Friday, March 23, 2007
New Bern - Day 2a
By the time I rolled out of bed this morning around 7:45, Eliana was already up and dressed and ready to go to the pool. Unfortunately the pool is still closed and it’s taken me all day to convince our child that she CAN’T go swimming. It’s not that we won’t LET her go…she CAN’T go. Arghhh…
As soon as I got dressed and situated, the two of us went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and had breakfast before hitting the town.
Our first stop was the Pepsi Store. Pepsi-Cola was first invented by Caleb Bradham in his pharmacy in 1898. The store now sits on the very spot once occupied by Caleb’s pharmacy. We bellied up to the bar and enjoyed a cold, straight-from-the-fountain soda which was originally called “Brad’s Drink”.
Next we walked a couple of blocks over to the Fireman’s Museum. Eliana and I were the only patrons present so we received one-on-one attention from the little lady behind the desk who gave us a tour. This building, next to the modern fire station in New Bern, houses horse-drawn steam engines from the 1800’s and an extensive collection of other early firefighting equipment along with rare photographs, Civil War relics and even the mounted head of a faithful old fire horse named Fred, who died in his traces while answering an alarm. Seeing Fred’s head was a little weird but interesting nonetheless.
We were both getting hungry by this time so we stopped at the Cow Cafe on the way back to the hotel. We enjoyed lunch and ice cream!
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