Visit to North Carolina

I know this is long over due, but I wanted do one more recap of my trip to North Carolina!

As I mentioned before, I flew to Raleigh, NC on Thanksgiving Day to see my sister who is there for a year-long dietetics internship.

That Saturday, my parents flew into Raleigh, but they had NO idea I was already there, so it was quite the surprise when they saw me sitting in the car when we picked them up at the airport. The look on their faces was priceless!

Here’s a very quick recap of some of the things we did.

After my sister, Kristy, picked me up at the airport, our first stop was Whole Foods. A trip to out of state would not be complete without going to Whole Foods.

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This was a beautiful sight to my eyes!

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Thanksgiving Dinner: a Whole Foods salad! 🙂

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I was SO happy to be soaking up the warm sunshine!

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That evening, Kristy and I took an hour long walk through her neighborhood. I could not get over how many trees were in in the citiy!


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I just had to take a picture of this house. . . .I have no idea who lives there, I just liked the house.

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Most of the leaves had fallen off the trees, but this tree still had a few coloful leaves on it!

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen leaves this vivid in color before.

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And there was NO way I was missing a run while I was there—60s, sun, and perfect fall weather!!


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We ran every morning anywhere from 5-10 miles. It was so wonderful!

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Once my parents flew in on Saturday, we took a tour of Meredith College, where my sister is taking a few classes.


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We also made sure to go to the Raleigh Farmer’s Market, which was huge (at least from what I’m used to). This is only about a quarter of it.

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That afternoon we hiked the trails of Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve.

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A fun, easy hike through the woods.

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Kristy, Mom, and Dad

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Kristy mid-yawn.

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The next day we drove to the coast, but on our way there, we stopped at Duplin Winery.

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We had a nice tour of their facilities and then partook in some wine sampling.

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Afterward, we continued on to the beach: Wrightsville Beach.

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It was a cloudy, windy day but still fun to be at the beach.

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Classic jumping pictures.

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We couldn’t quite get ourselves coordinated.

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Then we watched the sunset over the bay.

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It was a beautiful sight.

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And that was about all we had time to do. It was so much fun to travel and see a different part of the country. I love traveling and want to continue to do more of it! 🙂

Hi, I'm Michelle

I love running around the lakes of Minnesota, running after my two boys, and racing anything from the 5K to the marathon. I have been blogging here since 2010 when I ran my first marathon. I finally secured my sub-3 hour marathon after trying for 8 years.

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18 Comments

  1. 12.5.11
    Lauren said:

    There you are! Your photos are so beautiful and the trip looks so perfect! I was excited for you while reading this post because I can just feel the happiness in your words. Wish you could live in the sunshine forever- you’ve at least got a place to stay in Maryland!

    • 12.5.11
      Michelle said:

      You have no idea how much fun I had! I did NOT want to go back to Alaska!!

  2. 12.5.11
    Lauren said:

    There you are! Your photos are so beautiful and the trip looks so perfect! I was excited for you while reading this post because I can just feel the happiness in your words. Wish you could live in the sunshine forever- you’ve at least got a place to stay in Maryland!

    • 12.5.11
      Michelle said:

      You have no idea how much fun I had! I did NOT want to go back to Alaska!!

  3. 12.6.11
    Krissie J said:

    Your trip looks like a total blast! I love the pics of you and your sister! One of my younger sisters (I have 3, and 2 brothers… and an older sister… anyway) lives in Wilmington, NC and I didn’t really get to see her at Thanksgiving so I may head down for a few days over my time off at Christmas. I’m pretty excited! I’ve only ever driven through NC.

    • 12.6.11
      Michelle said:

      We drove through Wilmington; it was the town right before Wrightsville Beach!

  4. 12.6.11
    Krissie J said:

    Your trip looks like a total blast! I love the pics of you and your sister! One of my younger sisters (I have 3, and 2 brothers… and an older sister… anyway) lives in Wilmington, NC and I didn’t really get to see her at Thanksgiving so I may head down for a few days over my time off at Christmas. I’m pretty excited! I’ve only ever driven through NC.

    • 12.6.11
      Michelle said:

      We drove through Wilmington; it was the town right before Wrightsville Beach!

  5. 12.6.11
    Candice said:

    Wow..the beach photos are beautiful. Sounds like you had a great trip!

  6. 12.6.11
    Candice said:

    Wow..the beach photos are beautiful. Sounds like you had a great trip!

  7. 12.6.11

    looks like you had a great time! yay!

  8. 12.6.11

    looks like you had a great time! yay!

  9. 12.6.11

    so weird looking at pictures of home while sitting in a hotel room in wyoming! especially duplin winery! not many people can say they have been to rose hill, north carolina (my grandparents live 3 miles from winery! home of the world’s largest frying pan! ;o) i am from burgaw which is about 15 miles north of wilmington. ah. home. i love it.

    • 12.7.11
      Michelle said:

      Ha! Yes, we stopped to look at the largest frying pan!! I love your home too!

  10. 12.6.11

    so weird looking at pictures of home while sitting in a hotel room in wyoming! especially duplin winery! not many people can say they have been to rose hill, north carolina (my grandparents live 3 miles from winery! home of the world’s largest frying pan! ;o) i am from burgaw which is about 15 miles north of wilmington. ah. home. i love it.

    • 12.7.11
      Michelle said:

      Ha! Yes, we stopped to look at the largest frying pan!! I love your home too!

  11. 12.7.11

    Beautiful pictures! Looks like you had a lovely trip…NC is so pretty this time of year!

  12. 12.7.11

    Beautiful pictures! Looks like you had a lovely trip…NC is so pretty this time of year!