North Cakalacky Travellers

Old Salem was my last trip to blog about.

I am starting back to school this week so no more trips.

I wanted to say thank you for reading my blog this summer. It has been really fun traveling and spending time with my mom while learning about North Carolina's History.

I think my favorite trip of all was my Roanoke trip. Being on the road with mom by ourselves was really fun. I loved the play and hope to go back and see it again. I loved the Sea Turtle Hospital too .

If you haven't been to some of the places that I have visited this summer, please go. North Carolina is full of history and it is wonderful to have these places to be able to visit.

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This has been a wonderful summer with my girls and I want to thank all of you also who have been following Jessica's blog. These are memories I will remember always.

We did not make it to everything we had planned, but there's always the weekends and next summer .

If you haven't already, please visit our picture gallery. We have taken tons of pictures to share with you.

Thank you again for following our Summer Travel Blog.

Jessica and I hope you have many wonderful and safe travels in your future!

This trip was really nice. Salem was established in 1766 by Moravians.

My favorite part was the toy museum. Seeing all the giant dollhouses was amazing. There were marbles, tin toys and lots of circus toys that were really neat. We weren't able to take pictures in the museum, but I wish we could have to show you.

I really liked the Single Brothers' House too. This was a home where unmarried men lived and apprenticed in trades. We saw people making pottery and pipes, a tailor making clothes and a carpenter. We didn't get a chance to see the Single Sisters' House, but maybe next time.

I also toured a tavern where George Washington visited. There was a copy of a letter written by him on display talking about his stay and visit to Salem.

I really liked the Miksch House. I liked seeing how they spun wool into thread and see how they loved back then. This was the first Salem family home.

We also went the bakery where they made fresh bread and cakes. I got some icecream and then we had to head home. I can't wait to go back to see the things we missed .

http://www.oldsalem.org/

Not historical, but was on my map of things I wanted to do .

After visiting Wilmington and taking the carriage ride, we went to Topsail Island to visit the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital.

We saw 5 turtles that were being treated for different problems. There are more, but on the tour, they only allow a few to be visited. My favorite turtle was a Ridley turtle named Lennie. He is not releasable because he is blind. There were other turtles in there with problems such as boat propeller wounds, fishing net injuries, sickness and other things. The largest turtle we saw was Noah. He was the second largest in the hospital. The smallest was named April. Katie and I got turtle stuffed animals and mom got a beautiful Christmas ornament to remember our great trip.
All of our purchases helped the Sea Turtle Project .

http://www.seaturtlehospital.org/

Cameras were not allowed inside the hospital, so we do not have any pictures, but please check out their website and see all the turtles they are helping. If you are able, please make a donation to help save these beautiful creatures.

This past week we went to Wilmington, NC to take a horse and carriage tour in the historic district. It was a lot of fun. Katie and I love horses and have always wanted to take a carriage ride. Our guide took us on the old home tour. We learned about open brick fences. It's not to make it look fancy, it was for air flow. We never knew that . The homes do not have their original iron gates and fences. They were used during the Civil War to make cannon balls! I also learned that the families slept on their porches during the summer because of the heat. This carriage ride was fun to do.

http://www.historicwilmington.org/

I was excited about Bennet Place! This was a place that I had been wanting to visit since we started our travels.

It is famous for hosting the largest troop surrender of the Civil War. This surrender was made by General Johnston to Union General William Sherman. The first meeting was on April 17, 1865, then another meeting April 18 and the final signing of an agreement and surrender April 26.

Bennett Farm was chosen by General Johnston because it was midway between the two troop lines.

James Bennett, his wife and three children settled on this farm in 1846. In 1921, there was a fire that destroyed the farmhouse and the kitchen. The only thing that is left today is the chimney. I think that is so cool that I touched the same fireplace and chimney that two of the Generals in the Civil War touched and may have leaned against during their visit to this farm.

The day that we visited Bennett Place, there was a Confederate Soldier reenactor that told us about what it was like being a soldier during that time. It was neat learning about their life during the war.

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Jessica pretty much said it all about Bennett Place. It was unfortunate that the chimney was the only original part left, but seeing that little bit of history amazes us.

http://www.nchistoricsites.org/Bennett/Bennett.htm

Today we are writing about Historic Stagville. Before I go on I need to apologize about not writing for a while. We have been really busy. So I am very sorry about that.

In the 1750's the land that is now known as Durham County, farmers started settling and they built small homes. The Horton House was one of them. This small plantation was home to both the Bennehans and the Camerons. One of the things that was very neat was that the research on the American Girl, Addy, was done here on the site.

When we went to Stagville I had a temprature gauge that is used to find cold spots. Cold spots can sometimes indicate ghosts and restless spirits. While we were at the site I found a few cold spots. The base readings around the outside were in the high 80's, and the cold spots would dip down to the 30's! Even in a few very sunny spots!

I think that learning about Addy on the site was really neat. I also loved searching for the ghosts of stagville which was really cool and exciting. I promise to write soon. See ya!

