Weekend Fun!

We started off last weekend by going to Brightleaf Square in downtown Durham on Friday night. We loved the old restored brick, with black iron and the green trees. It was an old abandoned tobacco wharehouse area that was recently restored. The place is neat, however the Mexican restaurant we ate at in Brightleaf Square was not nearly as good as the ones in San Diego. Next time we hit up Brigthleaf Square we'll try a different place to eat!

There are free concerts too outdoors every Friday night.

The next day on Saturday we went to Falls Lake near us to go swimming! Falls Lake was only 11-12 minutes to drive to from our house, including stoplights, etc so it is really close! It is a big lake with three separate swimming beach areas. We went to one and had a lot of fun hanging out at the beach and swimming. Colleen says it reminded her of being a kid again and swimming at the lakes in New Hampshire.

On Sunday we went for a hike on the Greenway Trail around Shelley Lake which is only 1 mile from our house. We took Kylie with us too.She enjoyed the part where we went next to a stream that she could jump in!

We walked the trail around the lake

The even have a boat house and dock where you can put in a canoe, kayak, etc. We really want to get a canoe so we can just go over to our neighborhood lake and paddle around!

And we saw a whole family of geese (which Kylie really wanted to chase)

And after we got back Kylie did her favorite thing: drink from the garden hose!

Then Sunday night we went to Goodberry's to get some frozen custard, just like we did when Jim lived in St Louis!

Where we live: Trees, Tees, and PhDs!

So if you are wondering more about where we live, here you go!

We live in Raleigh (RAH-lee) which is the capital of North Carolina. It is part of the metropolitan area they call The Triangle. The Triangle consists of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. All 3 cities have a major university.

Raleigh has N.C. State:

Durham has Duke University:and Chapel Hill has UNC (University of North Carolina)

In the middle of the 3 cities is a large area called RTP, which stands for Research Triangle Park. It was started in the 60s by the 3 universities for research. Now almost 200 companies have set up research offices in the RTP, usually medical, bio-medical, or high tech. The locals call it the Silicoln Valley of the east coast. Because it employs so many high tech jobs and because of the universities, they claim there are more PhD's per capita in the Triangle than any other metropolitan area. In fact, the area's unoffical slogan is: "Trees, Tees, and PhDs" because of all the forests, golf courses, and brainiacs here.

The area is growing fast. Currently 1.6 million people live in the area but the census just ranked Raleigh as the fastest growing metro area in the country. It grew at a larger percentage than even Vegas, Houston, Phoenix, etc. Hopefully it doesn't grow too fast though!

Near us are some great places to visit. The mountains are just 2 hours west of us. The Blue Ridge Mountains are the beginning of the Appalachains. The Appalachian Trail runs through North Carolina and there are many places to hike, camp, and see the foliage.

The ocean is two hours east of us. The Outer Banks (OBX for short) is a chain of long islands off the coast.

The beaches have sand dunes, and have many miles of un-crowded beaches.

There are also many lighthouses in the OBX including some famous ones like Nags Head

and Cape Hatteras

Because of the uniqueness of the OBX, they say it is just about the only place in the country where you can watch the sun rise and set over the water in the same place.

Here in the Triangle, In downtown Durham, they've renovated an old area of abandoned tobaco warehouse into Brightleaf Square with dinning, shoping, cafes, etc

Also in downtown Durham is the minor league baseball stadium for the Bulls, you might remember them from the movie Bull Durham:

They also just built a brand new theater in downtown Durham that opened last year called D-PAC (Durham Performing Arts Center) that has the Broadway Shows, concerts, etc.

In downtown Chapel Hill, Franklin Street borders UNC's campus and is also a great area for cafes, bars, restaurants, shops, and people watching.

Downtown Raleigh has the big city feel with high rises:

the new convention center that just opened:and all the state government offices.

Raleigh has a system of trails called The Capital Area Greenway that criss cross the area. The trails are mostly paved and run along streams and in the forests throughout the city. There are over 100 miles in the Greenway system right now with more planned

Overall we love the area. Some co-workers at Jim's work ask if he has kids. When he replies "No, but someday we would love to have kids" they all say that this is the best place to raise kids. Low crime, some of the best schools and a smart populace, and lots to do with the ocean and mountains nearby and the big cities of the north east just a few hours away. We agree!

Getting settled in to our new home in North Carolina

Our first week was busy in North Carolina! We had to get a second car this week. We had only needed one car when we worked next to each, but now that Colleen is going to school again we had to get another car. We looked around at all the small SUVs like the Ford Escape, Honda CRV, Toyota RAV4, Kia Sportage. We settled on a Honda CRV. It is black and has tan leather interior. It will be perfect for putting Kylie in the very back so she doens't mess up the back seat of the car. And it will be great for going camping, etc.

When we bought the car and signed the deal we got to ring a big gong at the car dealer!

Here is our new car fresh out of the dealer lot:
We also went to the DMV to get our driver licenses, and took care of trying to get our house set up. We also were able to relax and spend time outside in our back yard! We noticed that we spend more time outside here in North Carolina than we did in San Diego. We feel that's because we have the back yard right there. In San Diego we would have had to drive to the beach or a park and we didn't get around to it every day.
Kylie also found a new favorite toy: our basketball! She nudges it around and pushes it all over the yard and basically entertains herself playing fetch with herself. It is pretty funny. But she was able to get her teeth into it an pop it so it is now a flat basketball so it is now permantly hers. Guess we need to buy a new one!

Jim started work on Monday (June 8th). He looked all slick in his nice dress shirt and tie as he headed out for his first day!
Here are some of the pictures of the inside of our house so far, we still have some work to do.

Here is our living room. Where the mirror is, we are going to buy a little table and then hand the mirror above it

Here is our bedroom

Here is the guest bedroom, it was painted pink because it was a little girls room before we rented it out!

Here is the kitchen

Here is the office

And here is our sweet wood paneled dining room that is still where some boxes need to be unpacked and where our dog crate is

One we finish hanging everything, unpacking, and decorating we might take some more pictures to post here.

We have a busy week coming up! This Thurday night we are going to a free outdoor beach music concert at North Hills (the neat urban shopping area only 1 mile from us)

http://www.northhillsraleigh.com/news/events/?p=66

Friday night we are going to a free outdoor rock-cover-band concert in downtown Durham in Brightleaf Square:

http://www.historicbrightleaf.com/

It is an area of old tobacco wharehouses that were vacant but the area was rehabbed into shops, dinning, entertainment, etc.

Monday we are going to a birthday party for Colleen's cousin's friend at a cool hip outdoor rooftop lounge in downtown.

http://solasraleigh.com/

Then the following weekend Jim heads to West Virginia to go white water rafting! He is the best man in his friend Kevin's wedding and this is the bachelor party.

Colleen has been studying hard every day, spending most of the day on the laptop for her online classes. (She begins her first class at NCSU campus on June 29th). She even has a helper all day long while she studies:

So we have a lot going on and we are having fun!!!