Sunday, November 3, 2013

Following Foliage to Umstead Park

Our 30 for 30 is officially over, but we're still trying to check out new spots and new things to do around the Triangle.  Today, we headed to William B. Umstead State Park in Wake County to check out some of the foliage.
The trees are just starting to peak around here, and it's the perfect temperature for walking (mid-60's).  We hiked Sal's Branch Trial which is about 2.8 miles.  It intersects with Big Lake where people can rent canoes in the summer (sorry, Mom, no swimming allowed.  What's with that?  Maybe there are snakes.)
It was another place that reminded us of some of the parks we used to walk in Massachusetts.  It's nice to still be in a place that changes with the seasons and has quiet trails that are not that dissimilar from what we're used to.  The three of us are big fans of fall and all the parks are perfect places to go this time of year.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

30 Days of Turning 30 Recap

It's not easy celebrating a birthday for a whole month.  I think it falls under the category of "too much of a good thing."  I do, however, think it was good for me and Tommie to push ourselves to get out more, keep track of local events, try new things, and to be more conscious of how we spend our days--before we're so old we can't remember anymore.
It's no surprise that a lot of what we do involves eating.  At least half of our 30 posts included some kind of food.  It's also promising to see that the majority of things we did cost little to no money--even some of the events we attended were free.  There are a lot of cool free things to do around Durham if you look.  Our most expensive days were spent at big events like a concert and the state fair.  

I'm sad October is over, but we can't force ourselves to have fun forever--it's tiring.  This was good practice for the upcoming months when we have a couple weeks around the holidays to do fun things with guests, and now we know a little bit more about the place we live.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

30/30: Finishing with Food Trucks

October 30th

We'll finish the month off the way it began--with food.  Always with food.
Carrboro had a mini food truck rodeo tonight so we stopped by and grabbed a pork butt with asian style slaw sandwich from The American Meltdown and an NC cornbread chill bowl from Foster's on the Fly.
It was a nice warm night (around 70 degrees) and we ate in the square.  

Sadly, our birthday month is coming to an end, but I know we will continue to eat well and celebrate the rest of the year.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

30/30: Floats Between Failures

October 29th

We couldn't decide what to do last night after dinner.  We tried finding a highly-rated Mexican frozen treat shop but failed, so we landed at The Parlour with a root beer float made with malted cinnamon ice cream.  They do make really good, creamy and flavorful handmade ice cream here. 
After that, we tried to get fries at a local hamburger joint but it was just closing so we failed at that too.  We must be running out of steam.

Monday, October 28, 2013

30/30: Ice Cream Sunsets

October 28th

Today was a miserable day to be 30--new and unwanted medical experiences, doctors with needles, a lot of pain, and many tears (on my end) reminded me that getting older really sucks.
For being so brave (sadly, that was me being brave) I later needed to treat myself to a pumpkin and carmel apple ice cream sundae from Maple View Farm.
Afterwards, we opened the hatchback of our Subaru and watched the sunset over the open fields in Hillsborough Getting older sucks, but ice cream and calming sunsets are some of the little things that attempt to make it slightly more tolerable.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

30/30: Seafood Sunday

October 27th

I grew up on the coast, and if you ask me, there's no such thing as too much seafood.  It was our first time broiling bacon wrapped scallops, which we enjoyed for lunch.
Then later, our friends cooked us a delicious birthday dinner of baked brie with apple butter, barbecue shrimp, and apple crisp.  
I think we hit all of Tommie's favorite food groups today: bacon, cheese, and seafood.