Charlotte, NC Vacation

For Labor Day we headed to Charlotte, NC to see our old neighbors the Warrens. Christy was having a post-Covid ceremony to celebrate her wedding.

Day 1: Stop at Duke and Mountain Biking

We left around 5:30am. Since we were going through Durham, we decided to pull over and give ourselves a quick tour of Duke and grab lunch on campus.

Coach K's Last Year

While at Duke, I broke more rules that I did at my 4 years going there for college.

• Biked through Duke gardens
• Fed ducks in Duke gardens next to sign saying “do not feed the ducks”
• Biked backwards around the circle
• Filled water bottle with ‘not free’ water from some fancy dining place
• Parked illegally for 30 minutes
• Biked through the main area of west campus during a class changeover (maybe not a rule … but seemed like we shouldn’t be doing it)

Next we went mountain biking at Whitewater near Charlotte. See mountain biking blog post for details.

Next we checked into our hotel before going to see Jim and Liz Suppa for dinner at their house just South of Charlotte. 

Days Inn near Charlotte Airport

One of the biggest disappointments of the trip was not taking any pictures of the Days Inn. If you are thinking of staying in Charlotte, avoid the Days Inn. Here are some reasons:

• Entire hotel smelled like marijuana
• People were smoking in the hallways
• Several cars pulled up, parked for a few minutes, and left (a.k.a. Drug Deal)
• Several "ladies of the evening" were doing business there
• Next door to our room there was a "party" that seemed to last 24x7

For safety reasons, Sara decided we should switch hotels. Because of the Clemson vs Georgia football game, there were no vacancies within 40 miles, so we ended staying at the Hotel Suppa ... which was a great move.

Day 2: Christy's Wedding

The wedding was at a cool venue in a trendy part of Charlotte.

Only 3 kids were there, Julia and RJ played Corn Hole

Placeholder for picture from photographer

Father and Son

Day 3: Warren's Lake House and Chapel Hill

Mr. Jim and Mrs. Laura had people over for brunch the next day. We were early (because we messed up our timing with church), so we went to a park. 

After telling Sara that there are tons of Johnson's in NC, we found this!

 

Their house was on a Lake so Doug went swimming and the kids got to go tubing. 

RJ gets ready for a tube ride

Kids with Jim and Laura Warren

After some Lake fun we went to our hotel between Durham and Chapel Hill. Since we visited Duke before, we decided to get dinner on Franklin Street near UNC.

Near the Dean Smith Center

Hopefully UNC admissions did not see this ... or maybe it would help :-)