Earlier this summer, armed with enough frequent flier miles for two tickets (thanks to our India trip last year and Brandon's generous aunt and uncle who gifted us spare miles they were not going to use), we sat down to plan a trip. Our criteria were simple: (1) somewhere neither of us had ever been, and (2) somewhere too far to drive. Added bonus if it was a place with weather nicer than Iowa.
Well, we just got back from our trip, and I can safely say it was the right choice! We had a blast. My mom's brother, Kevin, and his wife, Amy, live in North Carolina - and they were the perfect hosts. Especially since Amy has recently become intrigued by the Paleo lifestyle, and so we ate grain-free, (almost) dairy-free, legume-free all week! Brandon's kind of vacation.
I wondered how Jonah would do on the plane. He is generally a pretty chill kid, but no one wants to be *that parent* on the plane....the one with the obnoxious, screaming kid. I think the roughest part was having to yank him out of bed at 5:00am to get to the airport for our early morning flight. He actually did well on the flights, causing minimal disruption to the other passengers. The flight attendants fawned over him, and he was very generous with his smiles! When we flew into Raleigh, we actually circled the airport for about 30 minutes. After we landed, Amy informed us that there was a tornado watch in the area - yikes! I wonder if planes fly above tornadoes?
It could have been worse. We heard Michelle Obama flew into Raleigh the next day to do some campaigning in Williamston, causing the airport to totally shut down for about 4 hours. I guess a 30 minute delay for a tornado wasn't so bad!
My aunt and uncle live in Chapel Hill, home of University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. It's part of "The Research Triangle," so named because Duke is just up the road in Durham, and North Carolina State University is in nearby Raleigh. Our wonderful hosts had planned out our trip to squeeze in all the best there is to see in North Carolina. For our first day, they took us on a rural drive to see the countryside and the tobacco fields right outside of town. I had no idea tobacco leaves were so HUGE. We were a little early for the harvest, so we didn't get to see the leaves hanging to dry in the big tobacco barns. But we learned a lot from our tour guides. (Over our years of travel, Brandon and I have learned that the best way to see a place is with someone local...skip the tour book, and go straight to the experts). Turns out, the sandy soil of North Carolina is perfect for growing tobacco. And this industry is still alive and thriving - who knew!
Day two of our trip, Kevin and Amy both had to do a little bit of work, so they sent us out on our own to do some exploring around UNC's campus. We started off the day with a trip to a used bookstore. This is quickly becoming Brandon's favorite college-town activity (and he's a little bummed I didn't take a picture). Do you think he realizes we live in a college town? We'll have to take a trip to our own home-town used book store.
After I finally pulled Brandon away from the books, we wondered around the campus a bit. We made our way over to the football stadium, where the grounds crew was busy painting the field for Saturday's big rivalry game against East Carolina (spoiler: UNC won!). Brandon was even wearing Carolina blue - Go Tar Heels :)
We did a lot of walking all over campus that day, and Jonah was such a great sport. I think he napped twice in the stroller. Jonah definitely gets the award for flexible baby on this trip - he did an awesome job of going with the flow! We really had him out of his routine, and we only had a few meltdowns :)
We settled on North Carolina. Neither of us had every been there, although it's a place I've always wanted to visit. And, while you could totally drive to North Carolina from Iowa, who would want to?? We booked our tickets in June and have been anxiously counting down the days until our trip.
Well, we just got back from our trip, and I can safely say it was the right choice! We had a blast. My mom's brother, Kevin, and his wife, Amy, live in North Carolina - and they were the perfect hosts. Especially since Amy has recently become intrigued by the Paleo lifestyle, and so we ate grain-free, (almost) dairy-free, legume-free all week! Brandon's kind of vacation.
