We finally made it back to the trail this weekend after a long hiatus due to travels and back-to-back rain cancellation. Our Falls Series Hiking group led us to the Korstian Division of Duke Forest in Durham on this fine Sunday that featured perfect hiking weather. This sign was greeting us upon arrival – I love their euphemism that basically says the forest is closed so that deers can be shot down because there are just too many of them! 😂
We had a nice and peaceful hike where we enjoyed some of the Falls color that’s just starting to show. The weather was perfect in the 50s throughout the entire afternoon. We clocked in at 4.5 miles, which took us about an hour and a half. Looking forward to be back hiking again next weekend!
This weekend, there is a special event in downtown Durham called ‘Bull Moon Rising‘ where an art piece called ‘Museum of the Moon‘ by UK artist Luke Jerram is being presented. This is a touring installation that has been traveling all over the world since 2016. According to their web site, ‘Measuring seven metres in diameter, the moon features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface*.’ Apart from celebrating Durham’s 150th Anniversary, the event also honors the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
สุดสัปดาห์นี้ที่เมือง Durham เค้ามีงานฉลองครบรอบ 150 ปีของเมือง ซึ่งประจวบเหมาะกับวันครบรอบ 50 ปีที่ยานอวกาศอพอลโล 11 ไปลงจอดที่ดวงจันทร์ เลยมีการจัดงานพิเศษ ‘Bull Moon Rising‘ เอางานศิลปะที่มีชื่อว่า ‘Museum of the Moon‘ มาแสดงให้ชมกัน ผลงานชิ้นนี้เป็นฝีมือของ Luke Jerram ศิลปินชาวอังกฤษที่จำลองดวงจันทร์ในมาตราส่วน 1:500,000 และใช้ภาพถ่ายจาก NASA ในการแสดงพื้นผิวของดวงจันทร์ มาเป็นผลงานประติมากรรมขนาดเส้นผ่านศูนย์กลาง 7 เมตร ส่องสว่างจากภายใน ขึงด้วยลวดสลิงลอยอยู่ใกล้แค่เอื้อมมือ
The moon was out in all its gloriousness. There was a lot of people out on this chilly night. We were happy to have made the trek to witness this weirdly wonderful art piece in person!
The night before Halloween, we went out to explore this infamous Halloween House in the Oakwood District of downtown Raleigh. We first stumbled upon it a few years ago, on our way out of Oakwood Cemetary, which is right down the street. We got to chat a bit with Mr. Jesse Jones, the owner of the house and the mastermind behind all this awesomeness. He is an attorney by day and a Halloween aficionado by October nights. This is truly a labor of love. The decorations get moved away at the end of the night, and put back again the next day. Mr Jones said he had to do that because somebody was stealing his props. 😣
We were lucky that night because they forecasted for rain so not that many people were around and we got to enjoy the many scary monsters, zombies, rabid animals, tombstones, skeletons, and other weirdly wonderful creepy ghouliness 👻 pretty much crowd-free.
I wanted to get this post up before Halloween, but unfortunately didn’t get a chance to. 😣 If any locals happen to read this and want to go check it out next year, the house is located at 504 Oakwood Avenue, at the intersection of Oakwood Avenue & N East Street, in Raleigh NC. Happy Belated Halloween!
ตอนแรกตั้งใจว่าจะขึ้น post นี้ก่อนวันฮัลโลวีน แต่ด้วยความที่งานยุ่งมากเลยไม่ทัน 😣 ถ้ามีใครอยากไปเยี่ยมชมกันปีหน้า บ้านนี้ตั้งอยู่ที่เลขที่ 504 ถนน Oakwood ตัดกับถนน N East ในตัวเมือง Raleigh นะคะ แฮปปี้ฮัลโลวีนย้อนหลังค่า
This past Monday, Joel and I decided to have a mini midday adventure with a long lunch date at the North Carolina State Fair. We found out that they had this thing called the Weekday Lunch Pass Program. Here is how it works. You need to pay $10 cash per person for a ticket to get in, after 11:30 am. As long as you return the pass by 1:30 pm, you’ll get your $10 back. So, we decided to give it a try! 🤔
I was running a little late and didn’t get to Joel’s office to pick him up until 11:35 am. By the time we found a parking spot, which was about 10 minute walk from the fair, it was already past noon! 😣 The crowd was a lot bigger than we anticipated. Fortunately, there was no line at the ticket counter, so we were able to pretty much just walk right in.
