Currituck County, North Carolina

The day before Memorial Day, George and I took off for Currituck County, North Carolina's most northeastern county! We knew we wanted to see the county seat of Currituck and its courthouse, as well as stick our toes in the sand. We had some bonus adventures along the way, but our big takeaway (other than the gorgeous day!) was that we didn't have time to do everything, and we can't wait to go back!

We started out in Currituck, which is on the mainland but on the Currituck Sound. Currituck used to be called Currituck Court House, but eventually the "Court House" part of the name was dropped, and left with just Currituck. We visited the Currituck Courthouse and the Old Jail next door, and took lots of pictures. 

Just down the road from the courthouse is home base for the Knotts Island Ferry, which offers a free ride over to Knotts Island. Our timing for taking the ferry, exploring, and returning for the rest of the county was off, so that's something we want to do another time!

From there, we stopped in Barco for lunch at Currituck BBQ Company. We had a good lunch there as we decided what to do next. George really wanted to go down on the beach and stick his feet in the water, so we checked Google Maps and decided to head to the public access beach Corolla next, enjoying the sights along the way. (It took us about an hour to get from Barco to Corolla.)

On the way to Corolla, we drove through the town of Duck. (Don't you just love the name?!) Duck's a small town (located in Dare County, but Currituck), but its population swells during the summer. Memorial Day weekend was a busy time in Duck, too, so driving through took a while, but it gave us a nice opportunity to see the sights.

We finally made it to Corolla, our second visit to the town but our first time to this public access beach! We were glad to find a parking space, and made a pretty long walk down to the beach. We enjoyed hanging out on the sand for a while, and George enjoyed the ocean water, though he reported back that it was surprisingly cold. The photo to the left is one of our better selfies together.

Once we got back to the car, we decided to head north, and go as far as we could in our 2WD car, We stopped by the Currituck Beach

Lighthouse for a current photo. We'd stopped there before and walked around, but haven't been up to the top of this one. I'd love to do that sometime! We drove through the Historic Corolla Village, but it was so busy that we decided not to stop this time. (We stopped there a couple of years ago and enjoyed it!)

We continued to drive north until we saw warnings of 4WD needed, and the road started getting sandier. (Next time!) So we turned around and started making our way home. We made one final stop in Kill Devil Hills to have dinner at the Black Pelican. I had a yummy salmon dish there, and George enjoyed some flounder.

We had a fun day on the Outer Banks, and can't wait to go back! The rest of my photos are here.

Davidson County, North Carolina

I visited Davidson County recently, and really enjoyed exploring the area!

Before I started driving from my home in Durham County, I knew I wanted to start out at The Big Chair in Thomasville, North Carolina. The Big Chair is a huge Duncan Phyfe chair in downtown Thomasville, in honor of Thomasville's furniture industry. Since we have a Duncan Phyfe couch and chair (from my grandparents' house) in our apartment, I wanted to see the big one! It was quirky but pretty in its own way, and fun to see in person.

After finding a geocache near The Big Chair, I drove around town a little bit. Thomasville is a cute town.

After that, I was ready for lunch, so I headed to Lexington for some barbecue! Lexington has several BBQ restaurants, but I stopped at a place called Lexington Barbecue for lunch. They served Lexington-style barbecue, of course, which is different from eastern-style barbecue served in Eastern North Carolina. I did an informal poll on my Facebook page, and while some people didn't care, others were adamant that one or the other was the best in the state! There's a Wikipedia article here about the barbecue debate. Our State Magazine weighs in here.

Next, I visited Boone's Cave Park, a pretty county park named after Daniel Boone. It's possible that Boone may have spent some time in a cave in a park. I thought I'd make the trek down to the cave, but I got several flights down the wooden stairs with no end in sight, so I turned around on that warm and steamy afternoon. It's a pretty park, though, with trails and a nice bathroom stop.

On the way back toward home, I decided to find a winery in the area, and with the help of Google Maps, I decided to try Childress

Vineyards in Lexington. I'd never heard of Childress Vineyards that I could recall, so I enjoyed the stop very much! I enjoyed seeing the vineyard, and stopped in the main building to look around. It was about 4:00 when I stopped in, so I missed the tours and official tastings for the day, but I got a small taste of the 2014 Petit Verdot, which I enjoyed a lot!

I made a few more small stops along the way, and found a few geocaches too! It was a fun day in Davidson County! My photos from the day are here.

Harnett County, North Carolina

Although I've been to (and through) Harnett County before, I enjoyed going back to record a tour for this blog. It took me a little over an hour to get there, and I enjoyed getting to know my way around the county better.

Barbecue Presbyterian Church

My first goal on this adventure was to find the community known  as Barbecue, since I love North Carolina barbecue! Barbecue is one of several unincorporated communities in Barbecue Township, and is the home of Barbecue Presbyterian Church. I really enjoyed taking pictures of this church and the attached cemetery, where some of the tombstones were too old and weathered to read. Still, the cemetery as a whole is well kept. The nearby historical marker titled Barbecue Church made me smile as I took a picture. Unfortunately, I didn't see any barbecue restaurants in the area for lunch.

Raven Rock State Park

Next, I drove to Lillington, where I found the Harnett County Public Library, the Harnett County Courthouse, and Raven Rock State Park. Lillington is the county seat, and is named after John Alexander Lillington, a Revolutionary War officer who fought in the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in what is now Pender County. I especially enjoyed finding Raven Rock State Park, but didn't do any hiking, since my ankle was sore.

John W. Pope, Jr. Convocation Center

Next, I went to Buies Creek, home of Campbell University. I was surprised by how close Lillington and Buies Creek are to each other! (I'm not sure why I was surprised! They're both pretty small!)) On my way into town, I noticed the building in progress for Campbell University's new School of Osteopathic Medicine. The main campus was pretty deserted, as the school year had already ended, but I enjoyed walking and driving around the campus. I never did find the campus library, though.

Duffies Exotic Bird Ranch

My last adventure was to find Duffie's Exotic Bird Ranch in Dunn. I'm not sure what I was expecting at Duffie's, but it was interesting! I couldn't find anyone to pay for my $5 unguided/self-guided tour, so I just walked around and took a few pictures. Most of the birds were in cages, which isn't surprising, but made it harder to take pictures of them. A few parrots whistled at me as I walked around, and several mimicked my "bye-bye" as I left. That cracked me up! :-)

All of my photos of Harnett County are here.