[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," join us from Edenton as we check out weekend destinations across the state like the Orchard Inn & Spa in Saluda, Amelie's in Charlotte, and Pettigrew State Park.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend" everyone, I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we are exploring some of our favorite weekend destinations.

Right now I'm in Edenton, a beautiful small town that's located right on the water.

This historic town was founded way back in 1722 and it's full of historic sites as well as up-to-date things to do, like cruises, a social district, restaurants and shopping.

We're going to explore Edenton throughout the show, but first, let's head west to the mountains where a home that was once lodging for railroad workers is now an elegant mountain inn.

- [Marc] I don't tire of that view one single day.

It's always different.

It changes from day to day, season to season.

- We so appreciate it.

- [Clay Johnson] Marc and Marianne Blazar love the view from their Orchard Inn.

They love each other, too.

It's a romance that began more than 40 years ago.

- We met in the Virgin Islands.

Both of us had a charter boat, so we basically had a B&B on water, and that's how we met sailing.

- [Clay Johnson] They later worked as corporate photographers, traveling the world with their Fortune 100 clients.

- [Marianne] It was a wonderful gig.

- [Clay Johnson] The Blazar's travel was an education in the hospitality industry.

They decided to stop traveling and search for a bed and breakfast inn to buy.

- From Napa Valley to Vermont for places where we either had friends or family or we knew it was very pretty.

Didn't really find anything that totally spoke to us until somebody told us about Saluda.

We had no idea about Saluda, but we came here and I think it was love at first sight.

[light music] - [Clay Johnson] The Blazars bought the Orchard Inn in 2010.

- [Marc] We looked at each other and said we can really do something special here.

- [Clay Johnson] A railroad union originally built the house in 1926 as a retreat for clerks and agents.

- The concept was for the average working guy to be able to vacation like a Rockefeller.

- [Clay Johnson] The railroad union owned it until the mid-50s.

After that, - [Marc] It was a number of different incarnations, different owners.

- [Clay Johnson] It became a bed and breakfast inn in 1980 and had several owners until the Blazars purchased it and put their own spin on this inn.

- [Marc] What we've tried to create here is an elegant, stress-free environment where people can come and relax, renew, refresh.

- [Clay Johnson] When you arrive, you may be greeted by Clayton and Murray.

- [Marc] When people arrive, they go out to the car and wag their tails and welcome them to the inn.

- [Clay Johnson] Past the expansive front porch and inside the front door is the main living area.

It's large but cozy with comfortable chairs, sofas, and a stone fireplace.

Downstairs is the game room with a pool table and fireplace.

- [Marc] That space gets used a lot and it's very well appreciated.

- [Clay Johnson] It also has a 60 inch television.

- I gotta say it's the least used TV in North Carolina.

[laughs] - [Clay Johnson] Even though there are no TVs in the inn's guest rooms, the Blazars say their guests wanted it that way.

There are nine rooms in the main house and there are five cottages alongside.

Four each sleep two people and a larger one sleeps eight.

In 2018, the Blazars built this addition.

Upstairs there are two luxury suites with mountain views.

- [Marc] We have 16 different accommodations in total, and they vary in price and amenities so that there's really a nice variety and something for everybody.

- [Clay Johnson] Below the suites is a spa offering facials and massages.

- [Marianne] Very simple, very zen, no frou-frou, just a very relaxing place.

- [Clay Johnson] But the inn's centerpiece is Newman's Restaurant with its stunning mountain views.

It's named for one of the Blazar's cats who is named for - Paul Newman.

Blue eyes.

- For me, it was Seinfeld.

- [Clay Johnson] A stay here includes breakfast at Newman's.

There are danishes, scones, homemade granola, Greek yogurt and fruit, steel cut oatmeal and a main course like Austrian crepes, or eggs any way you like.

- [Marianne] A lot of time our guests say, "Well, we don't need lunch, that was a big breakfast."

- [Clay Johnson] The Blazars decided to open Newman's to the public for Sunday brunch and for dinner Thursday through Saturday nights.

- [Marc] We limit the number of people we serve each night because quality is the most important thing for us.

- [Clay Johnson] Chef Aaron Edwards creates dishes using locally sourced and organic ingredients whenever possible.

- My style is New American, which simply means that we borrow flavors from world cuisines.

- They strive for perfection and get there most of the time.

- [Clay Johnson] That's brought the Dulas back more than 30 times.

- [Gail] It's just like coming back to see a group of friends.

- [Clay Johnson] And how do they spend most of their time here?

- Read, sit in front of the fireplace, - Take a nap.

- [Clay Johnson] There is plenty to do around Saluda.

