raleigh road trip

Earlier in the summer we took a quick weekend road trip to the Raleigh/Durham area in North Carolina. We woke the kids up early in the morning and had chocolate milk and muffins on the road. It turned out perfectly because we missed the usual weekend traffic on 95 South and the kids fell back asleep in the car. Our first stop was brunch at Nosh in Durham. It was so delicious. We devoured everything on the table. It was just down the street from the Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the Duke University campus so we spent some time wandering through the beautiful gardens. That's about all I took photos of for some reason. The rest of the weekend was spent exploring Raleigh. And swimming in the hotel pool. We attempted to go out to eat for dinner downtown but it started pouring rain and a few of the kids fell asleep while we were driving around so in the end we just picked up pizza from Mellow Mushroom (can't go wrong there) and had dinner in our hotel room.

Ben's awesome portobello burger and my savory egg patties. We also had the world's best cinnamon roll here. 

Matching brothers.

road trip part 5: falls lake

We drove home from Charlotte on Monday. We wanted to break up the drive a bit so we stopped at Falls Lake in the middle of nowhere North Carolina for some swimming. We actually ended up at this very spot a few years ago on our road trip to Atlanta. I never would have thought we would return. It's a pretty lake in a beautiful green setting and we nearly had the places to ourselves.

There was a threat of rain all day but we decided to go for it anyway. A storm eventually rolled in and everyone kept swimming in the rain. Nothing quite as refreshing as swimming in a warm summer rain. (Don't worry, no lightning.)

 

The kids did a great job traveling, even when we hit the obligatory late-night traffic upon entering Northern Virginia. And we managed to fit in one last stop at a Sonic.

road trip part 4: charlotte

We enjoyed a few relaxing days in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were much happier in our hotel room there which had a living room, kitchen, and 2 bedrooms. Everyone slept much better. The girls' excitement over free mediocre hotel breakfasts is inexplicable. After breakfast we spent some time at the hotel pool. We picked up lunch at our favorite North Carolina chain, Cook-Out, and ate it at a park where the kids had fun exploring and playing. Charlotte is a really pretty town with beautiful tree-lined streets. We drove around downtown a bit and checked out the local scene.

Score! Our hotel had a Sonic right next door. Happy hour drinks and half-price shakes in the evening!

We found a beautiful picnic spot at a lake the next day. I told the kids they could put their feet in the water but they had different plans.

We were only a few miles from South Carolina so we had to cross the border and have dinner at Culver's that night.

road trip part 3: biltmore!

We finally arrived at the Biltmore Friday afternoon and our first views were stunning! Biltmore was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt for George Vanderbilt. It took six years to build and Vanderbilt opened the estate in 1895. It currently sits on 8,000 acres of land but originally he owned much more. Nearly 90,000 acres were sold to the government and became a National Forest. The estate has 4 acres of floor space, 250 rooms, 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. The basement has a swimming pool, gymnasium and changing rooms, bowling alley, servants' quarters, kitchens, and the biggest pantries you've ever seen. Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside but the details and grand scale of everything inside was just amazing.

Luckily the tour inside the house is self-guided so we were able to go at our own pace. Which was a quick one with cranky pants Oliver. His 3 1/2 hours of sleep the previous night took a toll on him. The best part of the tour was when Ben and I took turns walking through the basement while the other stayed with Oliver. The girls walked through with Ben and then pretended to be my tour guide as they walked me through the basement. They loved exploring the house. The basement had some of the most fun aspects, like the pool and dressing rooms.

The balcony views (and pretty much the views from everywhere on the estate) were gorgeous. Green as far as the eye could see.

 

Everyone needed an ice cream break after touring the house.

The grounds and gardens were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. It was extremely hot at this point in the day and everyone was pretty worn down but we still enjoyed walking through the gardens and greenhouse (but not lugging our heavy stroller up and down lots of stairs). Despite complaining about being tired (and running out of water) the girls were always running ahead, exploring and imagining.

As it turns out, Oliver is completely afraid of cacti. He stepped into this room and was immediately alarmed and frightened. He stumbled back a few steps only to realize that he was surrounded. He hasn't had any negative encounters with a cactus in the past, but I guess he just immediately realized the potential danger. This was surprising for a kid that doesn't seem to have any sense of what's dangerous. (Hmmm...this gives me an idea of how I can keep him out of certain places...)

Oliver soaked himself in this water feature.

As we were leaving in the evening, several antique milk trucks showed up for display.

We headed to the center of Asheville and had delicious pizza at the Mellow Mushroom before making the drive to Charlotte. We encountered a crazy rain storm on our drive and some ominous looking clouds.