Queen City!

 

         In the past nine posts I’ve told you about a few places out of the many places to visit in North Carolina. Of course there’s more than that but unfortunately there is no time for more, although I know you wish there was more. The truth is, you will never finish exploring this wonderful state because even I till this day always come across new places of adventure!

         There is just one last place I must tell you about. A wonderful and fun city you should know about and visit is Charlotte! Although Charlotte is not North Carolina’s capital, it is the largest city in this state. For this reason Charlotte is known as “The Queen City.” There are many things to do in Charlotte besides clubbing,...and that is clubbing!

Ok besides Charlotte being packed with clubs...many clubs, there are other great places to go to like Carrowinds, an amusement park, or Ray’s Splash Planet. There are many amusement parks, theatres, aquatic centers and museums to go to in Charlotte. You can also go watch a car race at the NASCAR Speed Park. They have the Discovery Place for your kids to go to and learn.

 

 

        Definitely my favorite part about living in Charlotte is that it has FOUR malls! Eastland Mall, Northlake Mall, Carolinal Place Mall and South Park Mall! That’s only malls, that’s not including shopping centers or outlet stores. I love it! I mean what else can you ask for right?

        Charlotte is also home to the North Carolina Panthers!! Best team ever(In my eyes)!

 

 

 

        By the way, parts of the movie The Hunger Games, was filmed in North Carolina and of course some in Charlotte. Other movies that were filmed here as well was Iron Man 3, which I didn’t know, and The Conjuring! Scary! But yes! The state is very scary at night, especially with all the trees and hills and pure darkness! Still, don’t be scared and visit NORTH CAROLINA!!!!!

 

 

Phots from google.com

 

"Smallsbury"

     

        I grew up in a small town in North Carolina, Salisbury. I always used to complain about not having anything to do around town, but now I know how wrong I was. I now live in Weslaco, and I can now say that there is nothing to do there or even nearby, besides the usual or most common.

Salisbury High School, where I graduated from :)

 

 

 

 

        Although Salisbury is a small historic town, it has its own mall. I would only have to travel five minutes to get to the mall or any other shopping center. Now that I think about it, there are many things to do around “Smallsbury” and as I now tell my friends, “trust me, you have many stores, restaurants, events, parks, etc. to go to just in Salisbury alone, unlike me!”Although Salisbury Mall is a small mall, it counts with about 20 stores and five restaurants. Next to it, you have the $2 Cinemas as well.

 

 

 

 

There is also one main shopping center in Salisbury where you will find Old Navy, Shoe Dept., Marshall’s, Hallmark, etc. and of course Tinseltown Cinema. If you are shopping for wedding dresses, prom dresses or any of that type, downtown Salisbury has many store options to go to. Downtown Salisbury is actually dominantly owned by local merchants and it is a very neat historical downtown area to visit. Boutiques, antique shops, ice cream spots, and restaurants are some of the places you will find in downtown Salisbury.

 

Mural in downtown Salisbury

 

The "Y" in Salisbury

 

Newspaper, "The Salisbury Post"

Salisbury is packed with many restaurants, I would say that there are at least 200 restaurants in Salisbury alone, which includes Chinese restaurants, (which are really really good), Japanese restaurants, (my favorite), Italian restaurants (mostly all authentic, and my second favorite!), and of course you can not forget Mexican restaurants (which are super good and I miss some of the plates that they don’t serve here at Mexican restaurants, and if they do, they’re not as good, which is pretty weird!).

 

 

 

Some of my favorite restaurants that I miss are:

1.    Hap’s Grill- American food, home-made style

2.   Cartucci’s and Romano’s- Italian

3.   Christo’s- From burgers to stromboli’s

4.   Ting-Hao- Probably the first Chinese restaurant that became everyone’s favorite, really good and cheap…I mean cheap…

5.   Ichiban Japanese- Best Japanese in town! #1

6.   La Ceiba- Hondurian authentic food, delicious :)

7.   Jersey Mike’s- The best sub place in town!

8.   Hendrix BBQ- One of my favorite breakfast places besides Waffle House, and cheap too!

9.   East Coast Wings and Grill- The name says it all

10.        And of course my favorite Mexican restaurant, Casa Grande- or as I call it, “Big House”

 

*If you just want to grab a burger, no not McDonalds, Hardee’s is the place and for chicken, Bojangles is #1!*

*Oh and yeah, we have Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts!*

 

 

If you’re ever in Salisbury, I would recommend to visit these restaurants, some of my favorites, but there’s still a lot more in my list. One last thing before I forget, if you ever want to travel by train, let’s say you want to go to Philly (I did) or Atlantic City, New Jersey (yes I did too), you can take the Amtrak train in Salisbury, and the pricing is really cheap..and fun!

