-
4 weeks ago | 
ourstate.com | Rebecca Woltz
The sky is a royal blue and the sun hasn’t yet peeked over the horizon when Nancy Busovne embarks on her biweekly patrol to scout for sea turtle nests. On Wednesday mornings, she walks the long, undeveloped stretch of beach known as Freeman Park, scanning the sand for signs that a mother turtle has been ashore. The morning starts as beautiful as any at Carolina Beach. A gentle breeze floats in off the ocean. Anglers cast their lines into the surf.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Katie Schanze |Rebecca Woltz |Tamiya Anderson |Lynn Wells
Murphy to Manteo: Finding new adventures, historic detours, and the soul of North Carolina on the state’s longest highway: U.S. Route 64. Read the series. I’m bobbing and weaving through a crowd as I chase after my toddler, who is surprisingly quick, despite his general lack of coordination or understanding of gravity.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Rebecca Woltz
Related: Read about the history of hoop cheese, and how to make your own slightly fancy grilled cheese. Mike Pate bought some peaches with his fourth and final $158 paycheck from Dixie Yarns cotton mill and turned it into $300 in two days at his own makeshift farm stand, a station wagon borrowed from his dad’s car lot, parked at an intersection.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Rebecca Woltz |Tamiya Anderson |Lynn Wells
SPONSORED BY Falling for Franklin & NantahalaTake a scenic drive through stunning fall colors, look for waterfalls, go fishing in crystal-clear water, and explore kid-friendly hikes in these two mountain communities within Nantahala National Forest. Your Guide to Franklin & NantahalaWithin Nantahala National Forest, just off the Appalachian Trail, Franklin welcomes travelers with outdoor adventures and small-town charm.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Rebecca Woltz |Tamiya Anderson |Lynn Wells |Mark Kemp
You open the front door of Madison Dry Goods and Country Store using the shop’s original 1908 handle. As you step onto the creaky wood floor, you smell cinnamon and brown sugar, hear the twang of bluegrass music playing over the speakers, and see local antiques lining the shelves. “When you walk in the door, you’re touching and you’re hearing and you’re feeling history,” says owner Michael “Smitty” Smith.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Jason Frye |Rebecca Woltz |Tamiya Anderson |Lynn Wells
The bar purrs. Ice rattles against a shaker, keeping rough time with the lo-fi blues spilling from the speakers. Around the room, conversations hum like bumblebees, floating over the clink and chime of glasses and silverware. At Nanas, time hangs suspended between past and present. There’s the decor — a contemporary homage to mid-century glamour and Ralph Lauren’s classic vision of American style. The menu — a mingling of familiar and reinterpreted classics.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Rebecca Woltz |Tamiya Anderson |Lynn Wells |Mark Kemp
The first thing that guests at Opal & West House see when they walk into the historic inn is a golden dogwood flower on a blue wall. The bloom was painted by Heather Stevens, who owns the inn with her husband, Seth, and their daughter, Lynsie, and is one of many personal touches that the family has added to the 1860 property in the Central Shelby Historic District. When the Stevenses bought the former residence in 2022, it had been empty for a decade.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Chloe Klingstedt |Rebecca Woltz |Tamiya Anderson |Lynn Wells
A bus from South Stokes High School sits in front of Mitchell’s Butchery. Inside the shop, a group of students crowd around the butcher table behind the meat coolers. Before them lies the culmination of their class project: half of a pig carcass. Most of the kids are dressed in jeans and boots. A few live on nearby farms. Some are on the livestock show team. Still others are part of Future Farmers of America (FFA). By now, they’re used to working with animals.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Kristin Davis |Rebecca Woltz |Tamiya Anderson |Lynn Wells
I’m not yet as tall as the chain-link fence at Herman Park, a green space spanning a city block in the center of Goldsboro. It’s a spring day in the early 1980s. The sprawling magnolias are blooming, their scent carrying on a breeze as warm as breath. It’s my first time standing on the dirt platform that serves as the station for the Kiwanis Special, a miniature train that runs around a quarter-mile track in one corner of the city’s oldest park.
-
2 months ago | 
ourstate.com | Alan Hodge |Rebecca Woltz |Tamiya Anderson |Lynn Wells
More than 200 species of birds have been observed at Carrot Island, including Wilson’s plover. Answer No. 6 to learn which nature refuge the island is a part of. photograph by Jared Lloyd