- [Marc] Downtown is a lovely place to stroll or shop.

- [Clay Johnson] The area offers hiking, kayaking, fly fishing, and zip lining.

- [Marc] It's a very eco tourist destination.

- [Clay Johnson] But the Orchard Inn is its own destination.

- [Marc] There are a number of guests who come multiple times a year and they never leave the property the whole time they're here.

- They just sit out there and just enjoy and soak in the views.

When people ask me "How do you define the Orchard Inn?"

I said, if you come to the Orchard Inn and you can't relax, there's no hope for you.

- [Clay Johnson] Let the Blazars show you how.

- [Marianne] We can actually sit there and relax.

It's just wonderful.

You get never tired of this.

This is a gift, to be in this place.

[light music] - The Orchard Inn and Spa is at 100 Orchard Lane, number 9706 in Saluda.

To book your room or make reservations at Newman's Restaurant, visit their website at orchardinn.com or give them a call at [828] 749-5471.

This is Edenton's beloved Cupola house.

It is the second oldest building in Edenton and it has been beautifully restored.

Definitely worth a visit when you come.

Perhaps your idea of a perfect weekend destination is coffee and pastry in France.

But if that's a bit out of reach right now, consider heading to Charlotte, where at Amelie's, you'll feel like you're at a cafe in Paris.

[light airy music] - Amelie's is a French bakery and cafe.

There are a lot of things to look at, a lot of little hidden gems that you'll just have fun walking around and finding.

To me, it's Marie Antoinette has fallen down the rabbit hole.

It's what I like to call a feast for the senses with a nod to Ernest Hemingway with beautiful aromas from the food, with the wonderful taste from our pastries and our savories.

It's, I think, a really fun experience.

[light airy music] - Well, I think it is an experience.

You know, you come in and there's really nothing like Amelie's.

So when you've come in for your first time, it's like very overwhelming to walk in and just see chandeliers all over the place and then cases full of beautiful products.

So people just really enjoy coming here and the fact that it doesn't seem like a normal restaurant, it seems like an experience, like you're coming to see the decor and get beautiful pastries and interact with the staff.

[light airy music continues] - Amelie's was born and raised in Noda, and it's a community with artists and musicians and just any variety of creatives you can think of.

We feel like we have a wonderful location.

We are center stage to all of the activity and all of the new development that's going on here in Noda, and we're really proud to be a part of it.

So I think we're a good fit.

- So we have a huge variety of French classics, such as eclairs, we have the macaroons, but at the same time we take those same items but add our own little creative flare.

I think ultimately it just comes down to our personal creativity in the sense of what we want to use with our flavors and ingredients.

Yeah, you'll get your traditional French items, but at the same time you'll kinda get more of an Amelie's flare just based on the creative team that we have in the kitchen.

- I love the idea of being able to work with my coworkers because they're all crazy in the best ways.

And when it comes to being able to talk to people and have an effect in the community, to see that like somebody could be having a bad day and something silly I say just puts a smile on their face, or watching one of my coworkers do that for a customer.

Stuff like that is what makes me excited to get up and go to work every morning.

- Well, Amelie's makes it special 'cause you feel sort of comfortable here.

It's like being part of a community and at the same time having some anonymity where you can sit by yourself and read your book and be in your own head and nobody takes it amiss because it's a place where people hang out.

And for me it really triggers memories of Paris in a good way.

I've been only once in my life, but really fell in love with the city, and so it's fun to pretend that I'm in Paris when I'm in Amelie's.

Well, I had a croissant earlier and now I'm topping it off with a cheese danish and some dark roast coffee.

- Our top two popular drinks are a cafe marcotter, which is like our weird funky take on like salted caramel vanilla latte, which is really good.

And then our salted caramel brownie mocha latte.

Chocolate, the decadence of the caramel, vanilla, like a little whipped cream if you're feeling extra.

Those are the things that I like about 'em the most and I think that's what most of our customers come to grab and they gravitate towards.

- [Summer] So we're here at the Noda location, but our closest location to here would be our Uptown location.

We also have locations in the Park Road Shopping Center, Carmel Commons, and then one in Rock Hill as well.

- Each location is similar but different in a lot of ways, and I don't like anything that's prefab or manufactured, I usually make everything myself and just try to make each place individual and a place that'll make you happy and smile when you walk in.

I think probably my favorite piece is the huge Eiffel Tower that's in the dining room, and that was a collaboration, a lot of people worked hard on that.

I think it's a fun piece.

Probably won't see one in town anywhere else.

- Our staff is a very unique group of people as are our customers, so making small connections with our customers is very important.

