Greenville, North Carolina - and great PIZZA!

WELCOME TO THE EMERALD CITy

Tar River, Greenville, North Carolina

Lovely Southern home in Greenville.

Greenville, North Carolina is widely recognized as the thriving cultural, educational, economic, and medical hub of Eastern North Carolina. Enjoy world-class events and East Carolina University and the Greenville Convention Center. Experience our vibrant art, live music, and culinary scene in the Uptown Greenville and Dickinson Avenue Districts.

AND

If you're ever in town be sure to visit Luna Pizza Café

Perhaps, like us, your travels sometimes include crazy, one-off visits to places you hadn't really planned to visit. Right now we're taking a road trip to Eastern North Carolina to use free hotel nights before they expire on June 30th! Just returning from the UK, I hadn't expected to be packing up again and leaving hearth and home!

First stop was here in Greenville because I had read an article in a magazine about this amazing pizza place. The owner, a former university professor at East Carolina University, enrolled in a famous Florence, Italy pizza academy to learn the intricacies of making fermented dough and how to lightly char Neapolitan pies in a high temperature oven. Long story short, he retired from teaching and opened Luna's here in Greenville......and soon there will be more locations, hopefully one closer to home for us. . . . . . like right across the street from us in north Raleigh's burgeoning Midtown PLEASE owner Richard!

Our favorite Neapolitan pizza EVER was enjoyed in Palermo, Sicily. Our ship dropped us off for a day ashore and after sightseeing we ended up sitting outside with friends overlooking the water enjoying fabulous pizzas!  A VERY close favorite  has to be this pizza Margherita tonight at Luna's right here in North Carolina, excellent in every way, along with an amazing appetizer, Involfini do Melanzani (rolled, stuffed eggplant), and we shared the best Tiramisu dessert ever!  The dining experience was so enjoyable. Beside the wonderful food, Walt the Manager, and Kelly our server, were most hospitable and helpful, and took time to chat with us.

Perfect Pizza Margherita 

Good to the last crumb!

Very good Italian rosé!

We just may be heading back to Greenville again soon as tonight's meal
 was fabulous!
Back on the road tomorrow heading to Elizabeth City via the historic towns of
 (Little) Washington and Bath. 

I had hoped to post this last evening however the WIFI in the hotel room quit!

Ready to leave home?

Can't say being constrained at home most days for many weeks is bothering me a lot.

I love being at home.

 However, I now find myself thinking more about what to plan for travel once we

 can actually pack up and go somewhere a little further than Costco! 

The cars sit in the driveway with full tanks and nowhere to roam.

The suitcases collect dust in the attic.

Here, inland, we are being blessed with gentle rain this morning as

 Tropical Storm Arthur, now just 50 miles off the North Carolina coast, 

is passing the Outer Banks with winds reaching 73 mph.  

Many hurricanes are forecast for this year's season, we wait and hope

 they aren't devastating.

People have enough to contend with already!

The garden needs a good deep water following the hot weekend, 

and rain is so much better than dragging the hoses around.

This week will see plenty of rain thanks to Arthur!

Speaking of gardens, how about this neighborhood gem.

When we walked Saturday we loved finding this U PICK - Everyone Welcome 

sign on a curbside raised bed. The gnome was cute keeping watch.

 Beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash etc. are coming along for picking soon, 

meanwhile I snipped a little bunch of curly parsley and pineapple sage.  

Pretty Serena & Lily summertime seaside offerings. 

Hopefully we will get to a coastal location sometime this summer.

Have you made any travel plans yet?

 My visit to the beautiful Cape Verde Islands last year - where most of the US east coast 

 hurricanes come from!  

Autumn soon -

Leaving home yesterday there were only tiny signs that somewhere

out there Autumn was on its way!

Notice the trees in my back garden were still really green.

Here, in northern Virginia and the District of Columbia it's

cooler.  I see a little color in the smaller street trees, but it's

 definitely not the usual vista of gold and orange seen in mid-October.

Today we'll be heading into the city where we'll park the car and

 enjoy some serious downtown walking, and perhaps some shopping.

It's cloudy, but the light showers during the night are over, and today

will be comfortable for sightseeing, high of around 64F. Hopefully I'll get

 some photos to share.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Autumn Road Trip. . . . . . . .

Southwestern France 2008

Photo taken driving through the vineyards to the medieval bastide town of Mirepoix. 

Located in the Ariège department of the Midi-Pyrenees, near my family's home,

 this beautiful town invites you to sit outside at one of the many cafes in the evocative

 13th century market square, to enjoy a drink or a meal.

  

We are off this morning.

No quiet country roads edged with ancient plane trees.

No rolling hillsides carpeted with vines now dressed in brilliant 

Autumn colors. . . . . but hoping for an enjoyable drive, and then

a glass of fruity red wine this evening somewhere fun in our

 nation's Capital!  

