North Carolina

And just like that, the trip is over:(  Six nights, five hotels, 2 major cities, 1 mountain city, & 1 college town. We had an amazing time.  It was unlike anything we have ever done before.  Not that we did anything just out of this world, but it was just unlike any other vacation.  Nick & I both said it was like being on a week long date.  It's funny, because as we were talking about our favorite parts of the trip, we both named getting to go to the movies twice.  Not that big of a deal, but for those of you with kids, you know how that kind of thing goes out the window! 

Here is a little trip recap...

We drove straight to Charlotte on Friday & got a hotel right in the middle of downtown.  Downtown Charlotte is beautiful...all of Charlotte is beautiful.  It's so clean, & there are big, beautiful trees everywhere.  We walked around the NoDa area Saturday morning, which is a cool, artsy part of town.  The one place we for sure planned on eating at was Cabo Fish Taco....major let down! 

Diner's, Drive Ins, & Dives did a story on this place, so we thought it would be amazing.  We probably should have watched the episode & ordered whatever Guy Fieri had, but we didn't, & what we had was gross.  Oh well, that was the last bad meal for the rest of the trip.  We went to a few different areas around Charlotte, went antique shopping, saw a movie that afternoon, & then went out on the town that night;)  Sunday we visited the church that my sister went to when she lived in Charlotte.  I'm so glad we did that.  It's an amazing church, & was a cool experience.  After a picnic in a park that we had all to ourselves, we headed north to Boone.

Charlotte & Boone are night & day!  Within a few hours I went from high rises & shopping malls, to drinking a glass of wine by the fire with mountains on either side of me.  The trees were so beautiful.  All the leaves have really changed up there, unlike everywhere else that's been so warm & dry.  Nick got his barbecue fix that night at this place that was recommended.

Monday morning was the zip line adventure.  This was SO MUCH FUN!  Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  My only complaint was that it went by way too fast.  There were 10 zip lines, & just one other couple doing it with us, so we were done in about an hour. 

Can you spot Nick?

Here I come!

We had a picnic lunch on the side of a mountain.

Then we drove through Appalachian State to check out their campus. 

They have a "Rock" too;)

Next we headed east to Chapel Hill.  We parked & walked around UNC's campus for about an hour & a half.  This campus was awesome.  If I could do it all over again, I would have gone to school there in a heartbeat.  It was like something you see in a magazine.  Their downtown is adorable too.  We ate dinner there.  I am in love with that town!

On Tuesday we did some shopping & checked out some of the surrounding towns, before heading into downtown Raleigh.  We went to a cool area that I had heard about with lots of restaurants & shops.  We hung around for a while & then ate at an Italian restaurant in that area. 

I realize I look like a mountain person with my plaid & shorts on, but we didn't feel like going to the hotel to change...& nobody knew us anyway;)

We had the hardest time finding a hotel that night.  Everywhere we called in Raleigh, & surrounding areas was booked, so we finally found a place in Durham. 

We went back to Chapel Hill on Wednesday cause I found out about some really neat neighborhoods that I wanted to check out.  One reminded me a lot of Seaside...adorable colorful houses, an elementary school that you can walk to, movie theatre, restaurants, shops, doctor's offices, grocery, church, etc.  It was called Southern Village. 

Around 5:00 we started the drive back.  We made it all the way to Pell City, AL at midnight & got a room there.  We were home by about 2:00 on Thursday. 

I missed Reid so much, but it was so great for us.  We definitely want to do something like that again.  It was so neat to really get to see a big part of a state, & not just stay in one place the whole time.  It was also a great way to spend the last week of my 20's:)