We have a lot of regulars who come in every single day.

- Amelie's, we've been coming here as far as they opened and it's the closest to back home that it feels, so it feels really French, it's homemade.

All the flavors are really fresh and on point.

- When you walk in, I think you'll smile.

I hope you'll smile, and not take the design too seriously.

Just come in and see for yourself.

- Amelie's French Bakery has four locations in Charlotte, Uptown, Noda, Carmel Commons, and Park Road.

To check out their menu, order ahead, or find out more, go to ameliesfrenchbakery.com.

I'm with Cynthia Harding, one of the members on the committee to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Edenton Tea Party.

And we are standing in the Penelope Barker House right now, tell us who was Penelope Barker?

- Well, Deborah, Penelope Barker was a very influential woman in the late 1700s.

She is widely credited with organizing a group of 51 women to sign a resolves protesting the tax that Britain was imposing on the colonies, and it was called the Edenton Tea Party, but it was a bit different than the one in Boston.

In Boston you may recall the gentleman who participated in that event did it in the cloak of darkness.

They painted themselves up to look like Native Americans so that they would not be discovered because what they were committing was an act of treason to the king.

Here in Edenton, the ladies actually penned a document and they very courageously signed their names to it.

It was picked up by the newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia and then later by two newspapers in London.

And they did that at great risk to themselves, especially Penelope because she had a husband who was in London.

And the consequences were great both personally and for her family.

The women were widely ridiculed, though, because they were women.

And it's thought to be, if not the first, one of the first political acts by women on American soil.

- [Deborah] Well tell me, when visitors come, what's here in the Penelope Barker House that they might wanna stop by and see before they get on their journey?

- The Penelope Barker House is considered to be Edenton's living room.

And it's a great place to start if you're a visitor here to Edenton, especially for the first time.

There are helpful volunteers, there are exhibits, a lovely porch on the waterfront side of the house, and it's just a good spot to start any visit.

Another thing people may not realize when they're down here today looking at our idyllic waterfront is that this was a working seaport.

And in fact, Edenton was the second largest seaport in Colonial America.

And during Antebellum times, it was still a very vibrant port and it was also a key point for the Maritime Underground Railroad.

Harriet Jacobs, who is the author of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," escaped slavery from Edenton via the Maritime Underground Railroad and she wrote extensively about that in her memoir.

- So much to learn about and explore, I can't wait to see more of it.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you for being here, Deborah.

Enjoy Edenton.

- The Penelope Barker House Welcome Center is at 505 South Broad Street in Edenton, and it's open daily.

Admission is free.

For more information, give them a call at [252] 482-7800 or go online to ehcnc.org.

This is Edenton's first mural and it's the perfect canvas to capture the essence of the arts and culture seen here in Edenton.

You know, for some, the perfect weekend destination is a museum.

Now Rick Sullivan found, in Blowing Rock, a spot that covers both art and history.

The locals call it BRAHM.

Let's go check it out.

- [Rick Sullivan] The Blowing Rock Art & History Museum sits in a garden-like setting on the edge of downtown Blowing Rock.

It's just a few steps away from the many small shops and eateries in downtown.

The statue in front is of Elliott Daingerfield, a prolific artist from a century ago.

He lived here on this same property in Edgewood Cottage.

It's Daingerfield's art that inspired the construction of BRAHM.

It all started with a Daingerfield celebration that brought folks to town for a weekend.

- At that weekend celebration, this man from Charlotte mentioned, "Oh, it's too bad Blowing Rock doesn't have an art museum because if they did I'd give them my Daingerfield art collection."

And he was overheard, and so that was just - Gotcha!

- That was too good an opportunity.

- [Rick Sullivan] So naturally, when BRAHM opened in 2011, Daingerfield's art was and still is prominently displayed, but his work is just a fraction of the treasure to be found in this 27,000 square foot space.

- What we've tried to do is present really, really top quality programming and shows and exhibits that tell our local stories.

And we always have a local angle on the story that we're telling.

- Because we are the only arts and or history institution in the High Country, which is our kind of three county pocket in northwest North Carolina.

So when we switched to free admission in 2018, our role in this community changed where we became a community center.

- [Rick Sullivan] The museum is relatively young, having opened in 2011.

Locals and visitors alike are still discovering what's inside, often drawn in by the park-like grounds and the building's architecture.

- It's got an angled roof that might be termed to be more residential in character, but that's also very much the character of downtown Blowing Rock.

And we wanted to have a building that looked like it grew here.

And so that was the point, we wanted architecturally to make it look like it had just always been here.

And we think we accomplished that.

