North Carolina

We're back from our vacation/conference in North Carolina. We had a great time and enjoyed all the places we visited (Biltmore Estates, Charlotte, Duke University, North Carolina University, state capitol, Kitty Hawk, OBX). We had wonderful weather and I had plenty of time to shop while my hubby was at his conference. I found 2 great shopping malls in Charlotte. One had Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Gap Kids, JCrew and other great stores that I enjoyed strolling through and finding some great buys. The other was a outlet mall with Haggar, Old Navy, American Eagle, Naturalizer, Eddie Bauer, Bass, etc. I did nearly shop until I dropped!

This is a view of Asheville in the evening. After we flew into Charlotte, we drove straight into Asheville and hurried to drive part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The next day we visited the Biltmore Estates. Click on this link to read more about the Biltmore Estates. We toured the inside by an audio tour and learned about this historic home.

After my hubby's conference we drove to the Outer Banks (OBX). We visited Kitty Hawk first (picture on right) and then enjoyed the beach.

We drove to Hatteras Village and saw the tallest lighthouse and then took a ferry to the Ocracoke area where we took another ferry to Swan Quarters. During the vacation we also drove through Duke University, North Carolina University, North Carolina State University and the State Capitol in Raleigh.

We packed in a lot of siteseeing in a short period of time. Whew! I'd love to go back to the OBX and spend a week walking the beach looking for sea glass and shells, listening to the waves hit against the beach, and reading as the sun goes down.

I did read a couple of books while on vacation. Both very good but totally different. The first one was "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls (non-fiction account of her life growing up with dysfunctional parents) and "Cordina's Royal Family" by Nora Roberts (fiction romance).

A rather long post, but wanted to share my adventures. Look forward to checking everyone's blogs and catching up with what is going on in blogworld.