North Carolina 
Tar Heel State

Motto, To Be Rather than to Seem

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State bird, cardinal.    State flower, dogwood.    State tree, pine.

Raleigh , the state capital, is home to North Carolina State University. Duke University is at Durham , and the University of North Carolina at trendy Chapel Hill. Winston-Salem combines tobacco culture and Moravian heritage, while Charlotte could very well be the next boom city of the South, though for the moment it's Distinguished by little but its downtown skyscrapers. In the mountains , one of the most beautiful stretches of Appalachia, Boone and Asheville , are linked by the spectacular Blue Ridge Parkway , The Great Smoky Mountains National Park shares the border with Tennessee.

Beaufort , is probably the nicest of North Carolina's coastal towns: a relaxing place to  just sit around on the waterfront, which heats up at night. The Maritime Museum has good displays on local ecology and shipping history

Charlotte has an  mass of skyscrapers known as "uptown," a kids oriented science museum with an indoor rainforest and anomnimax theater hosting a planetarium,  also the Nature Museum geared toward children seven years and under, and complete with rabbits, hamsters and ponies, as well as puppet shows and a butterfly room. Another major landmark, downtown, is the massive Ericsson Stadium , home of the NFL team, the Carolina Panthers.

Raleigh the North Carolina Museum of History ,  the state's history from the viewpoint of its people, with particularly strong sections on women. Opposite is the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Wilmington, The extravagant houses, ornate City Hall and lovely old Thalian Hall demonstrate Wilmington's former wealth, but it's the cobbled streets of the weathered, boardwalked waterfront , dotted with laid-back cafés and restaurants, that really appeal along with several museums.

North Carolina's PIEDMONT is a fairly industrialized area of textile and tobacco towns, mostly in decline. However, even close to the towns it can still be very rural, little changed since the 1950s. The main area of interest is the Research Triangle trio of neighboring college towns: Raleigh , the state capital; relaxed Durham , with its strong black community; and countercultural Chapel Hill. Winston-Salem , famous for its tobacco industry, boasts the excellent Old Salem village, while Charlotte 's international airport is the point of arrival for many European visitors.

The North Carolina coast , which ranges through salt marshes, beaches, barrier islands and estuaries, holds most of the state's more interesting historic sites . The continent's earliest English colonists vanished inexplicably from Roanoke Island in 1590; just over three centuries later, the Wright brothers achieved the first powered flight a few miles up the road. The Outer Banks , the long reef of barrier islands that stretches down from Virginia, are in parts tacky and elsewhere beautifully unspoiled.

The best way to see the mountains of North Carolina is from the pristine Blue Ridge Parkway , which runs across the northwest from Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park . It's a delight to drive; the vast panoramic expanses of forested hillside, with barely a settlement in sight, may astonish travelers fresh from the crowded centers of the east coast. This predominantly poor region has been a breeding ground for blue-grass music, as played by Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs. The North Carolina High Country Host, 1700 Blowing Rock Rd, in Boone (tel 1-800-438-7500) is a helpful visitor center that services most of the mountain area.