Road Trip: Southeast
Day 9: Thursday, September 29, 2022 - Raleigh, NC
Day's statistics:
Weather:
Steps: Steve 10,311; Linda 9,621
Drove: 197 miles
What better way to be woken that having the garbage bin emptied at 5:40 AM...
There was a room near the check-in where breakfast - if you can call it that - was provided. I am sure there
are still some locations that are trying to recover from the business impacts of COVID. All that was available
was coffee with non-dairy creamer (the powdered stuff), and granola bars. Not exactly a fueling breakfast for
those that are going to spend the better part of the day walking.
This was another one of those locations. Not an insufficient or crappy breakfast, but absolutely nothing at all.
We had packed up and went into the city toward the capitol with the hope of finding somewhere to eat.
We found the capitol and then started making increasingly larger circles around the block until we finally found
a golden arches. We each had an egg sandwich, and split a hashbrown and a cup of coffee. At least this location
took away the table tents so there was no issue with waiting for table service.
Our first stop today was at the capitol.
On approach.
Our selfie.
A Vietnam Memorial on the grounds near the capitol.
We entered the captiol and got our stamp. This was also our first colored stamp - only took 24 of them too...
The capitol is relatively small. And the government has grown enough that the building can no longer sustain
the increase in need. So a "new" - from the 70s - legislative building was built across the plaza.
The original capitol is more like a museum now than anything. We walked around a little anyway, on our own.
A George Washington statue in the main rotunda.
Looking up in the rotunda at the dome, from the bottom floor, and then the second floor.
An office, perhaps the original Governor's office.
A stairwell.
The Senate, the president's chair, and a stitch of the Senate.
The Senate from the second floor.
The gallery from below.
The gallery from the second floor.
The ceiling and chandelier.
A stitch of the House, plus the speaker's chair.
The chamber from above.
The chandelier.
The portrait of George Washington hanging above the speaker's chair.
The doorway into the chamber.
A light.
The old library, and some artifacts on display.
The geology room.
We completed our tour of the "old" capitol.
We left the old building and headed across the plaza to the new legislation building.
En route, we passed this war memorial.
We walked between the NC Museum of History, and the NC State Museum of Natural Science.
We arrived at the Legislative Building and due to misreading the entry sign, completely walked around to the other side to enter.
The state seal in the concrete in front of the building. You should be able to tell that it is probably more than twenty feet across.
And a fountain.
We made our way inside. We happen to run into a woman named Donna, who was from New York (Staten Island)
like we both are. She was a tour guide and volunteered to give us a brief tour.
Donna told us that the architect that designed this facility also designed Radio City Music Hall, and the
Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
We came across this suspended garden in an atrium.
Donna took us up to the second floor, where we looked down on another atrium - this one between the House and the Senate chambers.
Each brass door to each chamber is reported to weigh 1,500 pounds. Each. Each.
Donna brought us into the House chamber, and we briefly sat in the gallery.
Here is most of the chamber, and the speaker's seat.
This chandelier weighs over 600 pounds.
There are four tapestries hanging behind the House dais.
We walked across the foyer to the Senate chamber.
This is the desk of one of the Senators. There are three things going on here:
1) The "device" on the desk is given to a Senator if / when they have "spoken for too long".
2) Barely visible at the top of the seatback is a name - that means that Senator bought that chair. At a cost
of a little more than $600.
3) There is a brass plate on the left of the desk that has a listing of the names of all the Senators that
used that desk before the current occupant.
After the senate chamber, we walked outside and saw some gardens, and the caps for the atria.
We also got a shot of the capitol and the plaza from the legislative building.
Our next stop was the Museum of Natural Sciences.
On the way over, we saw this "momento" to Bugfest.
Also nearby was an area called the Rachel Carson Sculptre and Wildlife Garden.
The globe is actually part of the research center of the museum (this was captured from the Legislative Building).
Entry into the museum was free (yay!).
The museum was geared more toward kids, with a fair amount of interactive things, so we don't have too many
opportunities for a lot of pictures.
Some shrimp. (Anyone else hungry?!!?) Sorry, a little blurry.
A model, and a skeleton of Acrocantosaurus from above.
Skeletons of dinosaurs near a hadrosaurs nesting site, facing off like they would if they were still alive.
A life-size diarama of the ecology and ecosystems of North Carolina.
Some skeletons of water dinosaurs and whales.
On our way out, we got this selfie near a shark mouth fossil.
On the way back toward the capitol, and where our car was parked, we saw some more statues and memorials.
Finally, one last shot of the capitol (the lower flag is an MIA-POW flag), including the ever so familiar
looking statue of George Washington.
It was lunch time already - though "already" can be subjective, considering we visited the capitol, Legislative
Building, AND the Museum of Natural Sciences already.
We visited a location a couple miles up the road called Ole Time Barbeque.
We were searved an appetizer of some hush puppies.
Linda had the pulled pork sandwich (there were two different barbeque sauces, as well as Texas Pete® hot
sauce, at the table to put on the sandwich).
I also had the pulled pork sandwich, but with sides of macaroni and cheese and cole slaw.
We visited two sites in the morning that we had planned for the day (though we were also considering the
Museum of Art, we were sort of arted-out at this point), so while at lunch, we planned on another stop.
Not too far away was the Raleigh Rose Garden.
It was cool and in the middle of a work / week day, so it really wasn't that crowded. I can imaging how packed
the garden must be during peak time.
Fortunately for us, the roses were still in bloom. There was a gardener doing some limited pruning of flowers
as Hurricane Ian was on it's way and the pruning helps keep the damage and pedal mess to a minimum.
Here are the nicer blooms, some on plants were over six feet tall.
This pair of of images is of the same two blooms, but the focus shifts from the foreground to the background
between the two. Very suble, but it is still there. As I practice this technique, the results may improve.
Here are some of the other sights of the garden.
The park wasn't too large, and we spent about fifteen minutes there. But it was worth it.
We sort of ran out of things to do in Raleigh, at least from an on-the-fly perspective.
So we headed to Richmond, a two and a half hour drive away.
Of course, we passed another state line.
The skyline on approach.
While driving in town, near the restaurant, we came across this sculpture.
It still early, so we decided to, again, visit the local library.
It was a nice library. We spent some time reading and being on our devices, and walked around a little too.
We spied this time capsule on a top shelf in the law library section.
We spent about an hour and a half at the library. Just before heading out, I confirmed with an employee the
direction we needed to go to get where we needed - he was at the information desk, afterall. The car has GPS,
but sometimes it is easier and faster to be pointed in the direction to go - at least to get started.
Dinner was going to be at Greek On Cary, which was on Cary Street in a heavy-retail section of town. We
pulled into a parking lot with about four rows of cars servicing the strip mall along three sides of the
lot. The restaurant was almost across the street from the lot.
We got to Greek On Cary at about 6:00.
When we were seated, there were only two tables filled. By 6:30, there were seven, and a couple more filled by the time we left.
Linda ordered the melitzana salata, and a small - yes, small - classic Greek salad.
While I ordered the lamb gyro platter with salad and fries, it came the salad and rice (the waiter didn't
actually write down our order - though I'll admit it was probably better with the rice anyway).
The servings were very generous. I ate mine, and even some of Linda's - though mostly cucumbers - and
there was still a little left over.
It was very tasty, and reasonably priced too.
At one point during this trip, or even one of our previous ones, we acquired our state's shot glass.
We found and checked into our motel - the last for this trip. After getting to the room, we found we were short a pillow.
The front desk was really close, so I stopped by to get another pillow.