We went on the Palace and mansion tours. Our first stop was the Stanley house. The house was beautiful, there was decorative art work on both the first and second floor of the house...that shows A LOT of wealth. President George Washington stayed in the house for two nights on his southern campaign. The floors are original...which I think is so cool! I totally walked on the same floor as a president.
Our second stop was the Dixon house. I liked this house more, it seemed much more comfortable to me. Interesting fact, Dixon was a tailor and had 6 orphans working as apprentices. In return for their work they received room and board. I thought that was pretty cool!
Then we headed to Tryon Palace. The original palace burned down, so this entire thing is a reproduction. But the way they did it is amazing. Only two pieces of furniture were tracked down from the original palace. One thing I thought was strange...all the upstairs "chambers" are connected! So, that leaves me wondering...do you knock before you enter every room? How does that work if your a guest? So strange! Also, they had servants, I assume they were black. They were allowed to have guests over and allowed to entertain. They also gave their servants gifts. I think I like the Tryons!
After the tours we walked down to Middle Street...my favorite street in New Bern. The Chelsea is there, an awesome dress store, the birth place of Pepsi, and my new friend...Elvis! We grabbed lunch (I had a fried green tomato BLT..YUM!) Then we walked around and saw some different sites.
We headed back to the Palace and saw the gardens. I have never seen so many butterflies. Everything was so beautiful!
We spent the whole day wandering around New Bern. When we got home we lounged for a while, and made some pork chops on the grill for dinner. I think we're going to head out for the mandatory pumpkin spice latte before the end of the night!
I wonder where we will end up tomorrow!
