NYE in New Bern

Oh boy did I get up early today. Luckily I slept better but 5am came and my body was done resting. A hot shower in silence and some coffee brewed then allowed me to take in the slow sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

These shots were taken just thirty minutes apart and you can see how much light floods into the space. A lot can change in thirty minutes; a good lesson in life and how things never stay the same.

Another busy morning with breakfast for the crew in our oceanfront condo. This place is amazing and I’d gladly come back in the summer…although I’m willing to bet that the crowds here in the summer might make it a less enjoyable stay. 

We hit the road, Katie with her anti-nausea wristbands, unfortunately for her, she is prone to motion sickness like me and my grandma. These wristbands seem to help! We stopped at Bodie Lighthouse before leaving the island and snapped a few photos in the chilly wind.

Our next stop was Tina and Tim’s house in Grifton, NC. They have just over ten acres, a bunch of fruit trees, chickens, a garden, and cute little homestead growing! We lunched on mozzarella sticks and chatted about making homemade tomato sauce, vanilla, and even growing loofahs which my sister has been doing!

After lunch, snacks, and jumping around in the farmland, we took off for New Bern which is our Airbnb for the next two nights. It’s a quaint little two bedroom cottage with some very sweet personal touches. We are currently comfy and doing some laundry before heading out for NYE.

And after a little chilling on the couch, some disc golf watching on YouTube, and eventually a Survivorman episode, we decided our tummies were hungry and we needed grub. We knew that the downtown area of New Bern was having a little New Year’s Eve bash tonight so we picked out a swanky upscale restaurant to ring in the new year and drove the one mile into town. It took quite a long time to get there because there seems to be a train transfer station right along the main road. We watched numerous cars go around the train arms that were clearly down while we watched the train conductor switch things around and flip the tracks. It was thoroughly entertaining but with our tummies growling we were getting a bit impatient. 

Eventually traffic got moving and we made it to my preselected restaurant that I spent time researching reviews and checking availability. I didn’t make a reservation though…and they were booked until 8pm. 

So off we went to walk around and see if we could find anything more desirable than a one and a half hour wait, and we stumbled upon a place called Harry’s Blind Tiger. We were seated immediately and ordered some drinks. The menu was shareable so all items were brought out when ready and we picked off of each others plates. Guys! It was amazing! We are so glad that the original dinner spot didn’t work out and we were able to have such tasty eats. Todd picked out the meatballs and polenta. Amazing. Katie got the rigatoni bolognese and it was determined at the end that it was the best. Em got the zucchini fries. Yummy. Jacob got the lamb ribs and it was good but a little too smokey for his taste. And we also ordered the fried artichokes which were delicious. 

Ugh, and as we neared the end of eating all of that, I read a Yelp review that said the pizza was the best they had ever had. So I ordered the figgy piggy which was six slices of delight for just $19. This was a premium quality Napoli thin crust pizza. We have three slices for leftovers and I’m eyeing them already for tomorrow. 

And dessert, well we ordered the apple fritters and vanilla gelato and shared which was a great idea because it was enough to make three small dessert plates for all of us to split (this was just one of the three plates). 

My goodness. Everything was so delicious and the service was amazing. The chef came out and asked us how the food was. We complimented him and his cooking skills. Apparently this place has only been open for a year and I hope they have a long future ahead of them. 

Afterward we walked the downtown street area in the chilly 40 degree air and checked out the music and energy. It really was a cute family friendly event. 

They even had this cute ball and timer to countdown the evening. How cute for a town that’s not much bigger than 30,000 people. That’s pretty small for a town with this kind of event. Super cool! 

And then we drove home and got stopped with the whole train debacle again. Then we watched a Trevor Noah comedy special and just relaxed. We hope you all had a nice New Year’s Eve!