Tuesday, June 5, 2012

5.26.12 -- Raleigh, North Carolina

After recovering from the long drive (mostly with lots of strong coffee and very good freshly-made mini-donuts at Sola) we headed out to explore. First we tried to find David Sedaris' childhood home, but it appeared to be slightly off the street, so we couldn't get a good look at it and didn't want to have our trip affected by possibly being arrested for trespassing, so we headed downtown. Kent was disappointed that there weren't pony rides when he was a boy (and that they wouldn't let adults take part now). We then went inside the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for what we really came to see -- the newly discovered emeralds. They were gorgeous. I lust!

It was interesting seeing that Raleigh has electric car charging stations downtown, but sad that I didn't see any electric cars charging next to them. The new massive globe attached to the Natural Sciences museum was almost as amazing as the emeralds and quite the interactive exhibit.

Then we wandered around downtown, going inside the capital building. I remember one of my early art history courses as an undergraduate seeing the slides of the Canova sculpture of George Washington in a toga. It was very amusing to us all then, but I must say it is a beautiful statue, and George has very shapely legs.

A recharging experience of our own was needed at Turkish Delights, with banana ice cream for me and Turkish coffee for Kent. Condos reminiscent of South Beach seemed to be popping up everywhere. We tried to visit the Capital rose garden, even venturing onto the Little Theatre Company's stage to get there, but a wedding reception with lots of loud music and hula hoops caused us to wait and try again tomorrow.

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