Trip Reports Archives – Page 13 of 26

Wilderness Run Alpine Coaster

November 2nd, 2020admin0 Comments

Our beach trip to Ocean Isle Beach in early October was exactly the get away that we needed. But fall is my favorite season for local and mountain activities – corn mazes, pumpkin patches, and hikes while the leaves are changing are some of my favorite things. So a weekend at the beach left us with one less weekend for fall fun. And when what was probably the last week to see the leaves change in the mountains turned out to be a total washout, I almost gave up on my fall mountain dreams this year. But old habits die …

McDowell Nature Preserve

October 18th, 2020admin0 Comments

We’ve spent a lot of 2020 in the great outdoors and visiting more Charlotte area parks. When my youngest son and I found ourselves flying solo on a recent Saturday, we decided to check out another of Mecklenburg County’s parks. About 5 years ago, we had visited McDowell Nature Preserve for their Nature at Night program, which is a cool nighttime festival where you get to learn all about the critters that lurk about after the sun goes down, but we had yet to explore there during the day. With its beautiful lakeside location, we thought it would be a …

Ocean Isle Beach

October 17th, 2020admin0 Comments

Lockdown 2020 has been tough on everyone. We’ve been trying to get out of the house more, exploring local parks and hikes. But sometimes you need more than a few hours away from the house. Hoping to stay ahead of cabin fever (and still away from covid), we wanted to take a long weekend at the beach in early fall when the boys had a few days off from school. Our requirements were pretty minimal – we wanted a house with a private heated pool within walking distance of the beach. Literally any beach. Just to go someplace different, we …

Windy Hill Orchard

September 20th, 2020admin0 Comments

Going apple picking in the NC mountains is one of my favorite fall traditions. We’ve been to several of the big ones at least once – Apple Hill Orchard in Morganton, Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville. And while I love driving to the mountains to pick apples, not everyone I know is as enthusiastic about a 2.5 hour drive to perform manual labor in a field. Especially because to get our favorite variety (honeycrisp!) you actually have to go in early August when it can still be quite hot, even in the mountains. So …

Carolina Raptor Center

September 14th, 2020admin0 Comments

The Carolina Raptor Center is one of our favorite Charlotte-area outings. We’ve probably been close to a dozen times since the boys were born. And of all the activities that were cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19, Young Vet’s Camp at the Raptor Center was the most disappointing for JB. He had been waiting years to be old enough to attend and then the camp was cancelled due to the pandemic. So when he and I were looking for a quick outing while his dad and brother were off doing their own things, the Raptor Center quickly came to mind. …

Crowders Mountain

September 8th, 2020admin0 Comments

Crowders Mountain is a surprisingly rugged state park in Gaston County, NC. Its two peaks, The Pinnacle and Crowders Mountain, are challenging to summit and the trails leading there are more strenuous than their “moderate” rating lets on. We made the mistake of coming here when the boys were 3.5 and 5.5, which is way too young for the trails to the top. The boys enjoyed the lower section of the trail, climbing along the rocks on the side of the path, and having a picnic lunch, but we realized almost immediately that we had absolutely no shot at making …

Skyline Drive – Shenandoah National Park

August 12th, 2020admin0 Comments

Until last summer, the last time we had driven to NJ was Christmas 2010. It was the last time because it took forever and both boys repeatedly threw up in the car. It was a miserable 12+ hour drive. We were already frequent fliers to NJ (it’s just more practical for our typically short visits) and that awful drive won us over to flying entirely. For the next 9 years all our visits were by air. But last summer I had a hankering for a road trip so we decided to plot out a course to NJ and on to Newport …

Great Adventure Wild Safari Drive-Thru Adventure

August 10th, 2020admin0 Comments

On our annual NJ summer visit 4 years ago, we took the kids to Six Flag Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. One of the boys’ favorite parts was the safari. When I was growing up, the safari was a drive thru, and my main memory of it was the baboons jumping on the hood of the car and playing with the windshield wipers. This was highly entertaining for the kids in the car; not so much for my father. But when we went 4 years ago, the safari had been transformed into a “ride”, similar to Disney’s Kilimanjaro Safari. You …

Hartshorne Woods – Buttermilk Valley

August 9th, 2020admin0 Comments

After visiting with my husband’s family in MD, we continued north to visit my family in NJ. This was yet another “working vacation” for us, but in many ways it was more of a vacation than Lake James because we had family there to help entertain the kids. My parents live about 3.5 miles from the beach and belong to a beach club in Sea Bright, NJ. The boys spent most afternoons at the beach with my mom, enjoying the ocean and the pool and, most importantly, time with their grandmother. I (of course) still tried to mix things up …

OC Parasail

August 2nd, 2020admin0 Comments

The boys were SO excited when their nana told them she had booked a parasailing trip for us during our visit (and their parents were too!). None of us had ever been parasailing before and we were thrilled to give it a try. She booked through OC Parasail. They offer 400, 600 and 800 foot rides, and we did the 400 feet. We waited for the previous group to return (they were running late) and then headed out. There were 9 people in the group – the 5 of us plus two other groups of 2. When we booked we had …