Visit the newly renovated NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores! Visit Cape Lookout National Seashore Lighthouse via ferry boats on Harkers Island and The Core Sound Waterfowl Museum on Harkers Island. Here you will discover the world of decoy carving, boat building, storytelling, oral histories, local writers and journalists, traditional music, food ways, hunting and fishing practices and skills passed down by generations of locals. Visit the first Colonial and state capitol building of North Carolina at Tryon Palace in New Bern. This reconstructed Georgian-style mansion was completed in 1770 and contains one of the finest collections of 18th and 19th century English and American antiques in the US and is one of the most visited sites in the state. Throughout history, Beaufort has been a seaport for whalers, fishermen, merchants and pirates!!!!