Road Trip: Charlotte, NC

It was time to hit the road last week in celebration of our third anniversary and it came right in the nick of time.  We love our child more than anything in the world, but we needed a break.  So we left James and Lucy in the care of Grandma & Grandpa Q. and Aunt Suzy and went on a little adventure.

After lots of hug and kisses, we dropped James off at daycare last Thursday morning and set off on our journey. First stop:  Charlotte, NC.  This is a destination that has been on both of our lists for a while so it was a natural choice as we headed south.  The route was a familiar one (I-66 to I-81) as it was the path I took so many times as I made my way to and from JMU about a hundred years ago (at least that is what it feels like these days!).

The 6-hour journey was filled with lots of trucks, lots of farmland and lots of mountain views. When we finally hit Charlotte, we were invited to views of Lake Norman and city skylines.  

We arrived in Charlotte in the mid-afternoon, checked into our EpiCentre aLoft Hotel and grabbed a bite before taking a short stroll through the "Uptown" area.  We couldn't get over how quiet it was for a work day - especially compared to downtown DC and NYC.  It's an especially clean city surrounded by lots and lots of bank plazas.  After a quick tour, we headed back to the hotel, freshened up, grabbed a cab and were shuttled to our evening activity:  Charlotte's Brew & Chew Brewery & Food Tour.

The starting point of this unique tour was the NoDa Brewing Company's headquarters located on North Davidson Street in an area known as NoDa.  This area, formerly a mill town, has been converted into Charlotte's creative arts district and is as funky and adorable as you can get.  

We arrived early so we decided to indulge in some libations as we waited.  The NoDa brewery had a variety of flavors to choose from and all that we tasted were delicious.  We met our lovely tour guide (and business owner), Kristi, and started the tour with a behind the scenes look at beer making.  

Our next stop was just outside and served up some delicious tacos.  The Tin Kitchen food truck is one of only 35 food trucks in all of Charlotte and is manned by a trio of friends that have a love of creating "freestyle" gourmet food.  They served up Oaxacan Chicken Mole Tacos and their award winning veggie Buffalo Cauliflower Taco.  Both were delicious and well timed after our beer tasting had left us craving some munchies!

Next it was onto our second brewery of the night - Birdsong Brewing Company.  Although a bit smaller than NoDa, this brewery served up some delicious options including my favorite of the evening - the Free Will Jalapeño Pale Ale.  What is cool about this place is that they name all their beers after songs.  Many times, they have a song in their head and use it as inspiration to create the beer.  I also fell hard for the light fixture in their tap room - so cool!!

Now that we had a nice buzz on, it was time to operate the most unique vehicle we had ever seen:  The Party Pedaler.

It is part car, part bike and all CRAZY!!!  It is run by a gal who had a regular old 9 to 5 job in Texas until she saw this thing driving down the street.  She quit her job, bought a custom built pedaler and her small business was born!  We hopped on and with the help of the others in the group started pedaling to our next location.  Oh - and that hippie looking guy in the bottom picture?  That is Ryan...our driver. :)

Next stop: Heist Brewpub.  This unique brewery/restaurant is housed in a historic building that was formerly a cotton mill.  The decor was awesome - great chandelier in the bar room (copper that they took to a shooting range to create the one-of-a-kind cans) and AMAZING use of old reclaimed wood on the walls.  We were treated to another delicious beer along with some good eats.

We once again hopped on our party pedaler and hit a few more spots in NoDa including Dolce Vita wine bar and Salud Beer Shop.  One of the coolest things we saw on our journey was a bar that had a dog run attached.  The place was called The Dog Bar and the genius of it was astronomical!!

All in all, the night was awesomely fun and something that we HIGHLY recommend to anyone who visits Charlotte.  We crashed into the bed hard that night and slept more soundly than we had in a very long time.

The morning brought sunshine and the events from the night before brought hunger so we headed to Toast Cafe located in the Dilworth neighborhood.  The food was great, but the neighborhood was even better. We decided to take a little tour of the town and were impressed at every turn. It was one cute house after the other with "cutesy-dutesy" shops and restaurants all around.  Definitely a great place to live...if you were thinking of moving of course. :)

We had a packed schedule for our full day in Charlotte that included a Segway tour of the city, a trip to a local museum and some good eats at a swanky restaurant.  We were not Segway novices as we had used them here in DC for a tour back with John and Adriana visited.  And we both agree, they are a great way to see a city for the first time.  Our young tour guide took us to a variety of sites and shared lots of information about Charlotte.

After our fun tour, we escaped a downpour with lunch at a local pub and a visit to the Levine Museum of the New South.  We had the place to ourselves so we were able to roam about the interactive exhibits at our leisure. The exhibits focus on life in the south post Civil War.  It was highly informative and very well done.  Another "must see" in Charlotte.

Our time in Charlotte ended with a delicious dinner at 5Church, a fairly new chic restaurant in the city.  We had a great time visiting this banking city and looked forward to continuing our journey south.

 

Next stop: Charleston, SC.  Stay tuned!