- We joke as a staff that we'll know we're doing really well when the first thing people say when they come in the museum is, "Wow, look at all this amazing artwork!"

Right now we get, "Wow, look at this amazing building!"

- [Rick Sullivan] Once inside, visitors discover a space full of the history and art for this region that had been underrepresented.

- Blowing Rock has been a resort destination for over 150 years.

And there have been artists that have been coming here becoming inspired by the landscape, by the people and the culture here since that time.

- [Rick Sullivan] More than 20,000 local and traveling visitors come through the building in an average year.

There are eight galleries to meander with attractions designed for a varied audience.

- Every one of our galleries has a "Young at Art" question in it that relates to the art or the history in that exhibit.

We always have an exhibit about history, we always have a gallery that's full of beautiful landscape paintings, and then the rest of the galleries we like to mix and match.

We change our galleries over three times a year.

Our exhibitions are a variety of disciplines that go from American Impressionist artwork, landscape paintings, contemporary American craft, or something that's rooted in the history of our region.

- [Rick Sullivan] More than a century ago, Elliott Daingerfield worked and lived here in Edgewood Cottage adjacent to BRAHM.

These days, Edgewood Cottage is operated by the Blowing Rock Historical Society as a showcase for artisan residents during warm months and as additional museum space year-round.

- The Blowing Rock Art & History Museum is at 159 Ginny Stevens Lane in Blowing Rock, and it's open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

To find out more, give them a call at [828] 295-9099, or visit them online at blowingrockmuseum.org.

This is the Roanoke River Lighthouse built in 1886.

I just love its unique two story design.

It was completely restored by volunteers and preservationists and now it's a real step back into history.

Did you know that North Carolina has 35 state parks and many of them are within driving distance from Edenton?

And one of our favorites is Pettigrew State Park with beautiful Lake Phelps.

Producer Clay Johnson shows us what makes this a perfect weekend destination.

[water lapping] - I grew up here in Creswell, North Carolina and I started coming to Pettigrew State Park early on as a child.

[light music] [water lapping] My grandad, he liked to fish, and we would sit and fish, me and my brother and sister, and we'd always pack, I called it a Eastern North Carolina picnic lunch, which would be comprised of Vienna sausage, or potted meat, Honey Buns, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, - Crackers.

- And crackers, soda crackers.

And we would sit and eat that and fish and he would tell us all these old stories from way back when he was a young man.

Those memories are precious.

[water lapping] - Pettigrew State Park is home to Lake Phelps which is the second largest natural lake in North Carolina.

It's 16,600 acres, but it's also very shallow.

It's got an average depth of about four and a half feet.

It's considered one of the series of bay lakes that were formed up and down the coast, although there's still some debate about actually how they were formed.

But this lake is thought to be about 38,000 years old.

- It's crystal clear most of the season.

If you're into canoeing or kayaking or paddle boarding, you will definitely enjoy Lake Phelps.

- He's the one that introduced me to this place and I love it.

I like to go out to the pier and fish.

I can sit out there all day long, whether they're biting or not.

I like to fish- Here!

'Cause it's crystal clear, you can see 'em swimmin' in the water.

It's just peaceful and quiet.

I just love comin' out here.

- I spend a lot of time just hiking and seeing, you know, what type of wildlife I can see here.

If you want to see black bear, I highly recommend you come in the months of May and June, June in particular.

Deer can be seen all throughout the year, wild turkey as well.

We have plenty of raccoons, possums, box turtles, snapping turtles, we have a variety of wildlife.

If you're into waterfowl, then the winter months, December, January, February, are very good for seeing tundra swan, a variety of ducks and other waterfowl.

[bird chirping] In the summertime, it's songbirds.

- [Jim Trostle] There's a lot of very large bald cypress.

There's also some very large sycamores.

- [Matthew] Many of these trees, when you look at them, some of 'em are close to 500 years old.

And that helps put life in perspective sometimes.

And that's what I enjoy about Pettigrew State Park, it's just a place to come and recharge your batteries and reconnect with the natural world, and I think all of us need that.

[bird chirping] - Pettigrew State Park is at 2252 Lake Shore Road in Creswell, and like all state parks, it's open daily.

For more information, give the park office a call at [252] 797-4475 or visit them online at ncparks.gov.

This teapot marks the spot where 51 women signed a petition to King George.

It's just one of the many beautiful icons you'll find when you visit Edenton.

We've had a wonderful time here at this perfect weekend destination.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, or you can find us on our YouTube channel.

Have a great "North Carolina Weekend" everyone.

[light music] ♪ [light music continues] ♪ [light music continues] ♪ [light music continues] ♪ [light music continues] ♪ - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[light music]