Vacation Bears

My parents have a time share in Orlando, and when they decided they weren't going to use it this summer, I traded it in last minute for whatever I could find that looked sunny and near the water.

I ended up in North Carolina staying in a complex near the mouth of the Neuse River.

It was a good spot for anyone who wanted to dock their boat or set sail!

One of the cities right near by was New Bern. 

There are a lot of things I didn't know about New Bern. 

It's the second oldest town in NC.

It has a palace--Tryon Palace (named after the same Tryon family who moved up to NY and are the namesake of the park near my apartment).

Pepsi was invented here.

Oh and they have a Pepsi museum which includes cans from other countries.

Nicholas Sparks lives in New Bern. The Notebook and several of his novels were set here. 

Since I'm a creeper, I'm also pretty sure I have guessed which house belongs to him. There is a beautiful house on the river that I think gets credit as "the best house ever" so it must belong to the Sparks family.

And it's home to many bears. (Bern is the old Germanic name for Bear, and the town is named after Bern, Switzerland)

There's even a Bear Plaza.

This is just a fraction of the bears but you get the idea.

My sister, her husband, and the boyfriend (or should I be calling him the fiancé?) came to New Bern with me. 

Here are a few of our highlights:

Drinks and a game at Prohibition.

High tide at the river's edge.

Seafood dinner on a rooftop

The best brunch ever at The Baker's Kitchen.

And a late night walk along the dock.

All in all, a great trip.

Adventures in Tea

There is a place in the West Village known for it's amazing tea.

Jaida and I popped over there the other day to see what magic we could find. 

Inside, it's quaint and tiny and full of tea--it was only the two of us in there when we arrived, and it was a good thing. With several customers at a time, it'd be hard to move around.

It also smelled amazing.

I'm a fan of just about all kinds of tea, but I was especially in the mood for something fruity and decaf.

This is what I found.

One sniff and I knew this had to be mine (I seriously wish there was a way to turn this blog into a scratch and sniff post)!

The little shop was lovely and you can bet that I'm going to head back. If you're in NY and you have a thing for tea, you should definitely stop here.

After we left, we stopped into Sushisamba, a new favorite of mine. We were waiting for handsome Paul and the boyfriend, but we were suddenly starving.

I downed this amazing Berry mixed drink (non-alcoholic), and then we split some shishito peppers.

The boys showed up just after we'd finished, and we ate and talked and laughed before heading home.

As the night came to a close, I made some of my new tea before bed.

It tasted as good as it smelled.