of charge.  They frequently have concerts in this venue and on this day there was a pianist playing on a grand piano. Denise strolled through the gallery in the front of the building, as well as in the “Directors Gallery” in the back of the building. Here they were currently showing the “Private and Home Schooled Students” exhibit, as well as several other local artists. There is an empty lot across the street that they also use for larger sculpture exhibits.  This month is “Abuse Awareness” month (who knew?) and she was able to capture a picture of this display during the morning run. It was a neat find and she was glad she went.

Another stop in this adventure was Mitchell’s Hardware.  This store is an independently owned hardware store in the heart of downtown, and they sell everything from tools, housewares, plants, pots & pans, souvenirs and boat stuff.  This is probably one of the best stocked hardware stores along the waterways, and we both agree we would never want to have to help them take a physical inventory of the place. However, if a boater needs anything they can probably find it here, and it is only a block away from the marina.

Once her adventures were over, she returned to the boat only to find it had gotten hot. She had to turn on the AC as the high was 85 today and 88 projected for tomorrow.  But, that won’t last long as it is supposed to be a high of 75 when she returns on Saturday.

The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing some work, sending emails, and getting her suitcase ready for her trip. It will be lightly packed as most everything she needs is at home, and she needs room for the things she is bringing back to the boat. But she had to empty everything in the suitcase, which is also used for storing miscellaneous infrequently used things in on the boat; we make use of every single spot possible, and this is no exception.

Mark has about a 50 minute drive to and from the client, and will usually call Denise when he is coming over the bridge into town.  This gives her time to lock up the boat and meet him in the parking lot at the Doubletree. This is what we did tonight, and from there we walked downtown to Cypress Hall for dinner. This is a new restaurant in town and came highly recommended.  We enjoyed a great dinner, but forgot to take pictures.  Mark likes the interior and was especially thrilled when he learned that it was designed by the folks who design the interior of Hatteras yachts. Denise thinks it is now one of the best restaurants in New Bern and hopefully we will get to dine there again.

After dinner we walked back to the boat, finished up a few work things, and made some contingency plans to our itinerary for leaving on Sunday (due to weather).  After that we called it a day. Denise will fly to Orlando in the morning to attend the funeral for her friend Leslie, and will return on Saturday. We will pick up the blog posting on her return.