Thanksgiving, Charlotte Style

We spent the night parked across from our friends' home in our old neighborhood, which meant when I woke up, I got to go on a memory walk.

I love the paths and creeks in the Charlotte neighborhoods.

It brought back years of running, with friends, and on my own, training for races, or just for fun.

Found some mushrooms, because when am I not finding mushrooms, haha.

It had rained overnight and everything was fresh and drippy.

Gorgeous creek. This wasn't the one I ran along the most, but it was closer to our house than that one.

Fall colors were still going pretty strong.

And I finished with a pass by our old house. It's still weird to me that someone else lives there. They've changed some things, but overall, it still looks like the home we lived in for over 8 years.

Got back to the van and everyone was ready for some breakfast. We didn't want to make things hard on our friends who were prepping Thanksgiving dinner for their family, so we just ate in the van. Had to have some of our apples!

I love that we can make real food and eat pretty similarly to how we do at home.

3 weeks in and we're still doing good in there!

Then, we headed out to visit a few spots that were important to us back in the day. This pool was where Bean and Bug got their swim team start, and where we spent so many hours with our summer friends--the team and their families who we were with for a couple of months every summer.

Then we stopped by Piedmont Progressive Preschool, which will always hold a special place in our hearts. We loved that school, and I feel like it helped me decide to go down the homeschool path which has also led to us being able to take this trip.

And then, we went back to crash the family Thanksgiving of our friends. It was so fun to see their extended family who we'd gotten to know over the years of living there, but most of all just so fun to be with these people again.

We got lucky and got to do two Thanksgivings.

This sweet lady was like a grandmother to our kids when she lived next door. She has since moved 30 minutes north to Davidson, but we had so many years of having Thanksgiving together and were so glad that we got to do it one more time.

Mary sets a fancy table. It was lovely and the food was so good. We got to catch up with her family, too. We missed our other neighbor, Sharon, who isn't doing too well healthwise and wasn't able to make it this year. It's sad that everyone ages.

After such an amazing day, we just had to find a place to park the van for the night and ended up in another Food Lion parking lot. They really are so convenient for those nights when we just need a place for a few hours. And that's all we were looking for because we had more plans with friends the next day.

Day 22: NC Favorites!

After Yorktown, we drove to NC and found a spot near this lake to sleep for the night.

We got up the next morning and after breakfast and getting ready for the day, we drove through the mountains to visit one of our favorite spots from when we lived there.

Skytop Orchard, home of our favorite Gold Rush apples and . . .

apple cider donuts! These are the BEST donuts, especially when they are fresh and warm.

We don't usually pick apples (by the point in the season when the Gold Rush apples are ripe, the trees are kind of picked over), but we always buy a few varieties from the shop.

And then we took a walk around the farm. The colors were past their peak, but it's still so beautiful up there.

Found some geese.

And one decided he needed to protect the group.

After we were done at the orchard, we stopped for lunch at Harry and Piggy's in Hendersonville for some NC barbeque--YUM.

On the drive, we went past a few different spots that had some serious damage from Hurricane Helene. 

We weren't even sure we'd be able to get through the mountains to Skytop just a couple weeks before, but they had opened the roads and we figured giving the local places some business would be good for everyone.

And then, Charlotte, here we come!

We haven't been back to visit since 2018.

And when we got there, we were way too busy catching up with our old neighbors to remember to get any pictures that afternoon. We had hours of reminiscing about the little kids we raised together, who are all so grown up now, in high school and college and thriving. Some friends are more like family and even going 6.5 years isn't enough to ruin the dynamic.

 

Day 21: Almost Home

One last stop before we started the drive to NC and our home for 8.5 years. We realized that we have been to many locations where wars began, but haven't ever been to where a war ended. 

Yorktown is 

We walked around the town to see the Yorktown Victory Monument,

and a few of the houses that are still there. Many were damaged by cannon balls, but some have been rebuilt or restored.

Visited the garden of the Nelson House, home to one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Nelson, Jr.

It was a beautiful walk.

And then we walked part of the battlefield.

 In the fall of 1781, General George Washington, with allied American and French forces, besieged General Charles Lord Cornwallis’s British army.  On October 19, Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ending the war and ensuring independence. And this is where it all happened.

Day 20: Jamestown

Monday morning, we packed up, checked out of our Airbnb, and dove back into history.

The Jamestown museum and re-creation was impressive.

In the native village, Peanut got to try scraping reeds to work them into something the native Americans would have used to make baskets.

Down at the dock, we explored the replicas of the Godspeed and Discovery ships.

They originally sailed from England in December 1606 and made it to what became Virginia about 6 months later.

It was fun exploring them,

and hard to imagine that they carried 73 people between these two boats (and another 71 on the Susan Constant which is being restored right now.)

Then, we went up to the fort.

There were a lot of people telling stories and explaining how things worked in the fort.

The chickens were just wandering through the buildings, as I'm sure they did back then, too.

We got to watch a rifle demonstration--it was LOUD.

Lots of examples of tools and equipment.

And another blacksmith. I wonder how many of these we've seen.

There were a couple of them, here.

Peanut ready for battle.

One thing that I didn't realize is that this Jamestown site isn't on the original site. When I visited 15 years ago, I thought this is where it all happened.

(Found some fall colors!)

But it turns out there is a different spot about 1.5 miles away where they have excavated the original site. They have a fort you can visit,

and a walk that goes past some of the things they have dug up.

Old ruins are scattered around.

And then we stopped by the historic glassworks and caught the sunset over the water.

It was beautiful out there.

And the glass demo was so good!

This woman, who was a few years into her learning, was so good at what she was doing. 

She made it look easy.

And then, more beautiful sunset pictures.

Such a fantastic day! 

It ended with us sleeping in a Food Lion parking lot. We decided we wanted to stay in the area because we wanted to visit Yorktown before we left, so we just needed somewhere to stay for the night. And Food Lion works well--bathroom available except between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., and we can pick up extra food, too.