the wright bloggers dubbed NC “first in flight!''

so mr. fuemmeler the 4th and i flew out to raleigh/durham, north kakillack this past week to visit some familiars and basically get outta town for a minute.

let me just start by saying NC was great for:

• humidity
• fireflies
• green & trees everywhere
• front porches
• grits
• flowers
• birds
• butterflies
• and squirrels!

we had excellent hosts. we started off staying with bernard, emily and macon in durham (matt's brother, his wife, and their schnauzer). they know what's up, and know how to keep their guests sated! we had the best home-made pizza, bbq chicken, eggs n potatoes spiced with fresh herbs, pesto and tomatoes. not to mention beer, mojitoes, and more beer!

macon

durham highlights included the most amazing lily garden ever witnessed by mankind (mankind= myself.... and matt!) at the sarah p. duke gardens.

duke campus

lily

second place was the durham bulls baseball game where they scored 5 runs in the 8th inning all because bernard and matt forced the stadium to do the WAVE. get that crowd going and the team starts playing! did i mention there were fireworks?

3rd place was paddling boats in umstead lake and spotting a most magestic/creepy looking writing spider!

emily & bernard

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the 2nd 1/2 of our trip was spent after a 4 hour car drive west on 1-40 in asheville, city in the sky where we stayed with my uncle. what a beautiful spot in the appalachian mountains. the city's downtown is very hip and walkable. we covered serious ground.

uncle andy!

asheville highlights include: downtown shops, restaurants, n photo ops. we found SALSAS a mexican carribbean restaurant with an alleyway bar that served a mighty fine pilsner and chips and guacamole, which was just what we wanted after 3 hours of walking around. matt fuemes = serious thinker

salsas

runner up was my uncle's wicked pad and friggin' adorable wierdo cat named “spike'' who insists on laying on your chest, kneeding and suckling on your shirt, following you around everywhere and waiting until your next move, or licking my uncle's hair as he relaxes on the carpet.

spike!

last but never least, was the beautiful looking glass waterfall and whaleback swimming hole we encountered off the davidson river down near brevard. we jumped in and man was it COLD!

whaleback swimmin hole

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so basically, all in all, in summary, to conclude.... we like NC. we like it indeed! thanks hosts!