We had located the food items we had our hearts set on beforehand and had them readily marked on the map. We first headed for The Sloppy Pig at Bubba’s Bacon. This is a sloppy Joe on Texas Toast topped with cheese sauce and bacon. We liked it ok. I felt that it would taste better if it were warmer. The next one was a dessert, The Pineapple Dole Whip Float from Tropical Delights. This was good and refreshing but nothing to write home about, in my opinion. We then spent 15 minutes trying to find Woody’s Wing Wagon, so that we could try their Korean BBQ Pork Belly Eggroll. Unfortunately, we never located it and finally just gave up. 😔
Joel also managed to squeeze in 3 different rides at Hydro Shock, Alien Abduction, and Khaos! Being a single rider paid off, since he could just breeze through the line in no time!
It was already past 1:10 pm by the time Joel was done with his last ride. We thought we had enough time to squeeze in The Crack-n-Cheese Stuff Turkey Leg from Hickory Tree BBQ on the way out. There was only a few people in line when we got there, and it was really close to the exit, where we had to return our passes, so we decided to go for it and had our fingers crossed. As soon as we had our food in hand, we raced for the exit, forgetting to even snap a picture of the yummie looking dish! 😰 We made it to the ticket counter at exactly 1:29 pm, according to the clock on our phones, to find that they had already put the ‘CLOSED’ sign up at the Lunch Pass line. 😓 Joel knocked on the glass and was able to get the lady to give us back our money any way! Whew! 😅
We left for Austin early the next day. Before we went, I had read a few articles about the all the beautiful walls and I was thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of street arts this city has to offer! They even had a dedicated space for creative arts called Hope Outdoor Gallery. So, my number one mission was to see and photograph as many colorful walls as I could while we’re there.
I had done extensive research before we left on the location of the walls, which seem to be scattered all over town. In my original plan, I had divided them up into a few different groups, based on their proximities to each other. However, we realized that it was going to be raining pretty much the entire time we’re there, over the course of two days. 😆 When it hadn’t started raining by the time we left Wimberley, we had changed our plan to try to cram in as much as we could during our first few hours in Austin before the rain hit us. Big thanks to my super-patient hubby for being extra supportive and accommodating me to accomplish the impossible task! 🥰
All in all, we were pretty impressed with the amount of walls we got to see in a very limited period of time! Like I said, we covered most of it within the first few hours we were in Austin, then we were able to sneak in a few the next day, and a bit more right after we left town! Unfortunately, we never made it to Hope Outdoor Gallery because of the aforementioned rain! 😞 Perhaps another trip to Austin might be in our stars after all! 😝
Besides colorful walls, we managed to check out the famous Allens Boots Shop, on South Congress Avenue. Their collection of boots was a sight to behold! There were rows and rows of leather boots in all shapes and sizes, in every possible design one can imagine!
นอกจากจะได้ถ่ายรูปผนังสวยๆแล้ว เรายังได้เผื่อเวลาไปเยี่ยมร้านขายรองเท้าบู๊ตชื่อดัง Allens Boots ซึ่งตั้งอยูบนถนน South Congress ที่นี่เค้ามีรองเท้าบู๊ตวางเรียงขายอยู่เป็นพันๆคู่ มองไปที่ไหนก็มีแต่รองเท้าบู๊ต มีทุกสี ทุกขนาด ทุกลายให้เลือกกันจริงๆ ถ้าราคาเป็นมิตรกว่านี้ซักหน่อยคงได้อุดหนุนกันมาซักคู่ 😆
Checked out artist Ai Weiwei’s “Forever Bicycles” sculpture, that was crafted out of 1,300 bikes at Town Lake Metropolitan Park.
ผลงานศิลปะชื่อ “Forever Bicycles” โดย Ai Weiwei ที่ Town Lake Metropolitan Park ซึ่งประกอบขึ้นจากจักรยาน 1,300 คัน
Fit in a meal of sumptuous bowls of ramen at Ramen Tatsu-Ya, which has awesome Asian-inspired arts on their walls!
We had an epic sushi dinner at Soto on South Lamar, which officially served as our anniversary dinner. The food was really good, but we felt that it was a bit overpriced. If we ever go back, I’d be happy with just their super yummie bowl of uni pasta, which was the highlight of our meal there!
ซูชิมื้อเย็นที่ร้าน Soto on South Lamar ถือเป็นโอกาสพิเศษเพื่อฉลองครบรอบแต่งงานสำหรับทริปนี้ อาหารสดอร่อยใช้ได้ แต่เราติว่าแพงไปนิด ถ้าได้กลับไปอีกคราวหน้าคงจะสั่งแค่จานสุดท้ายในรูปคือ พาสต้าหอยเม่น รสชาติหอมอร่อยกลมกล่อมกำลังดี 😋
Last but not least, we got to witness what they said would be millions of bats emerging from under the Congress Avenue Bridge on our second night there. OK, what we actually saw was numbered at more like in the hundreds 🤣, but still, it was pretty awesome! We didn’t have high hopes, as research told us that they likely wouldn’t come out if it’s raining, and we were going to be surrounded by rain. But we decided to give it a try anyway since it was not actively raining at the time, and it paid off – we almost gave up but in the end they actually did deliver as promised! I did attempt to shoot a few photos of the swarm of bats when they came out, but unfortunately all of them turned out to be just blurry shadows! 😆
The quaint, quirky and artsy little town called Wimberley served as our home base for the next day. This place is located somewhat in the middle between Fredericksburg and Austin. We picked it specifically because of its perfect locale for our next main point of attraction, Hamilton Pool Preserve.
