Day 2 - Charlotte

   We got another early start and make out way towards Charlotte. The trip was beautiful with the mountains all around us. I loved taking I-81 down south, rather than I-95. After some horrible traffic north of Charlotte, we met up with Brian and Angelique at the Charlotte Nature Museum. If you are in the area and need a cheap and entertaining place for the kids, I highly recommend it. We got there around noon and spent almost 4 hours there. There are plenty of little exhibits for the kids, including a butterfly room. The girls loved the outside area with plenty of places to play and wear themselves out. They were having a farm exhibit that day which included baby pigs, rabbits, sheep and chicks. There was also a walking path which didn't include much, but was fun to wander.
   Back inside we went through the butterfly room again and found a nice play room with some hands on exhibits. Including one that talked about underground animals and had a groundhog area. When we were just about finished going back through their favorite parts, we heard they were getting ready to start a show. It was in an old planetarium room. It was a show about the sounds of various creatures. You sit in a fairly dark room around a fake camp fire. It started off with creatures you hear during the day. Mostly birds. Then you start to talk about nocturnal creatures and you end up waking up an animatronic tree, who introduces you to all kinds of animals. The girls loved it. They are already asking when we can go back. Unfortunately it is eight hours from home.
   I got to talk to Brian quite a bit and he recommended a restaurant for us after we were done at the museum. He had to head home and we headed over to the Original Pancake House and had a great dinner. We then headed over to the hotel and headed back out to grab supplies as we were running low on snacks for the girls. We also grabbed a Chromecast so we could set up some shows for before bed. It's worked out great so far, but can be a pain to use at the hotels. With a few tweaks and a little extra software installed on my laptop, I have it working. (Connectify works great for handing hotel connections. I now have everything set up through that rather than directly to the hotel's wifi. Makes it easier as we change hotels every night for the first week).
   We spent some time over at the pool before heading back to the room and watching a few shows. It was nice to get some down time. We even slept in a little the next morning.

North Carolina and Charlotte Pictures