Salisbury Station

 

 

 

***Fun fact, Salisbury is the home to North Carolina’s famous soft drink, Cheerwine!!!***

 

 

Who said DQ was only in Texas?

Dairy Queen in Salisbury, N.C. :)

 

*Photos from Salisbury, NC website,google and some personal*

No money?...no problem!

       Sometimes we may not have the money, time or energy to travel or take a vacation. Maybe we just want a place where we can spend the weekend at with our families or maybe just go out for a day. The good thing about North Carolina and that I now miss, is that it’s full with lakes just minutes away from your home so you don’t necessarily need to spend money to have fun and enjoy the outdoors!

 

As soon as spring would arrive, and even though it was still in the 60’s, my family or should I say my uncle, would already be planning our next lake adventure. At first it was fun, but once we started doing it about every two weeks, it got just a bit tiring. Of course, now that I’m so far away, I miss it so much. It’s like that saying, you never know what you have until it’s gone!

There are a couple of lakes we would normally visit like, High Rock Lake which is about 20 minutes away from our home and Lake Norman which is about 40 minutes away. These are the two lakes we would normally go to since they have boat access, but you don’t need to have a boat to go into any of the lakes. Now of course if you want to camp overnight, like we would often do at Lake Norman, then you will need a boat to get to the “islands” that are in the middle of the lake.

Even one time we had my little brother’s party at Lake Norman and all our family and friends took their tents to stay the night. It was always a new experience camping out, especially when you’re in the middle of nowhere surrounded by water. You get to cook, sleep and shower outside. We even built our own restroom once. Of course you can’t forget the boat ride at night under the moon’s light and of course you can’t leave out those bonfires!

There are over 20 lakes in North Carolina, but those are just lakes. That’s of course not including waterfalls and rivers, since there’s over 60 rivers in the state of North Carolina. All lakes, rivers and waterfalls are open to the public throughout the whole year, even during the winter time. I would kindly tell you about each and every lake, river and waterfall there is but unfortunately I don’t have the time and neither do you. Until next time!

Some pictures from google

 

 

Ghost Town in the Sky...to the Tweetsie Railroad...to Grandfather Mountain...

On my last three posts I introduced you to places in the mountains that you can visit. I know…I know…but honestly I can say that one of my favorite places to go to is the mountains, whether it’s during the winter time, fall, summer or spring. Once you start going to the mountains, you’re gonna always want to go back. Sadly, the mountains is not the only fun place you can go to in North Carolina, so this will be my last post where I will speak about the mountains :(

(Yes…I am in love with the mountains!)

        Today I will introduce you to “Ghost Town in the Sky” and its Catalooche Ski Area, “Tweetsie Railroad” and “Grandfather Mountain State Park.” Ghost Town in the Sky is actually an amusement park in the town of Maggie Valley. The park is located at the very top of a mountain and the only way to get to the park is via a chair lift. Not only do families get to enjoy the many rides but you get to experience life at a Wild West town. The park will also include in 2014, Holy Land, which will be something like Jerusalem…can’t wait!

        Near Ghost Town, you have the Catalooche Ski Area. If you want to go skiing or snowboarding or even want to learn, the Catalooche Ski Area because they offer classes. This place is just sooo A-MAZING! I definitely recommend it!

       Another amusement park or theme park is Tweetsie Railroad. At Tweetsie, the parents along with their children get to explore the park and enjoy the rides and trains! There’s an endless list of rides but the park also offers other fun activities, live entertainment, a ZOO, and surprising events. Again you get to experience a Wilde West train adventure! 

        One of my favorite places to visit in the mountains is Grandfather Mountain! Here at Grandfather you can walk on a Swinging Bridge, yes scary, and get to the other side of the mountain…well actually you have to cross the bridge in order to get out. This peak is actually the tallest in the Blue Ridge, and although it is scary, the view is beautiful! You can go on many trails, hikes and nature walks or also visit the nature museums and wildlife habitats. If you’re like me, you can always end up in the Fudge Shop, yes…my favorite spot at Grandfather’s!