About Puddle Jumper NC
A small, local guide for parents and grandparents in New Bern, Havelock, Jacksonville, Morehead City and the Crystal Coast, Swansboro and Emerald Isle, NC who need somewhere to take a little kid today, especially when it's raining or too hot outside.
Who runs it
Puddle Jumper NC is run by a local parent in Craven County. An AI assistant helps research and draft listings, and a person reviews every listing before it goes live.
How we check facts
Each listing links to where its facts came from, usually the place's own website or Facebook page, or the city, county or MCCS page, and shows the date it was last checked. If we couldn't confirm something, the listing says “Not yet confirmed.” Hours and prices change, so please call or check the source before you go.
Corrections and tips
Every listing has a 👍 Looks right button and a ✏️ Report a fix button. We review every tip and correction, check it against the place's own information, and update the site. Confirmations help us know a listing is still accurate.
What we keep: the listing, what you wrote, the date, and the country your note came from. We don't store IP addresses. If you leave an email, we use it only to reply to you.
Suggest a place we missed
Know a good spot for little kids in our area? Suggest a place and we'll check it out.
Contact
Spotted something wrong, or know a place we missed? You can also email [email protected].
No paid reviews
We don't take payment to list or rank places, and there are no made-up reviews here. “Local parent tips” are short notes from local parents, shared without names.
Map
The home-page map is a simplified drawing made for this site. The outline is based on U.S. Census Bureau county boundary data (public domain). The colored areas are loose “nearest town” zones, not city limits, and the dots are approximate.
Weather
Forecasts come from Open-Meteo.com and load in your browser. They're a planning hint, not a guarantee.
Ads and affiliate links
[Placeholder disclosure, to be finalized before any ads or affiliate links are added:] Some links on this site may be affiliate links. If you buy something through one, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. [Keep the Amazon sentence only if the site is accepted into Amazon Associates.] The site may also show ads. None of this affects which places we list.
Right now the site has no ads and no affiliate links.
Photo credits
We only use photos we're allowed to reuse. Real photos of a place come from Wikimedia Commons or Flickr under open licenses (CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA, or U.S. government public domain), resized and converted to WebP. Listings without a usable real photo show an example illustration drawn for this site, clearly labeled as not a photo of that place.
| Place | File | Author | License | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawson Creek Park | lawson-creek-park-sign.webp | ncwetlands.org (NC Division of Water Resources) | CC0 1.0 | Source |
| Lawson Creek Park | lawson-creek-park-trail.webp | ncwetlands.org (NC Division of Water Resources) | CC0 1.0 | Source |
| Lawson Creek Park | lawson-creek-park-water.webp | ncwetlands.org (NC Division of Water Resources) | CC0 1.0 | Source |
| Union Point Park | union-point-park-drawbridge.webp | Drummike55 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| Union Point Park | union-point-park-sunset.webp | Drummike55 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| Jacksonville Main Library (Onslow County) | jacksonville-main-library.webp | Lance Cpl. Mark Watola, USMC | Public domain (U.S. Marine Corps photo) | Source |
| Cherry Point Station Library (MCCS) | cherry-point-station-library.webp | Cpl. Samuel A. Nasso, USMC | Public domain (U.S. Marine Corps photo) | Source |
| Fort Macon State Park | fort-macon-walls.webp | JessPeck88 | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Source |
| Fort Macon State Park | fort-macon-parade-ground.webp | DrStew82 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| Fort Macon State Park | fort-macon-cannon.webp | DiscoA340 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores | pks-aquarium-shark.webp | jjmusgrove | CC BY 2.0 | Source |
| North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores | pks-aquarium-turtle.webp | jjmusgrove | CC BY 2.0 | Source |
| North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores | pks-aquarium-seahorse.webp | jjmusgrove | CC BY 2.0 | Source |
| North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort | maritime-museum-sign.webp | Willthacheerleader18 | CC0 1.0 | Source |
| North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort | maritime-museum-whale.webp | Willthacheerleader18 | CC0 1.0 | Source |
| Rachel Carson Reserve wild horses (by ferry) | rachel-carson-horses.webp | Bonnie Gruenberg | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Source |
| Roosevelt Nature Trail (Theodore Roosevelt Natural Area) | roosevelt-trailhead.webp | Sparkgap | CC BY 3.0 | Source |
| Hammocks Beach State Park | bear-island-beach.webp | DiscoA340 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| Hammocks Beach State Park | bear-island-boardwalk.webp | DiscoA340 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| Hammocks Beach State Park | hammocks-beach-ferry-dock.webp | DiscoA340 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| Cedar Point Tideland Trail | cedar-point-tideland-trail.webp | US Forest Service - Southern Region | CC BY-SA 2.0 | Source |
| Patsy Pond Nature Trail | patsy-pond-trail.webp | ncwetlands.org (NC Division of Water Resources) | CC BY 2.0 | Source |
| Patsy Pond Nature Trail | patsy-pond-lilies.webp | ncwetlands.org (NC Division of Water Resources) | CC BY 2.0 | Source |
| Latham-Whitehurst Nature Park | latham-whitehurst-boardwalk.webp | Fredlyfish4 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| Latham-Whitehurst Nature Park | latham-whitehurst-dock.webp | Fredlyfish4 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Source |
| Island Creek Forest Walk | island-creek.webp | Fredlyfish4 | CC BY 4.0 | Source |
Illustrations, logo and icon: original artwork for Puddle Jumper NC. Heading font: Fredoka by The Fredoka Project Authors, SIL Open Font License 1.1. U.S. Marine Corps photos are public domain; their use doesn't imply endorsement by the Department of Defense or the Marine Corps.