Weekend at the Palace

I never knew North Carolina had it's own little colonial palace but this weekend I found out there is such a thing at New Bern. Apparently, New Bern was the colonial capitol of NC during the revolutionary era compete with a palace built by Governor Tryon, the first governor of the NC colony. George Washington even stayed in the town once and danced at the palace. Unfortunately, the original palace burned down so the one people visit today is a reconstruction. They have interpreters dressed up in period garb; some act like they are from the time period and talk in the manner of the 1770's. Saturday night was the big Christmas Candle lighting; the whole grounds lit with only candles, an African American jamboree, a ball inside the palace with dance demonstrations, an acrobat from Italy, a puppet show, cider and ginger snaps, and a nice fireworks display at the end.

My family always loves to visit historical places so we are suckers for this kind of trip. Besides visiting the "palace" and grounds you can visit several period homes within the block. There are also several homes from the Civil War time period. They don't build houses like those anymore. Such beautiful high ceilings, wanes coating, and elaborate woodwork. Terrible to heat though I'm sure. I think I would love to live in one some day if I could afford it... All this history has made me break out another revolutionary biography (John Adams by David McCullough) and want to take another trip to Williamsburg... Maybe next Christmas...