Once our trolley tour had ended, we had time to spare before our tour of Tryon Palace. First things first...lunch! After I was appointed to decide where we should eat & then did not do so, we settled on eating at a Mennonite restaurant there in the midst of all of the shops. I am glad we opted to eat there as the food was excellent. I debated for some time on whether or not I should get the catfish or the country fried steak. I went with catfish & it was delicious. We still had time to look around so we checked out some of the stores in the area & then took a look inside the PEPSI store where PEPSI began. As you can see from the pictures, we did a bit of goofing around in Bear Plaza & surrounding areas posing with the bear statues as well as striking poses by the fountain. We brought great entertainment to an older man sitting across the street on a park bench. He was laughing at us & yelling at us as we acted out. Happy to have made him smile. After an extremely moving film about Tryon Palace (Ha! Ha!--Just had to be there to see it for yourself. I was cracking up it was so ridiculous!), a quick bathroom break & look inside the Palace gift shop, it was time to head to the Palace for our tour.