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Stagville was pretty neat . In 1860, Stagville was several thousand acres. The home was built in 1787 and had a dairy, smokehouse, barns, storehouses and slave houses. In 1976, the home and land was opened to the public by the Durham Historic Society.

I really love that the American Girl Doll, Addy, was a real girl and that she was from North Carolina. Jessica really enjoys the American Girl books and has gotten more interested since learning about Addy. It has been wonderful learning so many things this summer with Jessica.

I wanted to point out the picture of the bricks. These bricks were hand made by the slaves that worked the property. You can see fingerprints from where the bricks were still wet when they built their chimneys for their houses. Truly amazing. This could have been the brick that Addy's family member made

http://www.stagville.org/

http://www.americangirl.com/fun/agcn/addy/

Hi! I visited this place last week, but just now had time to write about it. Mom's been cracking the whip lol!

I saw all kinds of buildings on our tour. There was a school house that was built in 1893. It was moved here from another part of NC to show us what schools looked like back then. It had books, slates and we were told about all the rules they had back then. There was a list of how many lashes you got for talking, not saying 'mam, not staying on your side of the school (boys and girls were not to sit or play together) and even lashes for being bad at home!

The house was set on fire a few years ago, so they had to repair some of it, but most of the house and the other buildings are original. There is a smokehouse, outhouse, kitchen, pantry and barn. You'll never guess what they used for toilet paper..... GROSS!!! You gotta go to find out . We got some lye soap that they made there to add to our collection from our adventures. Pretty cool.

My favorite part was the school. It was neat to see and what they learned back then. My mom likes to watch Little House on the Prairie and this was just like it.

Gotta go to start on writing about the places we went to in Durham yesterday. We went to 3 sites in one day! We came back so tired, but had a great time. See ya!

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Charles B. Aycock was born in 1859 and was Governor of NC from 1901 - 1905. He was known as North Carolina's "Education Governor" because of his commitment to improving the state's public education system.

This was fun to go see. As Jessica said, I am a "Little House on the Prairie" fan and this schoolhouse was like being in the show . I was very surprised at how rigid the rules were. I don't have the lsit that they did, but this describes some of the rules back then... http://www.jbit.org/guide/index.htm#rules[/b] and http://teachers.eusd.k12.ca.us/encinitas/punishments.htm.

Try to get out there some time. There is a lot of information about a great man.

http://www.nchistoricsites.org/aycock/aycock.htm

When we were on Roanoke Island, we also went to the aquarium. I know it's not a historical place, but I wanted to write about it.

My favorite part of the whole aquarium was the otters. They were playing and swimming all over the place. I also saw turtles (my mom's favorite), fish and alligators.

They had some touch exhibits with shells, crabs, starfish and stingrays. I only played with the shells.

There were some really HUGE sharks in an exhibit called "The Graveyard of the Atlantic".

I came home with an otter and mom a sea turtle stuffed animals from the gift shop. Mom also got a Christmas ornament to put on the tree at Christmas. When we were done, we went over to the fossil dig and found some shark teeth. That was pretty cool.

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NC has 3 aquariums to choose from, so no matter what beach you go to this summer, you have an aquarium near you. It's a great family time place to go.

http://www.ncaquariums.com/

Hi! While we were on our trip, we also went to Fort Raleigh. It was right beside The Lost Colony Play.

We got to see some tools the colonists used, some pots that the Indians used and other artifacts. There was also some dishes, a model of the Elizabeth II and the Elizabethan Room. It had great furniture and an amazing ceiling fit for a Queen. I had a great time.

We didn't get a chance to walk out on the forest trail, but what we saw of the visitors center was great. Don't miss going there if you get to go to Manteo!

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I wish we had more time to explore the trail of Fort Raleigh. Jessica liked the vistors center and had very detailed information which she loves to read. They also had a wall dedicated to The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama that gave information about how it all started and followed it through the years. We will definatley go back to walk the trails and see the Elizabethan Gardens, I hear they are incredible.

http://www.nps.gov/fora/

I had my choice of going to the beach and play for a little while or walk up the HUGE hill to see the monument...... I went to the beach, BUT the reason I did that was because this was our view from our hotel room.

Mom let me have a little fun while we were gone. It wasn't all learning lol. I loved the view I had from the hotel.

http://www.outerbanks.com/wrightbrothers

We went over to Beaufort to find a horse and carriage to take a tour around the historic part of the city, but didn't see one. When mom was driving around, we saw a very old looking cemetery and stopped to look.

We saw a few pretty tombstones that were covered with toys and play jewlery and ribbons. When we got home, mom looked online to find out more about them. One of the ones with all the toys on it was a little girl that died at sea and her father brought her back in a rum barrel to bury her at home instead of at sea.

A lot of the ones we saw died in the 1800's. I didn't see any ghosts . The sign also said that it had a lot of soldiers burried in there. It was pretty creepy but fun to look at the dates.

http://www.beaufort-nc.com/history/old-burying-ground.shtml

Hi everyone!

Today I am writing about Tryon Palace.

