Exploring Chapel Hill

We made a trip to the NC Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill one day. We love seeing their huge selection of carnivorous plants. The kids took turns telling stories from "the storytellers chairs" and left notes for the fairies in the fairy garden. Ben was working nearby that day and was able to meet us for lunch in Carrboro. A Tom and Chee opened up recently so we were excited to get our fix of gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and grilled cheese donuts.

Cincinnati by day.

We started our visit in Cincinnati by exploring the downtown area a bit. We drove to the other side of the river (which is actually Kentucky) and paid a visit to Tom + Chee, home of the grilled cheese donut! The grilled cheese sandwiches were really good. Lots of interesting options. And the grilled cheese donuts were insane, but really yummy. We tried three kinds: strawberry lemonade (strawberries, lemon mascarpone, mozzarella), the king (caramelized bananas, peanut butter mascarpone, mozzarella), and s'more (chocolate, marshmallow mascarpone, graham cracker).

Our next stop was the Loveland Castle, Chateau Laroche, built by "Sir" Harry Andrews. For over fifty years, Andrews worked on his castle project. He pulled stones from the nearby river, and when that supply was exhausted, molded bricks with cement and quart milk cartons. When Andrews died in 1981 he willed the castle to his Boy Scout troop the Knights of the Golden Trail. "Knights" still guard the castle. It was definitely a quirky little place but the kids loved exploring a "real" castle. Oliver was actually freaked out by all of the knight's armor inside.

Our next stop was the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. The park is quite large so they have "art carts" you can rent and drive around. The kids loved riding around in the cart. We had the whole park to ourselves and had fun finding all of the different sculptures around the park.