contentSo, this morning I got up and packed up - phone, iPod, book, knitting, directions, camera, and headed east towards Raleigh on 70 (much prettier than 40, if you have a little extra time, and a hell of a lot less of the Indy 500 effect). Paying rent was the first stop of the day, and the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum was the second. It was interesting, and I appreciated the look I got; however, it was a hell of a lot colder and windier than I'd expected today, and I ended up leaving sooner than I'd intended. Fortunately, it's all of 20 minutes away, so I can go back.
There was a stop at SECU and a Bojangles incident (note to self: bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits do not eat as easily in the car as sausage), and eventually I toddled into Raleigh. I'd debated going and hanging out at Cup o' Joe and knitting or reading for awhile (hence the packing list above) but ended up deciding that I'd rather go ahead and find parking downtown. I put Janeway into a garage (I was not in the mood to hunt for street parking, parallel park, and worry about when my two hours were going to end, and it was worth $4 to avoid all of those, just like it was worth a little extra time on the road to avoid 40 and 440) and had just enough time to duck into the state capitol building, look around, and realize what I'd thought was going to be a quick visit was going to need more time. :) The building is gorgeous, and the lady at the front desk, who was having a quiet day, regaled me with stories about how the capitol burned down in 1831 during fire-proofing efforts. :) The replica of the state library was especially neat, with books stuck in anywhere they would fit.
I walked over to Cooper's, and had an absolutely lovely lunch with
rao, rhiannonstone, Emily and her husband whom I don't know if they LJ, hap, cbj, wilee, and mswilson. The company was great, and the food was tasty, of course - hush puppies and fries and collards and fried chicken and lemon meringue pie and lots of sweet tea.Eventually, it was time to leave. I'd thought about collecting an end of the year Cook-out milkshake, but by that point, I was just tired and ready to be home. I surface streeted over to 64 (which was just beautiful, driving home, especially crossing over Jordan Lake) and eventually got to 421, and with a gas and bathroom stop, pulled in right at 5:00.
We're having a very bastardized but very good goulash for dinner, and there will probably be some gaming here in a bit, and probably early crashing. We're not big New Year's people.
If 2009 is as good as the last day of 2008 was, that won't be bad at all. :)