เราเดินทางต่อไปยัง Wimberley ซึ่งเป็นเมืองเล็กๆที่ตั้งอยู่เกือบจะตรงกลางระหว่างเมือง Fredericksburg กับ Austin พอดี ที่ตั้งใจมาพักกันที่นี่ก็เพราะว่าสะดวกต่อการไปชมจุดหมายหลักของทริปนี้ นั่นก็คือ Hamilton Pool Preserve
I remember the first time I saw the picture of Hamilton Pool popping up on my Pinterest feed. It looked almost otherworldly – this emerald green pool partially hiding under a half domed cave, with a waterfall on one side falling freely into the pool. When we first talked about going to Texas, this was the first thing I looked up, to see if we could possibly fit it in to our itinerary. And voilà, here we really are, finally! 🥰 One more item crossed off my travel wish list! 😉
ตั้งแต่ครั้งแรกที่เห็นรูป Hamilton Pool ใน Pinterest เราก็ตั้งใจว่าวันนึงจะต้องไปเห็นของจริงให้ได้ สระน้ำในรูปเป็นสีเขียวมรกต ครึ่งนึงซ่อนอยู่ในถ้ำที่มีเพดานโค้งเว้าเปิดให้เห็นท้องฟ้าด้านบน ด้านข้างมีน้ำตกเล็กๆไหลลงมาจากเทือกเขา ดูราวกับภาพวาดในจินตนาการ พอตั้งใจกันว่าจะไปเท็กซัส เราก็เช็คตำแหน่งที่ตั้งของสระนี้ก่อนเลย ดูซิว่าจะไปแวะเที่ยวได้มั้ย เพราะรู้แต่ว่าอยู่รัฐเท็กซัส แต่ไม่รู้ว่าอยู่ตรงไหนแน่ ดูแล้วปรากฎว่าทำเลพอเหมาะพอดีกับทริปนี้ และแล้วในที่สุดก็ได้มาเห็นจนได้ 🥰
In order to get to the pool, at least during the summer, you need to make a reservation for a specific time slot on a specific day. We made ours months in advance to guarantee our spots. Unfortunately, they made an announcement that morning that the level of bacteria in the pool exceeded the federal standard, so no swimming was allowed for the day. It actually was better for my photographic purposes, so I have absolutely no complaint whatsoever! 😆
After Hamilton Pool, we drove back down south and stopped by Texas Hill Country Olive Company in Dripping Springs to check out their olive oil and vinegar products. Honestly, we didn’t have very high expectations going in, but were pleasantly surprised with the samplings laid out for us to taste. These were some of the best olive oils and balsamic vinegars we ever tasted. Unfortunately, due to luggage space limit, we only had room for one bottle of each to bring home with us. 😣
เสร็จจากสระ Hamilton เราขับรถกลับเข้าตัวเมือง Dripping Springs ไปแวะที่ Texas Hill Country Olive Company ที่นี่เค้าปลูกต้นมะกอกและสกัดน้ำมันมะกอกขาย ได้ยินมาว่าสินค้าของเค้าคุณภาพชั้นนำก็เลยมาลองดู ชิมแล้วน้ำมันมะกอกของเค้าหอมอร่อยดีสมคำร่ำลือจริงๆ นอกจากนี้ยังมีน้ำส้มสายชูหลายรสให้เลือก เสียดายไม่มีที่ในกระเป๋าเลยซื้อกลับบ้านได้แค่อย่างละขวดเล็กๆเท่านั้น 😣
On the way to lunch we spotted some Texas Longhorn cattle in their native habitat! 😆
Lunch was Texas style barbecue at the famous Salt Lick, also in Dripping Springs. This was high on Joel’s to-do list for Texas ever since he saw it on a food show on TV, so we made sure to make this happen. The place was huge. They even had their own winery next door! But honestly, it felt a little gimmicky to me. The food was good, but nothing that blew my mind away. The funny thing is, when we talked to people about our trip afterwards, everybody that was from Texas or has lived in Texas all shook their heads and proceeded to tell us there were other BBQ places in Texas much better than this! 😂
We never knew there was more than one natural pool in this area until we started looking into it after we booked our spot at Hamilton. Jacob’s Well was another famous spot, located just outside of Wimberley. This artesian spring is one of the most popular swimming holes for the locals here. According to Wikipedia, the well reaches the depth of about 120 feet, and is considered the largest continually flowing karstic spring (a spring that is a part of an underground drainage system) in the Texas Hill Country. Likely because of the forecast anticipated for rain, we had the entire place almost all to ourselves!
