First Day in North Carolina

We arrived late night on Sunday night the 31st of May into our new home. We were excited on our first day to visit the neighborhood and start exploring around town. Because Kylie slept all day on the drive from St Louis to Raleigh she was all wound up with energy so we played fetch in our new huge back yard and tired her out. It is so nice to have a huge backyard after being in a tiny high rise condo!


We then started our day by grabbing a quick breakfast across the street and then heading 1 mile down to North Hills. North Hills is a neat dining/shopping area that is built to be urban but the parking is all underground so it is a great mix of where urban and suburban mix. North Hills has free outdoor concerts every week during the summer, a farmers market every weekend on the commons, and lots of cool stores like REI and great cafes and places to eat.
http://www.northhillsraleigh.com/


After exploring around North Hills we visited some of the other neat areas near our house.
We are only about 1 mile from part of the Greenway trails around the Raleigh area. Over 100 miles of trails, some paved and some unpaved, criss cross the area. They provide a nice shaded trail to hike, jog, or bike around the region. We went down to the segment closest to us and started a hike through the forest:

Also near us, about 1 mile away is Shelley Lake, you can kayak, canoe, fish or hike around the perimete of the lake. We went down to visit it:

Part of the greenway system goes around the lake and even over some of the creeks that feed into it:
Colleen always wanted a garden, so on the first in town why not make a trip to the garden shop to buy tomatos, basil, bell peppers, and other plants to grow. She planted some in the garden around our big deck

And she planted basil in the planter boxes on the deck

We took a break to shoot some hoops in front driveway

We then excersised the dog some more in the backyard. Because Kylie got to excersise so much, she was very happy, check out her smile

Colleen had some fun on the big swing in our back yard that hangs from a huge tree:

We were so tired from everything we did that day that Jim took a nice nap in the hammock that the landlord left in the back yard:

Our house is a cute 1600-sf 2 bed / 1.5 bath brick ranch with a 0.48 acre yard. There is a dining room and an office too. Compared to our tiny condo in San Diego our new place seems huge!

There is a nice fire pit in the backyard that will be great to set up our camping chairs around: There is a large deck that will be great for relaxing on the summer nights:

We have a big tool shed and workshop on the side of the house:

And all of this for $600 less per month than our rent in San Diego. When we get the inside set up we'll post pictures of that! We are also going car shopping for our new car. Right now we only have Jim's 2 door little car so we need to get another car for Colleen to use to get to school. We'll keep you updated on any new adventures we have here!