Freshly inspired by our recent successful wildflower hike at Eno River, I realized that now would be the perfect time to pay a visit to the beautiful JC Raulston Arboretum. And that was exactly what we did the very next day! 😊
What originally started off as a small research farm by its namesake at the Horticulture Department at North Carolina State University almost 50 years ago, has grown into a beautiful 10-acre botanical garden showcasing plant species from different parts of the world. The arboretum is located not far away from the main campus, on Beryl Road. It is open daily to public and charges absolutely no admission fee.
สวนแห่งนี้เริ่มต้นจากการเป็นแปลงเกษตรกรรมทดลองขนาดเล็กของศูนย์วิจัยพืชสวนที่มหาวิทยาลัย North Carolina State University เมื่อเกือบ 50 ปีก่อน จากนั้นได้พัฒนาจนกลายมาเป็นสวนรุกขชาติขนาด 10 เอเคอร์ที่ดาษดาไปด้วยพืชพันธุ์หลากหลายชนิดจากทั่วทุกมุมโลกที่เห็นกันอยู่ทุกวันนี้ สวนนี้ตั้งอยู่บนถนน Beryl ไม่ไกลจากตัวมหาลัย และเปิดให้ประชาชนทั่วไปมาเยี่ยมชมโดยไม่คิดค่าเข้าชมแต่อย่างใด
There was quite a crowd when we got there late on a Sunday afternoon. And for good reason! Colorful blooms scattered the garden in every which direction. It was like the scene from a fairytale. 😍
Even non-flowers were beautiful, each in their own way.
นอกจากดอกไม้แล้วยังมีต้นไม้แปลกๆให้ดูอีกหลายชนิด
Giant asparagus! 😳
หน่อไม้ฝรั่งยักษ์ เกิดมาเพิ่งเคยเห็น 😳
We spent an hour there total, and loved every minute of it. We plan to come back and check this place out in a few months, to see what new offerings they might have in store come summer. And perhaps Fall, and maybe Winter too… 😊
North Carolina State Fair is back in full force this year after getting canceled last year due to COVID. 2020 was the first time in decades that the fair was canceled, ever since World War II. We went on a Monday evening after work. If you look closely, you could see signs that times were largely still quite abnormal… They had a clear bag policy, where you could either carry see-through bags of any size, or regular bags up to a certain size. Some people still had their masks on. But for the most part, it felt almost like lives were finally back to the good old days.
As usual, we came prepared with a list of fair foods we wanted to try readily marked on the map. Starting off with a lobster pop from Oak City Fish and Chips. It didn’t look like much… The lobster tail was tiny… 😐 But one bite in and we totally understood what the fuss was all about. 😆 Not only was the lobster perfectly seasoned, it was also perfectly cooked. This was undeniably the best dish we had there that night. We would have gone back for another if it wasn’t $25 a pop! 😬
เราเตรียมตัวมาอย่างเพียบพร้อม มีแผนที่ติดมาด้วย พร้อมมาร์คตำแหน่งที่ตั้งของรายการอาหารที่อยากลองกันมาเสร็จสรรพ เริ่มกันด้วยล๊อบสเตอร์ทอดเสียบไม้จากร้าน Oak City Fish and Chips ตอนไปรับอาหารมาดูหน้าตาแล้วเซ็งมาก หางล๊อบสเตอร์อันนิดเดียวมาแบบโทนๆไม่มีอะไรให้แกล้มเลย 😐 กัดไปคำแรกถึงได้เข้าใจว่าทำไมคนเค้าถึงติดใจกันนักหนา 😆 ของเค้าปรุงรสไว้พอเหมาะพอดี แถมทอดได้สุกกำลังกิน กรอบนอกนุ่มใน ถ้าไม่ติดว่าเค้าขายไม้ละ 25 เหรียญละก้อ เราคงกลับไปซื้อเพิ่มอีกหลายไม้ 😬
The lobster roll from Lobster Dogs was, again, tiny for the $20 price tag. The only saving grace was that it was packed full of sweet lobster meat. It didn’t blow us away, but there wasn’t really much that could go wrong with buttered lobster in a bun! 🙄
Dusk was beginning to set by then, and the whole scene was so pretty in the early evening lights. We decided to head for the State Fair Flyer that took us all the way to the other side of the fair. It felt a lot higher up when you were actually sitting on the chair lift, but fortunately the 360 degree birds eye view from up there was enough to keep us occupied the entire way.
Beautiful flowers and creative arrangement displays of all kinds. I was particularly impressed with this giant Elephant Ear leaf that was about half my size; I had to get a picture with it! 😆
Time to fuel up, starting with a cup of Mexican street corn from Esquites, atomic tots from Chef’s D’Lites, and freshly fried pork rinds from Ragin’ Cajun.
They ended up riding Hydro Shock, Alien Abduction, Pirate Ship, Genesis, Mighty Mouse Coaster, and Mega Drop – needless to say that Joel got his money’s worth from the unlimited ride wristband purchase! 😆
สรุปว่าคืนนั้นลองไปหลายเจ้า ตั้งแต่ Hydro Shock, Alien Abduction, Pirate Ship, Genesis, Mighty Mouse Coaster และ Mega Drop เรียกว่าตั๋วแบบไม่จำกัดที่ซื้อมานั้นได้ใช้จนเกินคุ้มจริงๆ 😆
I got hungry and had to sneak in another Polish sausage hot dog! 😋
ดึกหน่อยแอบหิวอีกรอบ เลยฟาดฮอทดอกไปอีกอัน 😋
Last but not least, we rode the State Fair SkyGazer, a 155′ Ferris Wheel where you need a special ticket to ride. We barely made it there before they closed down. Good thing we had tickets ready when we got there because the ticket booth was already closed! 😅 It was the perfect ending to a beautiful night out in town. 😍
In true pandemic fashion, we celebrated this year’s long Labor Day weekend by staying at home. 😐 To make it a little more enjoyable, we decided to splurge on two special meals out at where we think are two of the very best restaurants in the area. 😊
Joel and I had a long discussion about the risk of indoor dining when concerns of the delta variant started to emerge in the news a few months ago. Initially, we went back to just getting takeouts again for a while (since outdoor dining wasn’t really an option amidst this intense NC summer heat 🥵). Lately, we have ventured back to eating out again since most sources seem to confirm that COVID risk for fully vaccinated people has proven to remain relatively low.