ก่อนไปไม่เคยรู้ว่าแถบนี้มีสระน้ำธรรมชาติที่คนแถวนี้นิยมไปว่ายน้ำเล่นคลายร้อนกันหลายแห่ง มาศึกษาดูถึงจะรู้ว่านอกจากที่ Hamilton แล้ว บ่อน้ำ Jacob ก็เป็นอีกที่ที่ขึ้นชื่อ แถมอยู่ใกล้ๆ ถัดจากเมือง Wimberley ที่เราอยู่กันไปนิดเดียว Wikipedia บอกว่าบ่อน้ำบาดาลแห่งนี้ลึกถึงเกือบ 120 ฟุต และเป็นระบบระบายน้ำใต้ดินต่อเนื่องที่ใหญ่ที่สุดในบริเวณนี้ ไปถึงแทบจะไม่มีคนซักคน ต้องขอบคุณฟ้าฝนที่อึมครึมทำให้เราถ่ายรูปเล่นกันได้โดยไม่มีใครมากวนใจ 😆
The last swimming spot in the area that we checked out before heading back into town was Blue Hole. This was, in my opinion, the most picturesque one of them all. It was surrounded by lush green giant cypress trees. There were platforms with rope swings, as well as steps built into leaning tree trunks to accommodate pool jumping activities. Unfortunately, because of the unsafe level of bacteria, Blue Hole wasn’t opened for swimming that day either! 😔
Blue Hole เป็นอีกที่ที่เราไปแวะชมกันก่อนกลับ และเป็นที่ที่เราว่าสวยงามน่าประทับใจที่สุดในจำนวนสระทั้งหมดที่เห็นมา ตัวสระที่นี่เป็นสีเขียวมรกต ล้อบรอบไปด้วยต้นไม้ใหญ่เขียวขจีสองข้างที่ให้ความร่มรื่นตลอดทาง นอกจากชานไม้กว้างๆที่ยื่นลงไปเป็นท่าน้ำแล้ว ตามลำต้นไม้ที่ยื่นลงไปในน้ำเค้ายังมีขั้นกระไดและเชือกไว้สำหรับให้คนกระโดดน้ำเล่นกันตามอัธยาศัย เสียดายที่วันนั้นเค้าไม่อนุญาติให้ลงเล่นน้ำเพราะระดับแบคทีเรียสูงเกินมาตรฐานอีกเช่นกัน 😔
We spent the rest of the day in downtown Wimberley strolling along the streets lined with quaint little shops. I love that there are artsy vibes everywhere you go. It was Monday and most of the restaurants were closed, perhaps that’s why there weren’t that many people around.
In 2014, the city of Wimberley has commissioned local businesses and artists to paint and install colorful boots around town. There are 50 of them in total. Each boot has a different theme, related to its location and its sponsor. Here are a few examples. The ‘Veggin’ Out’ boot, sponsored by the HEB supermarket, features paintings of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. The ‘High Adventures’ boot, sponsored by Wimberley Zipline Adventures, has painting of a girl in red ziplining through blue skies over a cactus bush. The ‘Booster’s Pizza’ boot, sponsored by Brewster’s Pizza, is full of tiny little pizza slices and a pint of beer! 😆 It was fun walking around town looking for these boots. We didn’t find all 50 but we were pretty close!
We finally went back hiking again yesterday after a long hiatus due to the scorching weather. This time, it’s back to the Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake. We joined fellow hikers from the Get Hiking Triangle MeetUp group at our starting point, Hickory Hill Boat Ramps in Durham. It was perfect hiking weather in the low 70s when we started off around 9 am.
The trail started from the huge parking lot at the boat ramps and went into the woods. We passed the Lake Ridge Aero Park where we saw a row of biplanes parked in the field before going under I-85 Interstate and ended up at Redwood Road. There, we did an about face and turned back the same way we came.
เส้นทางเดินป่าสายนี้เริ่มต้นที่ลานจอดรถของท่าเรือ Hickory Hill ตรงเข้าป่า ตัดผ่านลานบิน Lake Ridge Aero Park แล้วลอดใต้สะพานไปสุดที่ถนน Redwood จากที่นั่นเราหันหลังเดินกลับทางเดิมที่มา
Surprisingly, wildflowers were abundant along the entire trail, possibly because of the recent series of rain we had in the area.
The entire hike was about 4.5 miles, taking us an hour an a half from start to finish. It was an easy, pleasant hike with mostly flat terrain. It was awesome to be back outdoors again and we look forward to starting our Fall Hiking series in the weeks to come!
