Grandpa and Grandma Lindgren Come to Visit

This past week my parents (Ryan's) made the drive from Utah for a visit. We enjoyed having them and exploring Colorado Springs together. It was fun seeing them with Sam. They were both so cute with him, making him giggle and adoring him just the way his parents do. Dad fixed some things around the house and Mom watched over and bonded with Sam. We had fun introducing the parents to Middle Eastern food and playing lots of Yatzee at night. On Saturday we went hiking up to Seven Falls:

An elusive photo of my Father hiking, often hard to capture due to his trailblazing nature

And here comes Mom scaling the stairs

And here is our group shadow picture

Our baby is totally turning into a little boy and we love him so

The Baileys

Kari and I go way back to our first year working at Primary Children's (2001). Since then, we have been travel nurses together, driven all over the US, been each other's bridesmaids and have had many adventures in between. A few of which could have gotten us killed like: Harley Davidson rides with strangers in the middle of the Nebraska and camping in Mexico without a tent. Good times, especially since we lived to tell the tale.

We were lucky to have Kari, Shaun and Olivia come to visit on their way up to Massachusetts. Hooray for visitors and forever friends.

36 Hours in Reasearch Triangle, NC

The New York Times has a fun series where they go to a place for 36 hours and tell you what's cool to do, where to eat, and where to stay. In the paper today, their destination was the triangle.
First the article. Here is a condensed version of what they like. I've included links to places we've actually been to:

Sights:
North Carolina Museum of Art
Eno River State Park
Durham Bulls Minor League Baseball

Shopping:
Father & Son Antiques
The Scrap Exchange

Food and Drink:
Poole's Downtown Diner
Raleigh Times
Taqueria La Vaquita
The Pit
Mama Dip's

Venue:
Cats Cradel

Stay :
Umstead Hotel, Carolina Inn, or Arrowhead Inn


Being two year residents here, I liked the article and wanted to give you our version on the triangle in 36 hours if you were to come visit us. So 36 hours in the triangle, a little Raleigh heavy, Lindgren style:

Sights:
It seems our favorite places to go with people are to these three:

Duke Homestead and Tobacco Museum
The famous Duke family earned all of there money bringing Tobacco to the masses, and later gave their fortune to Duke University and Hospitals to try to make up for it. This sight of their old homestead has a cool tour where you learn how tobacco was cured and get to tour their old home and see how tobacco is grown in a field nearby. There is also a cool museum to Tobacco that was done in the 80's before Tobacco companies became the villains they are know as today. There are heroic pictures of tobacco farmers, and even a Liberty Bell replicated from hundreds of pounds of compressed tobacco.

Umstead State Park
Right in the middle of everything is a 5,579-acre park park that is about 15 minutes away from our apartment. It is a great place to see fireflies on a summer hike, ride your mountain bike, or canoe in the lake.

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Right in downtown Raleigh near the State Capitol, this museum is free, big, and modern. They have a Butterfly Arboretum at the top, Whale Skeletons on the first floor, and lots of fun things to see in between.

Honorable Mentions: Durham Bulls games are cool and so is the Tobacco district in Durham. We've been to one Tar Heels game since we've been here and would go to more but tickets are hard to come by.

Shopping:
eh Target? We have a few Trader Joe's around which is essential, but does grocery shopping count?. Cameron Village has some fun shops if you're into the whole shopping thing.

Food and Drink:
Best BBQ place the Pit? Not good enough to try to those I've spoken to. I've tried out about seven different BBQ places in the area and my favorite is Clyde Coopers' BBQ. It's a cash only greasy spoon in an old brick building downtown. They sell pig ears for your dog in a bucket near the cashier. There are booths and a lunch counter. They bring out pork rines and super tasty fluffy hush puppies when you arrive. Every plate is around six bucks. The BBQ sauce is vinegar based with pepper and no tomato in it at all. True Eastern Carolina Q. The slaw is heavy on the vinegar as well. A true treat you can't get anywhere outside of the area.

Dessert and Large portioned dinners can be found at the cute 40's themed Hayes Barton Cafe. The Chicken Pot Pie and salads are great. The best part is the pieces of cake for dessert that are as big as your head. The coconut cake and chocolate pecan are definitely the best thing there.

Big Eds City Market is a great place to eat breakfast for a hot bowl of grits. They have a brass band outside some mornings. Also if you are in a hurry, the triumph of the Southern Culture is the chicken biscuit. If you like it a little sweet, go to Chick-fil-A, If you like it spicy, go to Bojangles.

Venue:
They close down the main street in Raleigh one night in September For Raleigh Wide Open. We went right after we moved here. Last year we tried to go but it was too rainy. Last year we missed Chuck Berry and Arrested Development. This year who will it be?

Also at Moore square park in downtown Raleigh in the summer they invite formerly famous bands to play for free. This years highlights are Joan Jett, the Charlie Daniels Band and Candelbox.

Stay: We have an extra bedroom and love to have visitors. It's near a lake with a walking trail. We always clean for guests. We cook some, play board games, and probably wake up after you.

Mt Airy and Old Salem

Cheyn's parents were here visiting for a week and one of our adventures was a trip to Mt. Airy where Andy Griffith was born and grew. Mt. Airy resembles Mayberry as places in the show are based on locations in and around town. There are also places that have been named after the show, impersonators and museums. Here are a couple pictures of the us with Andy and Opie.



One of the cool things about the town was their general museum where I learned two things.


1. Where the OG Siamese Twins settled when they got bored with the circus.



2.How to make Moonshine.
Mt Airy is near the Appalachian Mountains so their was an exhibit to the official drink of Hillbillies.

After that, we went to the old part of Winston-Salem. They have a really cool old town that reminded me of Colonial Williamsburg. The area was settled by Moravian Church and has since merged with Winston. They were able to preserve a lot of the buildings and had cute gift shops and such. It was a great place for a stroll. We recommend stopping by if you are ever passing through.