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Well, howdy everyone and a fine hail and hello from the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  We are staying at the West Outer Banks KOA which is in the town of, I kid you not, Coinjock.  I’m sure there is a store to go along with that name and I’ll probably discover what that is in the next few days.  But more on the Outer Banks later.  Today’s post is about the town of New Bern (which means New Bear) in North Carolina. 

We stayed 2 nights at the New Bern KOA thinking it would be a quick stop over on our way to the Outer Banks.  But I’ll admit it right here, I was wrong and wrong Big Time.  The town of New Bern was awesome.  It’s a water-based town that was the first permanent location for the Capital of North Carolina (before they moved it inland in an act of pure cowardice, to Raleigh). 

Looking at the web and tourist guides we figured that the Tyron Palace was worth visiting but not much else.  No one mentioned, the BEARS!  It seems that the town of New Bern was settled by folks from Switzerland who named it after the town of Bern.  Of course, since it was in the New Country, it was New Bern and Bern in Swiss means Bear.  There are, at present, over 70 Bear statues in the city.  We got pictures of some of them but far from all.  Maybe on another trip we will go Bear hunting and find all of them.

The Tyron Palace was built in the 1760’s to be the first permanent seat of government for the Colony of North Carolina.  It seems that until that point, the capital was wherever the governor happened to live.  But alas and alack, New Bern only remained the seat of government for about 4 years.  After the last Royal Governor fled (another act of cowardice) it was moved inland to be more secure from I guess marauding Pirates, location.

Anywho, the palace burned down in 1798 along with one of the outbuildings, the kitchen.  Seems the fire was started by some hay in the cellar and the good town folk did not notice the fire until the bldg. was consumed.  The next 150 or so years the location was paved over, houses were built, bridges were built and the only thing left standing from the original palace was the stable bldg.  Being a Georgian style bldg., it was quite symmetrical.  There was the main bldg. and two identical bldg. on each side.  Seems that some ladies got it in their heads to have the palace and kitchen rebuilt and they started fund raising around the start of the 20^th century.  Took a while what with wars, the depression and all, but by 1950 they really gained traction.  They got the state involved to buy the land, get rid of all the structures that had been built there over the last 150 years (the fact that those structures were much older than the palace meant nothing), and help rebuild the original bldgs.  They researched like mad women and found all kinds of information to let them know exactly what the bldg. would have looked like and how it was furnished.  I could go into detail here because the docent was very knowledgeable (except where she made mistakes and I of course, on the side, corrected her) about the work those ladies did.  So the main bldg. and kitchen were actual reconstruction based on the foundations that were found there.  Oh, also not original was the fact that they added electricity and HVAC.

So, as palaces go, it was ok.  Grand but not ostentatious.  I guess what you would think a North Carolina Governor’s Residence would be.  The Gardens were awesome and the highlight, for me, was the kitchen.  Not because I’m that interested in food (I am) but because the Docent there was out of this world.  Forget all the cooking stuff.  First, she was from my home state of Connecticut.  Next, her knowledge of the Revolutionary War was off the charts.  I could have just stayed and listened to her talk for hours.  I think, based on how she talked without taking a breath, that most of the questions she gets are about cooking so having the chance to just talk history was probably as awesome to her as it was to me to listen.  Ok, I know its hard to imagine me just listening quietly, but I love history and I can recognize when I’m in the presence of an expert.  Or basically, at times I do know when to just shut my mouth.

So much for the Tyron Palace.  After we left the palace, we just walked around the town.  Did you know that Pepsi was started in New Bern?  Me neither.  But we found an old style General Store that told the story of how Pepsi was started and grew.  Nice but I swore off Cola’s about 2 years ago, so other than the history…  We also found a fudge store (you can see the picture of Fudge covered Bacon) and an old-style hardware store that was awesome. And, the store had a wood shop that was selling slabs of wood. Too bad I just could not find a way to get them back home. What was nice was there were no junky tourist stores selling stuff all from China.  All in all, it was a great town.

On our way out of town the next day we stopped at White’s Farm which had pick your own strawberries and all kinds of other good things.  No, we did not pick our own, but we bought a bunch that had just been picked that morning.  A full third of them were gone within 30 minutes of leaving. They also had a unique way of using old BBQ Grills. The wide angle photos are of the massive strawberry field but I’m afraid they don’t do it justice.

So, my friends, that brings you up to date.  We sit here on the inner of the outer banks ready to explore for the next 2 full days.  Should result in lots of great pictures and stores.

TTFN