Road Trips & Vacations
| BobG on World Bluegrass Festival Coming to Raleigh | I seem to remember something about a large parade in mid March each year. My memory on that is kinda ... | [READ MORE] |
| Anthony on NOSVC Weather Cam [BETA] | Good call on turning the camera - that seems to have cleared things up a little bit. Office Cam is ... | [READ MORE] |
| BobG on NOSVC Weather Cam [BETA] | To avoid the reflection, simply turn the camera 30-45 degrees so its not looking directly back at itself. Suggestions? PrincessCam. GI ... | [READ MORE] |
| BobG on Vote for the Dark Bucket | Imagine the Lego Death Star you could make with this.... | [READ MORE] |
| BobG on Vote for the Dark Bucket | I know some nephews who would kill for this. | [READ MORE] |
The American Tobacco Trail is a 22+ mile rails-to-trails project located in the Triangle Region of North Carolina. The route crosses through the City of Durham; Durham, Chatham, and Wake counties; the planning jurisdictions of the Towns of Cary and Apex; and passes through the Lake Jordan project land of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Today C and I took the day off and decided to go for a short ride on the American Tobacco Trail. Within the first mile I saw this snake in the creek bed running along side the trail. I only had the Canon SD790 (point and shoot) so I took the risk getting as close as I did. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.
I did find a sign for BobG that he should study to hopefully prevent those terrible cases of poison ivy he is prone to get. Maybe this will help him find some in his backyard around July 8th or so.
Decided to throw a few more ‘flashback’ photos up on the site and this time we landed in 2002 and Minneapolis, MN. I believe Cara was thereat a convention for Meredith College and I was along for the ride. She always gets the good trips while my job routinely sends me to Dorthea Dix (for meetings not to be strapped down and medicated – but I do wonder at times).
I digress. This trip was great because we were in the downtown area where all the buildings are connected on the second floor. While she was diligently attending seminars I was seeing how far I could go without going outside. We also got to go to a Minnesota Twins game (my first professional baseball game) and the infamous Mall of America where I went to my first Lego store and probably the largest outside of Orlando, FL. Other highlights included tryouts for the Vikings cheerleaders (disappointing) and multiple large Charlie Browns and Snoopys (Snoopies?) around town.
The pictures on this trip were taken with a film camera and the images were later scanned. Amazing what a decade of technology will do. More pictures after the jump and more memories yet to be posted as I go through the older files and look for hidden gems.
Last weekend I had a chance to visit Chimney Rock State Park. This was my first time going to the park and I was looking forward to the visit. I was able to do some hiking. The first trail I hiked was the Hickory Nut Trail. This was a moderate trail which led to a beautiful waterfall. It is the largest waterfall east of the Mississippi. The waterfall may look familiar because it was in the Last of the Mohicans.
After visiting the waterfall, I decided to go up to the very top of Chimney Rock. On a normal day you can ride an elevator to the top but the elevator is being renovated. The park is working on Capital Improvements so the only way up is climbing up 26 flights of stairs. It was worth the walk up to the top.
The views were spectacular!
There is no place like the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC to watch the sun set. You can watch as the mountains slowly turn from green to blue and see a a vast array of colors all around. We went to the Grove a little over a year ago for Thanksgiving and it was really nice to return and walk around when it was a little less crowded.
In doing a little research on the place I found this interesting piece of info…
The Grove Park Inn was conceptualized by Edwin Wiley Grove who owned Paris Medicine Company. Its primary money making product was Grove’s Chill Tonic which was a tasty syrup elixir containing quinine. This formula would help tame the raging chills brought on by malaria. At one time the number of bottles of Chill Tonic outsold bottles of a famous brand of Cola. He believed the climate of Asheville, North Carolina would have health benefits and be the ideal location for a resort. His doctors sent him there to determine if the climate would help reduce or cure his bouts with extreme hiccups. The hiccups would last several weeks at a time. [SOURCE]
I am happy to report there were no hiccups on this trip and it was a nice relaxing way to start the evening. We had a couple of beers and watched the big ball of fire in the sky dip gracefully behind the mountains. Nothing short of magnificent. More pictures after the jump of both the hotel and the view. If you are ever in Asheville, NC it is definitely worth making the time to do this. You might even see someone famous.
You may have thought you had seen the last wedding video of Nick in the Kitchen. If you did you were wrong and definitely not #winning. I don’t think you can get married without Nick in your kitchen and this time he is not alone. Sous chef extraordinaire Zach is on board to describe some of the finer points of cooking to the class.
This time we crossed the 2 minute mark and had the good fortune of having the staff not only not kick us out but provide encouragement by giving Nick a very cool hat. (Underpaid would be my guess.)
To those of you enjoying lunch today at a particular country club in Cary – we apologize in advance. For those of you that haven’t been keeping up with the madness that’s three weddings and three kitchens in one month. (1, 2)
Mazel tov to you all – congrats to Daniel and Suzanne.