If you happen to be an ICW Snowbird for October 2017, you should consider stopping over in New Bern, NC. The town is very boater friendly and only 22 miles up the Neuse River from Oriental, NC.
Diann and I have our Gemini sailing catamaran docked at the New Bern Grand Marina and have enjoyed the variety of aspects on which to report over the past few months.
The New Bern Historical Society uses Halloween as an opportunity to provide residents and visitors the fun of touring historic homes with costumed guides offering facts about the homes. Called the Ghost Walk, the tour has modest elements of haunting and no gore that we observed.
The Ghost Walk covers three nights- Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Tickets are under $20; are printed on legal sized paper; and include a map of locations with numbers corresponding with site names and addresses.
We chose to visit the Athens Theater and St. John’s Masonic Theater events on Thursday night. By doing so, we missed the larger crowds which occur on Friday and Saturday. The Athens event started with costumed actors miming Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Following Thriller, another troop provided a preview of the upcoming play “Mary Poppin’s”.
The Masonic Theater presented singers, of late teen age, presenting a variety of songs. Because of his vampire outfit, the Elvis impersonator stole that short show!
From there we proceeded, at 9PM, to the Cedar Grove Cemetary to participate in the graveside walking tour to observe three presentations by deceased individuals telling tales relating to New Bern’s history and their personal demise. Passing a well dressed Grim Reaper we exited the cemetery gates.
Set up preceding the Tryon Palace Headless Horseman
My Mother and Jack particularly enjoyed Friday evening’s presentation at Tryon Palace.
Historical Society staff made sure that we had easy access to a good place to stand to see the Headless Horseman arrive at the palace gates.
Diann’s needed golf cart worked well for Mom and Jack, too.
Of the events we attended, the Tryon action was the most dramatic. Fire baskets added illumination during the twilight opening presentation that we watched.
The nightly schedule for Friday and Saturday
Costumed actors had artificial smoke as an additional prop to the fire pots. After telling the tale of a British soldier who lost his head, the rider galloped down the street to turn a couple of times in front of the Tryon Palace gates. He then retreated to his hidden place- to prepare for the 7 o’clock presentation.
Diann, Mom, Jack, and I then toured a hand full of homes and listened to vignettes about why each house is historical. By 8:00 we were ready for hot chocolate and so stopped in at one of the churches that participate in the Walk.
It wasn’t long, Friday, before we called it a night.
Saturday has a continuation of Ghost Walk events. Our decision was to visit the Cedar Grove Cemetery by day and so arrived early enough that our personal tour would not overlap the beginning of the 5:30 beginning of the actors.
Gift shops and restaurants are numerous on Middle and Craven Streets. Mom enjoyed seeing the “stuff’.
Morgan’s restaurant is always a good bet for dining and so our evening meal was had there.
Snow birds who find New Bern may decide to stay rather than continue on south. Winter weather isn’t generally bad; there’s a local airport; and other NC towns are short day trips by car. Since there’s a KOA RV park only ten minutes by car, families can do a combination RV and boat rendezvous- as Mom & Jack did when visiting Diann and me for the Ghost Walk weekend.
The story / blog of Yacht A Fun, a Gemini catamaran sailboat, traveling the ICW and east coast with insights to the extended cruising life. New Bern NC Ghost Walk