It's a New Year

 We have rung in 2024 without any snow.  How sad....NOT.  The weather here was nice on New Year's Eve.  The City had a block party about a block and a half from our boat.  We went to the block party with our neighbors, L & G.  There was live music and an abundance of food trucks.  There was some great things for the kids to do, such as a bouncy castle, lighted balloons on sticks, games, etc.  We stayed up and saw the New Year in.

We have been taking the bus to some of the bigger strip malls.  The bus runs Monday to Friday.  As seniors we travel for free.  It seems so weird.  The city's name, New Bern, is Swiss.  Bern meaning "bear".  All through the city you can see these bears.  The are ceramic over fiberglass.  There are approximately 80 bears throughout the city.  There is a map you can follow if you want to find them all.  We plan on finding as many as we can while we are here.  A lot of them are within walking distance.

          

 Walmart Bear -  Located at the Walmart Supercenter

   

        Bear-ly-Legal -  Located outside Public  Accounting  Office

Mitchell Bear - Located Outside Mitchel Hardware

     Future Bear - Located behind City Hall

I'll post more as we find them.  

We started working on the Titanic Lego.  We are in box 1, we have finished Bag 1 (which consisted of 4 bags) and Bag 2 (which consisted of 3 bags).  It is an amazing build.  I'll take pictures as we go and post them.  

  

Where Foxy Flamingo Got Her Name

Yesterday we went to Nag's Head and the Foxy Flamingo Boutique.  The owner Betsy gave us permission to use her logo about four years ago.  We wanted to thank her so we brought her a couple of gifts.  

This is the owner Betsy

   

  

We had two of these eggs made.  One for us and one for the Foxy Flamingo Boutique.  

This is a goose egg made by Cynthia Davis in Cape Breton, NS.

This was a gift we had made as a thank you for allowing us to use the logo.  The picture Betsy is holding is a picture of our boat showing the logos on our boat and the words "Thank You" on the top of the frame in scrabble tiles.

It was great seeing Betsy and her staff again and her wonderful boutique.  She has expanded over the years.  We will try to get there in the spring to bring her and her staff for a cruise.

Santa is in North Carolina

Santa was here to help us dock in New Bern.  He asked us to keep it quite.  He did allow me to take his picture in his work clothes and in his Sunday clothes.

What do you think Nate?

 Santa in his Sunday best   

 

Santa in his everyday work clothes

 

Our Journey as Seen on Nebo

This is the information from our journey from start to finish.  We didn't realize we had travelled 1400 nautical miles.  

It was quite a journey.

New Bern

So glad to be here.  We have been walking around town and doing laundry today.  Oh joy.

This is us in the Marina

This is the short walk to get off of the dock

A view coming in to New Bern

Looking out at the water

Looking out at the water

There is a beautiful, very large, Christmas tree when we look out of our Port windows.  I'll get a picture tonight.  There are carriage rides around the downtown area from now until Christmas.  We will take a carriage ride some evening.  Everything is very handy and the people are very friendly.  There are a ton of restaurants with any kind of food you can imagine.  Last night we found out what "hush puppies" were.  It's like a corn bread with a bit of sweetness in the coating.  There are about the size of a an unshelled peanut.  Very good....yum.

Day Sixty One

Just a short post tonight.  We made it to New Bern.  We are docked, hooked up to power and very conveniently located.  We took a short walk around town and were greeted by everyone we met.  People are certainly friendly here.

I will post some pictures tomorrow.

Happy to be here.

Day Fifty Eight, Fifty Nine and Sixty

We are almost at our destination.  Monday night we anchored in Deep Creek.  The Creek was NOT deep.  We went into Lamb's Marina for the night.  We thought we would check it out and maybe spend the winter there.  It was quite run down and didn't offer pump out.  We decided to move on and go with our original plan.

We are finding out that the water on the ICW is not very deep.  The average would likely be around 12 feet. The anchorages are never quite what they seem and the reviews are usually years old.

Tuesday we headed towards Belhaven, NC.  We knew we would not make it in one day but wanted to be closer.  The town has free docks there.  No power and you can't use your generator but since it was suppose to be quite windy we thought it would be saver.  We ended us anchoring in Babbitt Bay.  The temperature dropped at night and it was a bit chilly.

After leaving the Belhaven area we headed to Oriental, NC where there is a free dock as well.  Before we arrived in Oriental, NC we went through another Canal.  Again, very narrow, and not very deep.  What was interesting is the the Coast Guard had a station on the Canal.

Coast Guard Station

Coast Guard Station

Some houses along the way

Looked interesting

A very old Marina with lots of fishing boats

Anyone can dock here

Not sure I would want to go to the Sea Food Restaurant

We are anchored out just around Oriental, NC.  Tomorrow will be a short day with only a three hour cruise.  (Oh that sounds like Gilligan's Island)  We should be in New Bern by lunch time.  I am really looking forward to staying put.