November 26, 2011

Zip zip zip

In October, Andrew and I redeemed our Living Social deals to Kersey Valley Zipline in High Point. Ziplining is something I’ve wanted to try for a while, and when the deal popped up we had to get it.

Basically, it was awesome. I was a bit freaked out for the first one, but adrenaline kicked in soon and I got the hang out it. Figuring out how to stop made me the most nervous, but I quickly learned how much pressure to apply to come to a stop. The first time, I put WAY too much pressure on the line which hurt my shoulder a bit, so I quickly learned my lesson.

Our two guides were really funny and entertaining, which made the experience even more fun. One of the women in our group was pretty terrified, so naturally our guide, nicknamed Mouth because he always runs his mouth, decided that she would be a great target for teasing. I was glad that he picked on her instead of me!

While ziplining, if you tuck your knees into a ball, it makes you go faster. I liked getting the extra speed to fly even faster through the woods. At times, the course went over a corn maze and other activity areas in the amusement park, and it was thrilling to fly high over people’s heads.

I’d really like to zipline again, probably in a tropical destination instead of North Carolina woods. Ziplining is a great activity for adventure seekers, and I really enjoyed Kersey Valley Zipline.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Adventure, Travel

Tagged as , , ,

November 23, 2011

Girls Only Wine Trip

In late September, my boyfriend’s mom orchestrated a girl’s-only wine trip in the Yadkin Valley area of North Carolina. A group of 30 women, ranging from early 20s to early 80s, met early in the morning and hopped on a bus, which drove us to three different wineries during the day. I’d met some of the women before but not many, and it was really nice to get to know them.

Our first stop was Raffaldini Vineyards and Winery. We were given a behind-the-scenes tour to see how they actually make the wine, and were able to sample wines at various stages of the wine-making process to see how each step affected the taste, texture, etc.

Check out how cloudy this white wine looked – it wasn’t quite ready for mass consumption.

Our tour of Raffaldini finished with lunch inside the Italian-style villa and a wine tasting. Throughout the day, I stuck mostly to reds because I don’t normally like white wine – it was until I visited The Wine Feed in Raleigh last month that I finally discovered TWO white wines that I liked! The Sangiovese Reserve was the best wine I had at Raffaldini, so a few bottles came home with me.

Next, we made a quick detour to Laurel Gray Vineyards. This winery makes the most amazing chocolate wine sauce, and I think our group bought their entire stock of the chocolate sauce! I snagged a few pictures while everyone was inside making purchases – I thought this was the prettiest place we visited all day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we stopped at Shadow Springs Vineyard, which recently opened about to the public a few years ago. One of the owners brought us downstairs for the wine tasting, and he was so knowledgeable about wine. An interesting fact I learned was that planting roses at the end of each row helps to show how healthy the grapes are. If the roses look sick, then the grapes are likely sick too. I always thought the roses were just for decoration, but was fascinated to learn that they serve a purpose too.

Here again I tried some delicious reds. The green asterisks denote which wines I tried. I don’t think I bought any here, but definitely enjoyed the ones I sampled.

On the way back to Charlotte, we stopped at the Shiloh General Store to stock up on sweets. It’s an Amish bakery, and just like at Laurel Gray, we cleaned out the bakery of all their huge cinnamon rolls, breads, fried apple pies and cookies.

This trip motivated me to get out and explore other North Carolina vineyards and wineries. While this state is known for sweet Muscadine wines, it produces some really great wines that I must try. I know my girl friends will be up for our own girls wine trip!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Travel

Tagged as , , , , , ,

October 4, 2011

Living like a local; NYC edition

Last weekend, I went to visit Pegi, one of my best friends from college who lives in NYC. I had not been to the city since I was nine years old, so the trip was long overdue, especially for an adventurer. Southwest was running a great deal where you could get tickets for $40-$80 each way, so I got a great deal too.

I’m happy to say that we didn’t do anything overtly touristy the whole time I was there. When I travel, I want to experience what it’s like to actually live in that place. Museums, landmarks, monuments etc are great, but I prefer to just walk around and pretend to be a local. Eating and walking made up the majority of the weekend – not complaining there! For some reason, we ended up eating a lot of French food throughout the weekend. I’ve been intrigued by French cuisine lately, I think because I haven’t eaten much of it in my life. We went to French Roast, L’Express and Café Lalo (which was featured in You’ve Got Mail):

Saturday night, I ate the best pizza of my life at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria. We ordered the pane frattau, made with tomato, pecorino and egg. Seriously delicious. We actually ordered so much food that the waiter wouldn’t let us order any more!

Other trip highlights included:

  • A hippie lover’s dream: a smoothie in a bowl from Juice Generation - I think I got the Amazing Green
  • Finding poppy seed sweet bread at Zabar’s. This was one of my favorite treats that I’d enjoy with a cup of coffee at the café around the corner from my housing when I studied abroad in Prague. In Czech they are called kolache – I really want to make them soon.
  • Taking a spinning class called Soul-Cycle, which was a full-body workout set to great music. The instructor was a lot of fun, and encouraged us to chuck our water bottles at her when they were empty. My legs were seriously sore after that class.
  • Vol De Nuit, a Belgian beer lounge.
  • The Strand, a bookstore with 18 miles of new, used, rare and out-of-print books. And they have a photo booth in the basement. If I lived in NYC, I would live in this bookstore; it’s a book nerd’s paradise.
  • Wearing leggings as pants. This is not something I’d feel comfortable doing in Raleigh, but I figured since people wear crazy clothes all the time in New York, surely I can wear leggings as pants.
  • I finally tried Pinkberry! The peanut butter and chocolate was a great combination.
  • Coming across a light saber convention in a random park and witnessing a light saber mosh pit. And then convincing someone to let me borrow their light saber for an epic photo.
Random collage of weekend pics. The goat man in the upper left is from Zabar’s, and I want one for my kitchen!

Overall, my favorite thing about NYC was the freedom I felt from being able to walk everywhere and take public transportation. In Raleigh, people just don’t walk places very often. I drive everywhere, even if my destination is just down the road. I’m going to try to make walking more of a priority, especially now that it’s slowly getting a bit cooler.

I’m already finding things to do on my next trip. Pegi, you’d better start resting up now for my next visit :)

6 Comments

Filed under Adventure, Travel

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,