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!!!

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!