[light acoustic music]
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- [Kaitlyn] I always tell people, New Bern is not shy
about introducing herself.
- [Nelson] New Bern is an absolutely remarkable town.
There's some extraordinarily important
things here to see and do
that tell us who we are as North Carolinians.
- [Charley] New Bern's just an extremely
charming town and just a great place to visit.
- [Jane] When you just kind of walk the streets
there's always something to find.
- [Tom] Opportunities for getting into nature
and really relaxing and having some
peace and quiet are just endless.
- New Bern is very quiet.
A very unique place to stay, rich history.
I love New Bern.
- [Deborah] As relaxing as you find
it's coastal landscape, you just have to
experience New Bern by water.
I went by way on pontoon with Cruise the Neuse.
- We give 90 minute tours up the down
the rivers of New Bern here,
so we go up the Trent River a little bit
and talk about the history of the area
and sometimes we visit Nicolas Sparks' house
and we'll turn around and come back through
the inner harbor here
and go out onto the Neuse River and,
the nicest part is you really get to see
New Bern from the water,
and that's a totally different perspective.
And since we're the city between the two rivers,
it's just a different way to look at the town.
- By doing it on a paddleboard
or a kayak it's accessible to a lot of people.
People who can't rent a boat
or don't have access to a boat.
Almost anybody can afford to come
and rent a kayak or a paddleboard
for a little bit and get that experience.
You can see all these beautiful things.
Historic Waterfront of New Bern, Tryon Palace.
Stand-Up Outfitters is a paddleboard shop.
We are located on Lawson Creek,
which is named for John Lawson,
one of the founders of New Bern.
- One of the most exciting things
about being here is the Croatan National Forest.
And a lot of weekends go by
and 10 out of 12 weekends, at some point,
I'm in the Croatan.
We even have a paved bike trail.
If you are more limited
in your abilities to get out,
that's a great and safe place to go to,
to get really into the woods
and into the forest canopy a little.
- [Deborah] Another recreational area
with historic ties is Battlefield Park.
It was the location of a turning point victory
for the Union in the American Civil War.
- This is the New Bern Battlefield Park,
privately owned by the New Bern Historical Society.
We've got about 33 acres here.
This is part of the Civil War Trail System
so people around the country who are interested
in the Civil War know that this is on
a series of places that they can go
to learn about Civil War events.
This is just a jewel of a park for the city.
It's open to the public 24/7
and people come here just to enjoy the nature.
- You can choose to focus on the Civil War,
you can choose to focus on the Revolution,
African American History, architecture.
There's really something for everyone.
The building behind me is the Tryon Palace.
It was built by Governor Tryon
and completed in 1771.
It tells the story,
not only of Colonial North Carolina,
but also of early statehood.
It was the first state capital in North Carolina.
- [Deborah] Tryon Palace is your launchpad
for tours of all kinds,
but there's another memorable tour
offered only by appointment.
It's just a few miles outside of New Bern
in James City where artist Ben Watford
takes you inside of a restored
19th century slave quarters.
- This is the Crockett-Miller Slave Quarters.
It's one of the last free standing
slave quarters in the state of North Carolina.
When you get inside you're gonna see
that we did not put the furniture
that would normally be in a slave quarters,
because it was only a table and a chair.
So inside we put all the tools of that period.
We're located inside the airport,
inside the gates of the airport.
Mainly because the old slave cemetery is here.
The cemetery contains 522 graves.
After seven or eight, 10 generations,
no one come to, goes to a graveyard
so we're the only caretakers in this graveyard.
The question that was frequently asked to me
when I was preserving the slave quarters was,
why would a black man
want to preserve a slave quarters?
It's a part of history.
It's something that we don't want to forget.
- These are remarkable stories
that we are able to tell by being
completely truthful to what our history is.
- [Deborah] New Bern is the town of bears
but not more than you can bear.
It was founded by a fellow from Bern, Switzerland
and in Swiss bern means bear.
