New Bern, NC 9/13/1998

Sunday was a relaxing day so Kay and I went to New Bern while John cleaned out the garage and Caroline slept. Our first stop was Tryon Palace, the home of the North Carolina governor under King George, originally built in 1770. The Tryon Palace had burned in 1798 and this is a reconstruction based on the inventory and records that they had. Here I learned that sleep tight is derived from beds with ropes that are tightened and serve as support for the mattresses which were perhaps made of corn shucks topped with feathers.



After a tour of the house we went to the area where the cooking and wool spinning was done. Then a tour of the gardens and the enlightenment that the fruit trees were pruned to grow against a trellis along the wall that outlines the garden. We picked some seeds from a holly hock and then went to visit the blacksmith. He was making a spatula and learning to be a blacksmith by working there for minimum wage on the weekend.
Kay was frozen in time in the statue garden.



The gardens are quite lovely and especially well known in the area for the mum show they have in the fall. We were a few weeks early for the mums which had been planted but were not in bloom yet.

Across the street from Tryon was the Stanley home, a Georgian home built in 1783, meaning everything was even on both sides of the center, typical of a Georgian home architecturally speaking. George Washington had visited the home in 1791. Then our final tour was the Dixon-Stevenson home built in 1828 at the front of Tryon Palace.


New Bern, named for Bern, Switzerland, was settled in 1710 by Swiss and German colonists, hence the bear (bern) that is obvious on their historical markers and hat pins. Pepsi Cola was also begun in New Bern. New Bern was the state capitol from 1776-1794 and was a busy seaport town. Many of the houses are in the federal style.The town is full of old homes, very much to my liking. Quite a little tourist area. We then found a nice little ice cream shop where I had a cup of aqua and blue ice cream that I found out to be peppermint and marshmallow cream. Had the colors been a dress I would have bought it.