We went and saw some of the gardens which were nice and also took a tour of the the inside of the house. We saw inside the stables, but the kitchen we locked, so we couldn't go in. There were many rooms in the house. I thought it would be bigger than what it was, though it was a very nice house. I really liked the gallery where it showed the women that had Tryon Palace rebuilt. They had artifacts that were found when they rebuilt the palace.

We also saw the Jones house when we were done at the palace. We went into the museum shop and I got a magnet to take home. It had a picture of the palace on it.

I was disapointed when I found out that it was a reconstruction and not the real palace. It was really hot, so we didn't look at everything outside.

I'll write soon about our next adventure!

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The ORIGINAL Tryon Palace was built between 1767 and 1770 by Royal Governor William Tryon. A fire destroyed the palace in 1798. The only original structure that's part of the palace is the stable. I'm not sure about the blacksmith shop or the smokehouse. We couldn't understand our tour guide that well. Most of our tour was muttled and it was pointless to ask her to repeat herself.

The brochures make Tryon Palace look huge and we were told that it would take hours to look at everything. We were there for about 30 minutes during the guided tour. The palace and grounds weren't as big as the brochures make it out to be. It was extremely hot, so we didn't go through the gardens and as Jessica said, the kitchen was locked and we couldn't get in.

In my opinion, this was a miss. We could have stayed at the beach a little longer rather than rushing off to visit. Basicly, if you would like to spend $15 to see a house built in the 1950's, this is the place for you. Frankly, I can do that for free just by going to my grandmother's house.

http://www.tryonpalace.org

While we were on New Bern, we went to the Birthplace of Pepsi-Cola. I got a Pepsi!

They also had a penny machine with Pepsi designs, so I got 3 flattened pennies for my penny collection. One of them says "Brad's Drink". That is what it was called before it was named Pepsi. They had lots of Pepsi things in there like Santas, old bottles and things like that.

I picked up a glass with some history written on it for my Papa. He loves Pepsi

I hope you can go too!

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This was very fun for Jessica. She wanted to go and get something for her Grandfather.

They had a short film running on a t.v. above the counter telling the story of Pepsi. It was pretty neat to be in the same store that "Brad's Drink" was invented. You can't miss it. The Birthplace of Pepsi is located in historic New Bern.

http://www.pepsistore.com

Wow! I loved this!

At the beginning before the play, there was a town's person actor that was juggling knives. He was really good and funny.

Mom got tickets for the front row on the isle and during the whole play, indians, soldiers and others kept running up and down right beside me as part of the play.

There were sad, funny, dramatic and frightening parts. My favorite part was when one of the indians kept chasing Tom to try to kiss him. That was so funny.

I got Queen Elizabeth's autograph, John White's autograph and others. I really had a great time that night.

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This was a very special part of the trip for me. I was about Jessica's age the last time I saw this play and it was great being able to share it with her.

It was amazing to see how much they have recovered since the last fire they had a few years ago. The costumes and actors were incredible. The play was great. It did have a couple of slower parts that could have been left out, but other than that, it was a hit.

I didn't realize we would be so close to the stage when I bought the tickets. I just didn't want to have someone's head in front of Jessica so she couldn't see, but that would not have been the case if we had sat further back. The seats are made to have a good rise to them so everyone can see everything.

We were able to take pictures before the play started, but cameras were not allowed during the production. I got the pictures I could before and after.

If you get to that area, try not to miss it. This was a good hit and not a miss of our trip .

http://www.thelostcolony.org

We had a pretty good day at Roanoke Park on Wednesday. We saw a remake of the Elizabeth II, the Roanoke Museum, the Settlement site and the Museum Store.

Walking the ship was ok. The Elizabeth II was smaller than I thought. The Museum was pretty nice, but didn't see any artifacts. It was very interactive. You could dress up in old looking clothes and play on boats and things. Nothing really jumped out at me. The settlement site wasn't that interesting to me. There were no markers telling me about the site. Just actors talking funny and trying to get me to do the hands-on activities. It showed things about soldiers. I really like the Virginia Dare part of Roanoke History and there wasn't anything there about that.

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I have to agree with Jessica on this one. During our 3 day trip we ran into a few hit & misses. It was not what we were thinking it would be or what we are used to on the sites we have visited. I'm sure they encounter a ton of people each season, so they try to make their Park fun and self-guided, but the lack of staff was discouraging.

We didn't have time to watch the film they provide about the settlement, so that may have filled our knowledge void, however, for those who do miss the film like us, had nothing to go on as we walked the park. There were no "information stands" to let us know about what we were looking at. Jessica said at one point the phrase "tourist trap".

I'm sure that this is a great place to visit with a group of young kids that like to roll-play and dress up, but it wasn't for us. If you have a question about something, the staff will answer it and that's about it. Not very forthcoming on the info.

The most fun Jessica had for this visit was the fossil dig. They have a spot set aside where they truck in loads of sandy dirt to sift through to find shell fossils and shark teeth. She did find some neat things. It's a good place to park the kids while the adults go shopping in the gift shop next door. Was it planned that way?

Please don't let our experience discourage you from going if you are interested in visiting. It just wasn't for, that's all.

http://www.nchistoricsites.org/rifp/rifp.htm
http://www.roanokeisland.com