A Sharp Weekend

We had a great weekend with the Sharp's, Mike, Sherri, Brian, Lori & Andrew and Tom & Darlene Dufalla, Lori's parents. We visited, did some touring, played games and helped Brian & Lori move into their new house. We toured Beaufort, an old seaport. There are several original houses including the Hammock House where Blackbeard the pirate is said to have stayed. We also went to the North Carolina Maritime Museum that has a lot of artifacts from the area and a workshop where they build small boats to keep the traditional methods alive. The place we found to be the most interesting was the Old Burying Ground that has graves dating back to the 1700's. One of the graves is the girl in the barrel on whose grave people continue to leave tributes. The story is that her mother only allowed her father to take her to England if he promised to return with her. When she died on the ship, rather than the usual burial at sea, her father bought a barrel of rum from the captain in which to place her body in order to preserve it. Thus, he could keep his promise to bring her back. Next we went to Fort Macon which was built in the 1800's. During the Civil War the local militia took and held the fort for a year before Union forces led by General Burnside (of sideburns fame) recaptured it. It was not used again until the Spanish American War after which it became a state park. During the Depression the CCC totally refurbished the fort for the state. When WWII started and the German U-boats were sinking ships off the North Carolina coast the army once again occupied it with a Coast Artillery Unit. Since that time it is once again a state park. It is very well preserved and is worth the visit.