So, for it's 300th birthday,
local artists painted a lot of bears,
creating a sort of neat reminder
that New Bern is a destination for artists.
- We are Community Artists Gallery and Studios.
Our feeling is, that we want to reach out
to the community and help share
our God given talents with everyone.
I think everyone in here,
we have many different artists,
expresses that inner love for the world
through their art, whether it's in glass
or basket making or jewelry.
It's an inner core that you want
to share with everyone.
- Because we live in a town that we restore,
I sometimes take my work apart.
I break it and then I reconstruct it
and restore it because those are the things
that I deal with in my daily life.
- [Deborah] The second Friday of every month,
starting at 5:00 o'clock,
the streets of New Bern are alive for Art Walk,
a concept of the Craven Arts Council
housed in this historic building.
- The front entrance is that majestic,
it's our main gallery which is incredible.
When you look up at that skylight,
that was resurrected about five years ago
with a campaign, and then you look at
the incredible art around the wall.
The different wall, then we have the sculpture
and floor pieces and then you come back
through one area and it's the actual
old vault from the bank,
so you get to walk through the vault
and we've got a lot of pottery and things there,
and then you come back here,
and this is the gallery shop.
- [Sandy] New Bernians or visitors to the area
can go around a visit all the different
galleries and studios
and it's a way for people to
just explore what's here in New Bern
on all the different streets that are available.
So, there's a lot of different places to explore
and to look at with the history
and the new creative art focus that we have now.
- [Deborah] Art Walk is a fun, social activity
to support the arts, in turn a lot of artists
work to support the community.
- I'm Lisa Bisbee Lentz,
and this is the Greater Good Gallery
in New Bern, North Carolina.
And my main artists are Carol Jones,
Lee Hood, Jon Derby.
- [Deborah] And remember our tour guide
Ben Watford, these are his face jugs.
Just another way art and history
come together in New Bern.
When it comes to food and fun in New Bern,
the locals are pretty vocal.
- Beer Army Burger Company.
I usually just the G.I. Joe
but their sweet potato fries are fantastic.
- You got to go to MJ's,
you got to go to Moore's,
you got to go to Stingray.
- Cow Cafe right next door.
You gotta go by.
It's Maola Ice Cream,
which was actually based in New Bern,
and they make their own ice cream
and then they've got
the kids section in the back,
and they've got the little train
going around the track up top.
- [Deborah] The Cow Cafe is just down the block
from another guilty pleasure, Bear City Fudge,
where free samples help you make up your mind.
Now, for a hot breakfast,
I checked out Baker's Kitchen who's hot,
homestyle breakfast menu has everything,
from golden waffles to bacon and eggs.
Plus scrumptious, made from scratch pastries
and tasty cookies to go.
For dinner, I stopped at
the Harvey Mansion's Circa 1810
where the charm and talent of chef
Vincent Farro keeps customers coming back.
- The food is my passion
of anything that I've ever done.
I wanted to do Italian Mediterranean
'cause I wanted to bring in other flavors
and do some fusion, like Moroccan French.
Spanish and Italian.
Greek Israeli.
So we're doing a Mediterranean Italian cuisine
and I actually do some Asian in there,
'cause I love that also.
- New Bern has a very surprising nightlife.
A lot of people don't really realize it.
It's something that's kind of new and upcoming
in the past, I'd say, five years or so.
One of our favorite spots is Prohibition.
It's one of our favorite spots to meet people.
There's a recently created
brewery call Brewery 99,
which has some amazing beers that I've
had people, some friends from Raleigh,
Winston Salem, Charlotte, have all heard about it.
The Brown Pelican, it has that old salty
port town feel, you know,
old guys with pony tails who obviously
have been on sailboats all their lives
to young people who are home from college.
- [Deborah] So you'll see at the end of the day
there really is something
for everyone in New Bern.
To find out more about New Bern
go to visitnewbern.com.