Sign in with Facebook
Sculpture Garden
Interior
Cary, North Carolina
Fall foliageA third visit to North Carolina in 2009 (weekend)
"Saturday, 25 July 2009"
The weekend is here - and plans are felxible and fluid, but I have arranged to meet a few locals! I am sure it will be enjoyable - not to forget warm!
I need to get ready and have breakfast and plan the day in greater detail. It was not much of a plan - but managed to get to the North Carolina Museum of Art and then a visit to Museum Park. I have to say it was a pleasant experience.
There is much work taking place currently to expand the Museum - and this will be complete and open to the public in September 2010. Currently, I was told, the Museum can only display some 18% of it's permanent collection but with the new building that will increase to some 70% of the collection being able to be shown at the same time.
The Musuem Park was warm and humid - and they have 13 pieces of sculpture on display. I managed to see 12 of the 13 - the heat some how lessened my interest in seeing all of them. The interplay of art and nature will have to wait for another visit.
I was back at the hotel breifly and after freshening up I went acoss to the nearby Arboretum at Weston. I walked around and saw some of the restuarants I had visited in the evenings by daylight. It was very warm and quite quiet.
I had an enjoyable visit to Moe's Southwest Grill and then an ice cream at Maggie Moos. I was going to have coffee, however decided that I would have a walk around the complex, then walk back to the hotel instead of ordering the car to collect me. It was warm, but the walk was not so long. It was wonderful to feel the heat on my legs and feet - the wonder of shorts and flipflops.
I freshened up a little and started to watch a documentary about Enron - and really could not believe how and what they had been doing. Sadly it was not as gripping as I had thought it would be and in fact actually fell asleep.
After waking up, I called my colleague, Kim, and agreed when she would call by and collect me. We met up and went to Bogart's in Raleigh and had a pleasant dinner and part way though it, Sydney, her daughter joined us. It was a great evening and Bogart's is an excellent place tro dine - good atmosphere, live music and a DJ too.
On the way back to the hotel, it started to rain - lots of thunder and lightning and torrential rain. Finally back at the hotel I had a good conversation about Sunday plans with the concierge. As ever Jefferson was full of thoughts and ideas. Then I went to bed and fell asleep leaving the televison on, and sadly woke up at 05.00 at a very loud scene on a programme being aired!
"Sunday, 26 July 2009"
After my early wake up as a result of the television being left on - I managed to get back to sleep and then finally got out of bed in time to shower and breakfast at about 09.40.
I was not so sure what to do today - and ended up booking a massage at the Spa. This was my first time ever to have one. It was a pleasant experience; I was asked if I had a preference for the masseur and I had none. Christopher did the job, and I feel quite refreshed after the massage. I also spent time in the spa pool and the sauna.
I then took a car to Crabtree Valley Mall and did a little more shopping - the mall was not so busy today. I was unsure what to do, and eventually had something to eat at Brio Tuscan Grille. I took the dinner special and it was just right - soup to start, a beef main course and then a dessert. As ever sparkling water and a coffee.
There was some confusion over my car - and it seemed as if they were confused as to where I was going to be or going to wait for them after dinner. Finally back at the hotel.
I did some work, and caught up on some of the things I needed to do for tomorrow. I have just been down to the recption to find out about nearby pizza delivery services. It seems that some do not deliver to the hotel - and others are closed as it is Sunday. So I have had to revert to room service - a kobe beef cheese burger sounds fine at this point.