Cheers!

Get Away. . . . . . .

We'll be on the road in a few days time. . . . . . .a pre-birthday (mine!)

 trip to the big city.  

A place full of memories of days long ago.  

A place where I arrived 56 years ago today!  

There I started a new phase of my then young life

 when I came to work in the USA.  

District of Columbia potpourri. . . . . . . . .

The Washington Monument 

We only had one day in the District itself when visiting Washington and its

environs this past weekend. That was a dreary grey day with a steady rain

and heavy cloud cover so sightseeing was minimal.

Any photos snapped were with the iPhone from the car - not that great,

but somewhat interesting.

Looking up 14th Street 

When I first arrived in Washington D.C. so long ago in 1962,

I lived at 14th & L Streets NW, a little further up from here. It was my first 

taste of big city living and so very new to me coming from a small English

seaside town. . . . . . 

. . . . . . . and later I moved to this 1927 apartment building on New Hampshire Ave. NW,

into a small studio apartment on the top floor marked by the arrow. 

I loved the exterior art deco architecture. The entire interior had been

 renovated just prior to my moving in and all apartments were new. Since then

 they've been even more modernized and updated, and when I looked

 online to find what these apartments rent for now I almost fell off my chair 

when I saw close to $2,000 a month for a small studio. My rent, which

 included all utilities, was $100.00 monthly - unbelievable how times and

 prices have changed.

After driving around the city to view places which always bring back
 memories from the time when we lived there, we stopped at Paul's French
 cafe for an afternoon snack - best almond croissant and excellent
 coffee - much enjoyed on such a murky late Summer day.

Remainder of our time was spent across the Potomac River in

 Northern Virginia, eating at a couple of favorite restaurants, visiting relatives,

 shopping at IKEA and ZARA, two stores we are still awaiting in our area

 of North Carolina.

We headed home on Monday in brilliant sunshine - taking our time and

just enjoying being on the road, and traffic not heavy.

Like I said - nothing better than a good road trip to get rid of the 

cobwebs. . . . . . . and, if Hurricane Irma comes our way next week, we 

may be forced to take another one. I really hope not though!

Little Gems as Summer wanes. . . . . . . .

~ Antique French Linens ~

Perhaps it's time to pack away the white linens of summertime.

'September Song' is definitely in the air, especially early in the morning

when opening the doors and windows brings a breath of coolness,

birdsong, and already a few golden leaves fluttering to the ground.

We're spending the holiday weekend on the road, mostly in northern Virginia with

 a visit to family members, and a quick visit to Washington, D.C. where we 

used to live and were married. . . . . . . . . so long ago! It rained all day in the city so

 no good photos of our Nation's Capital to share this time.

This coming week will be a hectic one. I'm scheduled for some dental surgery - 

not pleasant, gathering estimates for the exterior house painting, expecting a

 gardener who will assist in cutting down and clearing out shrubbery, vines etc. 

 so the painters can actually get to the house, and of course keeping fingers

 crossed tightly in hopes that Hurricane Irma does not pay North Carolina a visit

 which could drastically upset the apple cart!

Again, have a happy Labor Day. We'll be making our way back home.

Road Trips - always an adventure . . . . . . . .

Journal at Anthroplogie

Heading out this morning for a holiday weekend road trip.

Hoping traffic will be kind and the rain will stay away.

Leaving you with some pretty things to fill this space ~ hoping 

my camera will capture more to share with you later!

Happy September. 

If you're here in the USA enjoy your Labor Day

 weekend celebration.

Anywhere else - have a fabulous weekend too!

Some New Bern History. . . . . . . . .

Touring - Road Trip - whatever you like to call it, we like doing it!
North Carolina farmland - tobacco and cotton above - plus a lot 
of corn, soybeans, pumpkins and other food crops.

Historic New Bern is a charming riverfront town set along two rivers, the Trent

 and the Neuse, and centrally located along the North Carolina coast.
Settled in 1710 by Swiss and German immigrants, the colonists named 
the town after Bern, capital of Switzerland.

Note the reference here to famous American folk singer James Taylor.

There are some lovely historic homes in New Bern.

 View of the Neuse River from our hotel room.

On this corner still stands the pharmacy building (blue awning in the photo collage
 below) where Pepsi-Cola was invented. 
Known first as 'Brad's Drink' which he later patented as Pepsi-Cola.

Now, more like a mini-museum to the cola drink, you can purchase souvenirs

 and enjoy a drink at the recreated soda fountain.

Bob used to drink 'Pepsi' but personally sweet, fizzy cola drinks have never been

among my favorite beverages.

 On the way home we stopped at a roadside farm stand for peaches and veggies. . . . . . . 

. . . . . . these are South Carolina peaches, always so good.

I cut some up tonight, drizzled with Chambord black raspberry liqueur and

 served with vanilla bean ice cream, delicious!