We were really looking forward to this stop! This is the town that Dave and Barb chose to leave Colorado for. I wondered about the logic of that choice, but after being here for a while - I get it. This is also where Outlander is set in America once they got here. It is a beautiful area. We booked into New Bern Grand Marina, which sort of sounded ..... well, ....grand. Yeah, its really not. It was OK, but being a captive harbor, it was a mosquito haven. Bleh.

It was an uneventful trip from Beaufort, across water that was like glass. Glorious. When we got tied up, we decided to stroll around town a bit. Found a great restaurant named Capn Ratty's and had a late lunch again. I know it looks like we eat either really early or a really late lunch, but I work around the mosquitos. They will be thick and chopping on me by dusk, so want to be in the cabin by then. That means heading back by 5 or so (because of the walk), so we eat early. Dinner was great, then walking around the little town was also a fun time. Did you know that Pepsi was invented right there? No? Yeah, we didn't either, but now you know. The Tryon Palace looked super cool, so I looked into a tour of it the next day. Dave and Barb wanted to join us, and I added an Outlander tour with it, but didn't know that they don't watch the show, so wouldn't get it. Bummer. We enjoyed it a lot. The palace was built with 5000 pounds donated from King George to build an office for the Governor of this colony. Governor Tryon levied taxes to make up the 10,000 pounds (which was an obscene amount back then) he went over budget on it. That could be why his buildings had a higher than normal chance of burning down. It burned twice, and was rebuilt. You'd think he would figure it out, but that taxation thing was the beginning of us being America, so I guess it needed to happen. The history was amazing, and the pictures were pretty cool too. It's a beautiful home, kept up beautifully. The tour guide was pretty stoked that Outlander will have another season after this one too, because she will keep her job! lol

Three days was enough there, but when we left, we decided that we were having so much fun socializing with Dave and Barb that we suggested they ride with us to Oriental. They moved a car there, and rode with us to the marina, then drove home. Pretty smart idea. The giant great white shark, allegedly nearly 30 ft long, is in this area now, so we are pretty excited to keep our eyes peeled for it. We didn't even see a dolphin here though. Bummer. Mosquitos probably ate them.

Next stop - River Dunes. We chose River Dunes for two reasons. 1. Cheap gas. $3.95 vs the $4.89 at others. 2. Closest marina to our Pamlico Sound crossing to Okracoke Island.