I wondered how Jonah would do on the plane. He is generally a pretty chill kid, but no one wants to be *that parent* on the plane....the one with the obnoxious, screaming kid. I think the roughest part was having to yank him out of bed at 5:00am to get to the airport for our early morning flight. He actually did well on the flights, causing minimal disruption to the other passengers. The flight attendants fawned over him, and he was very generous with his smiles! When we flew into Raleigh, we actually circled the airport for about 30 minutes. After we landed, Amy informed us that there was a tornado watch in the area - yikes! I wonder if planes fly above tornadoes?
It could have been worse. We heard Michelle Obama flew into Raleigh the next day to do some campaigning in Williamston, causing the airport to totally shut down for about 4 hours. I guess a 30 minute delay for a tornado wasn't so bad!
My aunt and uncle live in Chapel Hill, home of University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. It's part of "The Research Triangle," so named because Duke is just up the road in Durham, and North Carolina State University is in nearby Raleigh. Our wonderful hosts had planned out our trip to squeeze in all the best there is to see in North Carolina. For our first day, they took us on a rural drive to see the countryside and the tobacco fields right outside of town. I had no idea tobacco leaves were so HUGE. We were a little early for the harvest, so we didn't get to see the leaves hanging to dry in the big tobacco barns. But we learned a lot from our tour guides. (Over our years of travel, Brandon and I have learned that the best way to see a place is with someone local...skip the tour book, and go straight to the experts). Turns out, the sandy soil of North Carolina is perfect for growing tobacco. And this industry is still alive and thriving - who knew!
Jonah grabbed a great nap in the car during our drive, so after a quick stop for lunch, we swung by UNC's campus for a quick stroll, then drove around historic parts of Chapel Hill (and saw a castle! in the forest! just blocks away from campus!), and ended our day with ice cream (see, I said almost dairy-free). Great introduction to the town!
Day two of our trip, Kevin and Amy both had to do a little bit of work, so they sent us out on our own to do some exploring around UNC's campus. We started off the day with a trip to a used bookstore. This is quickly becoming Brandon's favorite college-town activity (and he's a little bummed I didn't take a picture). Do you think he realizes we live in a college town? We'll have to take a trip to our own home-town used book store.
After I finally pulled Brandon away from the books, we wondered around the campus a bit. We made our way over to the football stadium, where the grounds crew was busy painting the field for Saturday's big rivalry game against East Carolina (spoiler: UNC won!). Brandon was even wearing Carolina blue - Go Tar Heels :)
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| Check out that BLUE sky! We had perfect weather all week...minus the tornado, of course. |
After the football stadium, we found the baseball stadium and caught a bit of practice. Brandon tells me UNC has a phenomenal baseball team - one of the best in the country! Imagine all those future MLB stars...and they're just kids, really. We had fun wandering around. UNC's campus is really beautiful. Big trees, lush green spaces, and old, beautiful buildings. It's the kind of campus that is all centralized, without town running through the middle of it. It felt very intimate for a university of 30,000 students.
One fun thing we discovered wandering around campus was the cows! I've seen this in other places (Iowa did it with Herkys), but there were cows all over campus painted up to look like all sorts of different things.
Our favorite, of course, was the one painted up to look like a UNC ram, complete with Carolina blue horns.
We did a lot of walking all over campus that day, and Jonah was such a great sport. I think he napped twice in the stroller. Jonah definitely gets the award for flexible baby on this trip - he did an awesome job of going with the flow! We really had him out of his routine, and we only had a few meltdowns :) |
| No rest for the weary...new skills, even on vacation |
That evening after dinner, we introduced Kevin and Amy to our newest favorite show: Downton Abbey. Have you seen this show? It's awesome. PBS Masterpiece Classics. It's an ensemble period drama set in early twentieth century England and follows the wealthy Crawley family. We got Amy hooked - she made it through the first season in three days. At first, Brandon was sure they were only watching it to be polite...after they watched five episodes in one night, we figured they must enjoy it as much as we do :)
It was a full, fun first two days in North Carolina. Stay tuned for the rest of our trip...
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