A Comedy of Errors- A Trip to Beaufort

A band Matt likes was playing in Beaufort, NC (Bow-Ford, SC is pronounced Be-Yew-Ford) on his birthday and he said he wanted to go.  He gave me free reign to plan the trip, we just had to go to the show.  Deal.

He had been working in Charleston that day and had to drive home so we got started a little later start than I had hoped for which changed our dinner plans.  Our whole trip ended up like that, a comedy of errors.  But it was still a blast and we just rolled with the punches.

We decided we would eat along the way and Matt suggested eating in Kinston, a little more than half way, so that was our first destination.  While we were cruising down I recognized a symbol for a beer company (look at me!!) and pointed it out to Matt.  I did a quick u-turn and we stopped in for a drink.

The inside rustic and cool, we got a flight and a pint of Thrilla in Vanilla Porter that had been brewed with coffee.  It was yummy. 

Handsome man of mine.

We headed down the road a bit further and grabbed dinner in Kinston at the Boiler Room.  The Boiler Room is a sister restaurant of the super 'famous' The Chef and the Farmer.  I would recommend shelling out the extra dollars and eating the fancy dinner, or just somewhere else. It was fine, but just nothing special.  We got a pimento cheese and sausage dip that was pretty much just grease.  Then we got a burger with pulled pork, gravy, and french fries that was pretty good. We also got fried oysters which I thought were yucky, but I also don't like oysters- I just always try them for Matt.

My favorite part about the boiler room was the ambiance.  The bathroom had wood planks and then postcards that people had written on. 

They also had really cool wood on the bar. I'm such a nerd, but I LOVE this stuff.

We made it to Beaufort around 11:30 and crashed out. When we woke up Matt was 27!  Look how pumped he is :)

It was a good southern breakfast with XXL biscuits, sausage gravy, eggs, fried chicken and a HUGE cinnamon roll. YUM!

After breakfast, Cape Lookout was the next thing on the agenda- I was the MOST excited about this.  I know it's your bday boyfriend, but I wanna see a lighthouse!  You can climb the lighthouse for $8 and its 12 floors. I was SUPER pumped and thought it would be fun and a good workout to burn off all those cals from breakfast.  We drove 45 minutes to Hawkers Island to buy our tickets for the ferry.  It's a $15 fee per person and about 10-15 minute trip to the lighthouse.

When we were buying our tickets for the ferry I noticed a sign that said May 12 was the first day for climbing. WHAT! My dreams were shattered. Oh well, roll with the punches.

On the ferry with the birthday boy!

I asked our ferry driver if he had seen any horses today and he said there were a few out.  He took us by Shakleford island and there was a horse!  Matt thought I was an idiot for being so excited about a horse, but I think it is really neat!! They just live out there, no one takes care of them!

After snapping a few pictures of the horses, we headed towards the lighthouse! SO  SO pretty!

SELFIE STICK :D I didn't do a good job of hiding my arm. oh well.

We walked around a bit and then decided to take a quick nap.

On the way back from the lighthouse I had a special surprise for Matt. He LOVES beer and breweries.  I had planned this a few weeks back, but a couple of days before we left he asked if I had looked up any breweries for the trip. I told him I would look but I didn't think there were any. Sucker. I already had found it, and planned it.  So, we get to Tight Lines BREWING COMPANY.  Sit down and grab menus...but there were no Tight Lines beers....so we asked. Oh, they don't have the right permits/ equipment but hope to be brewing in the next year or so. Super.  Another fail...just roll with it. 

We had dinner at Blue Moon Bistro. It is near the Front Street strip and right next to Beaufort Grocery, which is where I had planned for us to eat on Thursday.  They have 1/2 price entrees Thursday night if you ever go down!

Matt had salmon with lobster ravioli and asparagus.

I had the special of trigger fish, cheese ravioli, and asparagus.

 Funny story:  State was playing someone in basketball, Syracuse maybe? And it was a REALLY big game.  I had RVPD'd Matt and I to a friends birthday dinner a few weeks before, he wanted to stay home and watch but I said to come.  I told him he could watch it at the restaurant if they had a TV, or under the table on his phone, whatever- I don't care, we are going to the dinner.  The server came around and said the specials and it was something like 'Seared scalloped, clams, shrimp, and crab linguini' which in my mind says ' $$$$$$$$.'  He ordered it and I kind of gave him the stink eye.  The bill came and I can't remember how much it was but let's just say $40.  I pay when it's my thing (friend's birthday dinner, my friend's wedding, etc), he pays for his friends things...and well usually all the time. I'm spoiled, whatever. So, we were leaving and I made some smart comment about him ordering the most expensive thing and he says, "it was on SPECIAL! I thought it was cheap!"  I laughed and told him specials are usually more expensive because they are exclusive for the night.  He thought it meant it was on sale. Bless His Heart. ha, I had to say it.

While we were driving around Beaufort we saw this horrible looking building, we were joking about how bad it looked and then Matt said, "Caroline, look at the sign." Super! This is where the 'concert' was.

Hannah's Haus, which is ranked #11 out of the Top 20 things to do in Beaufort according to TripAdvisor.  Beaufort keeps is classy, let me tell ya.

We played Skeeball. Woop Woop. Matt can't beat me. Suckaaa. (I'm casually leaving out pictures from the games before and after this one.)

Treehouse rocking out.  They are from Myrtle Beach.  We've seen them one time before as a group when they played with Dirty Heads.  We also saw the lead singer perform with Sun Dried Vibes at Cali Roots last year. Can't wait until this year- October 1!!

Saturday morning we slept in and then went to get food at The Sanitary.  We pretend we are 'foodies' and love reading Yelp reviews and base our decisions when dining out heavily on what Yelp says. Not this time folks, Sanitary has a 2.5 star rating on Yelp but Matt went when he was little and really wanted to go again. So we did! He got fried sea scallops and I got fried shrimp.  Nothing like fried seafood at the beach. YUM!

After lunch we drove past Blackbeard's House which is called the "Hammock House."

We got ice cream and walked along Front Street. Hand dipped Ice Cream at the beach is a MUST!

We hit up the North Carolina Maritime Musuem (Ranked #1 on Things to Do in Beaufort via Tripadvisor) for like 5 minutes and then hit the road back to Raleigh! 

See ya later Beaufort!