New Bern and River Dunes

Late Monday afternoon, May 24th, Todd & I walked in to downtown New Bern and were immediately impressed by how clean and well-kept everything was. They have a wonderful downtown area with several nice shops and restaurants and many beautiful historic homes, churches and other buildings. We stopped in for drinks and hors d’oeuvres at both Morgan’s Tavern & Grill and MJ’s Raw Bar & Grille before returning to the marina for the evening.

New Bern is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year.

The Craven County Court House.

One of many historic bed & breakfasts in downtown New Bern.

A street in picturesque downtown New Bern.

On Tuesday Bill & Ana joined us for a 90-minute trolley tour of the downtown area. One of the tour stops was Cedar Grove Cemetery with its famous Weeping Arch entrance.

After the trolley tour we went to Captain Ratty’s for lunch and then toured the Tryon Palace Historic Site & Gardens. Tryon Palace was the first capitol of the independent state of North Carolina following the Revolutionary War and was known in colonial times as one of the most beautiful public buildings in America.

New Bern is also the birthplace of Pepsi, originally known as “Brad’s Drink,” invented by Caleb Bradham.

That evening the four of us got together for hors d’oeuvres on “Life’s2Short” followed by several hours of Catch Phrase.

We had talked about pulling out Wednesday but it turned out to be extremely windy so we spent a quiet day on the boat. That evening we went over to “Knot Tide Down” for hors d’oeuvres followed by steamed clams (harvested by Bill & Ana at Calabash Creek) and linguine and several more hours of Catch Phrase. Two late nights in a row!

Todd got up early Thursday morning and took several more pictures of homes, churches and other sites of interest in downtown New Bern.

This is the inside of Mitchell Hardware, a “turn-of-the-century” hardware store with a little bit of everything!

This is one of many historical fire hydrants found in New Bern. The hydrants were originally painted over 30 years ago to represent historical characters as part of the United State’s Bicentennial celebration. The effort was duplicated in 2010 for New Bern’s 300th anniversary.

This is the “Bern Bear” symbol that comes from the Swiss founder of New Bern, Baron Christoph De Graffenried. The city was named after his home town of Bern, Switzerland, which means “bear.”

The Bear Town Bears are also part of New Bern’s 300th anniversary celebration. These colorful, decorated fiberglass bears can be found all around New Bern.

A sampling of the many beautiful homes we saw.

And the churches.

This lift bridge crosses the Trent River where it intersects with the Neuse.

One of the marinas on the other side of the lift bridge.

Gwen and Mark at Galley Stores. Gwen works in the store and Mark runs the marina. Both were great!

Galley Stores Marina is an excellent location from which to enjoy New Bern.

We left Galley Stores Marina Thursday before noon and traveled about 30 miles to anchor in South River. The weather had turned quite warm (high of 93) but it was an extremely nice, calm day on the water. “Knot Tide Down” left the marina a few hours after us and ended up anchoring in nearby Broad Creek, on the opposite side of the Neuse River.

Friday we were up and on the move by 6:00 a.m., trying to get to Ocracoke (on the Outer Banks) before the wind picked up too much. Unfortunately, as soon as we cleared South River and started into the Neuse River toward Pamlico Sound, we found extremely rough water and 20-25 mph northeast winds. We made it all of a mile before turning around and heading back in to South River. “Knot Tide Down” tried the same thing from their anchorage in Broad Creek. They stuck it out longer than we did but finally decided it wasn’t worth another four hours of misery. In fact, we heard several boaters on the radio who got an early start toward Ocracoke only to turn around and head back from whence they came.

By late morning the wind had calmed considerably so we pulled anchor and trekked about five miles across the Neuse to Broad Creek. We anchored just outside the entrance channel to River Dunes Marina where “Knot Tide Down” had taken a slip. The water was still a bit rough crossing the Neuse but nothing compared to our earlier effort. Todd dinghied in to the marina to say hello to Bill & Ana who invited us to join them at the pool that afternoon.

That evening Ana fixed dinner for us on “Knot Tide Down,” after which we played even more Catch Phrase.

Saturday morning we dinghied to the marina to meet Bill & Ana for a run to the grocery store in Oriental, four miles away, using the marina’s courtesy car. Saturday afternoon we decided to take a slip at River Dunes until we make our move to Ocracoke. We were told that the time to be in Ocracoke is the first weekend in June when they have several free music festivals on the island.

The next few days were spent cleaning and doing laundry and various other boat chores (washing, waxing, etc.), and also enjoying some time poolside with Bill & Ana. Sunday evening we went to the clubhouse to watch a marina-sponsored movie (Charlie Wilson’s War) and they even served complimentary popcorn!

River Dunes is truly a class act. The dockmaster, J.C., has been simply wonderful. He even invited the four of us to his home for dinner Wednesday evening for shrimp & grits – a favorite of both Todd’s and Bill’s.

River Dunes is a beautiful development with numerous amenities.

They even have poolside cabanas!

Today is Tuesday, June 1st, and we plan to leave for Ocracoke Thursday morning, weather permitting. Until then we are enjoying our time at River Dunes and looking forward to being in Ocracoke for the festivities next weekend.