We started off the weekend with a nigiri omakase meal at M Sushi in downtown Durham. We have been big fans of Chef Michael Lee ever since he was still running the sushi line at Sono in downtown Raleigh. After our first visit there, shortly after we moved back to the area in 2013, Sono became the holy grail of the lackluster sushi scene here… Until Chef Mike Lee went and opened up M Sushi in Durham, that is! 😆 Since then, his restaurant empire has grown to include 3 more locations, one of which I’ll cover later in this post.
เราไปเริ่มตะลุยกินกันที่ร้าน M Sushi ที่ดาวน์ทาวน์เมือง Durham เป็นอันดับแรกเมื่อคืนวันศุกร์ เราสองคนเป็นแฟนพันธุ์แท้ของเชฟ Michael Lee มาตั้งแต่ตอนที่แกยังทำอยู่ที่ร้าน Sono ที่ดาวน์ทาวน์เมือง Raleigh หลังจากที่ไปลองกินซูชิที่นั่นกันเป็นครั้งแรกตอนที่ย้ายกลับมาที่นี่ใหม่ๆช่วงปลายปี 2013 นับแต่นั้นมาถ้าอยากกินซูชิก็จะต้องไปที่ Sono เพราะลองที่อื่นมาหมดแล้วไม่มีใครสู้ได้ซักเจ้า จนกระทั่งเชฟแกไปเปิดร้าน M Sushi นี่แหละ 😆 จากบัดนั้นมาจนบัดนี้มีร้านในเครือตระกูล M เพิ่มมาอีกถึงสามร้านด้วยกัน โพสต์นี้จะพาไปชิมอาหารญี่ปุ่นสองสไตล์ของเชฟเกาหลีท่านนี้กัน
Both of us had our very first nigiri omakase experience together at Sushi Zo in LA, almost 10 years ago. Since then, we have been forever spoiled and unable to go back to enjoying regular sushi rolls ever since. 😓 Things got hard when we first moved back here to NC. Fortunately, we found Sono! And later on, M Sushi has become our goto spot whenever we crave for sushi.
เราสองคนได้มีโอกาสลิ้มลองซูชิสไตล์โอมากาเสะกันเป็นครั้งแรกที่ร้าน Sushi Zoใน LA เมื่อเกือบสิบปีก่อน หลังจากนั้นก็ไม่สามารถกลับไปกินซูชิแบบโรลธรรมดาๆประสาชาวบ้านได้อีกเลย 😓 ตอนย้ายกลับมาอยู่ที่นี่ใหม่ๆประเด็นนี้เป็นปัญหาหนักมาก เพราะไม่สามารถไปกินซูชิที่ไหนได้ จนกระทั่งโชคดีมาเจอร้าน Sono นี่แหละ และหลังๆมามี M Sushi มาให้พึ่งพาได้อีกราย
As always, we both just went for the nigiri omakase meal, which includes 12-15 different pieces of nigiri sushi, served chef’s choice style. The idea is that the chef will decide what’s best to serve you, based on whatever freshest catches they have for the day. Typically, these include bluefin tuna, mackerel, sea trout, salmon, yellowtail, scallop or squid, and eel, just to name a few.
Each piece is served, one by one, as soon as the chef is finished making them, with the announcement of what they are when they arrive in front of you. The pickled ginger is there to ‘cleanse your palate’ in between each bite. Normally, everything has been seasoned perfectly the way the chef intends to serve it including a touch of soy sauce, so theoretically you would not need to add anything to it, but they do give you a side of wasabi, just in case you prefer more. 🙄
We ordered an extra bite of uni from Hokkaido, just because I had been craving it. 😋 And, as part of the omakase, they always serve a handroll, and piece of tamago at the very end. We left with a full and happy belly, as we always do! 😌
The following night, we drove back out to Durham again, to try another creative offering from Chef Mike Lee. M Tempura is based on the same omakase idea, but instead of nigiris, we have tempura served on the plate! 🤯
คืนต่อมาเราขับรถกลับไปที่ Durham กันอีกรอบ แต่คราวนี้มีจุดหมายอยู่ที่อีกร้านในเครือเดียวกันที่ M Tempura ซึ่งใช้คอนเซ็ปต์เดียวกันกับเมนูซูชิ แต่เปลี่ยนมาเสิร์ฟเทมปุระกันแทน 🤯
This was our very first time dining here. We had been wanting to come for a while now, but couldn’t resist just going to M Sushi every time we came to Durham. This time, we were determined to try it, so we made reservations back to back so we didn’t have any excuses. 😛 They have three different omakase options on the menu to pick from, as well as some a la carte dishes. We opted to go with the traditional style, because the other two sounded like they were going to be way too much food. 😓
Then, moving on to the main course, they brought us a tray that includes a bowl of white rice, a bowl of dipping sauce with a ball of grated daikon radish, sea salt, two different dishes of pickled vegetables, and an empty plate for the tempura, yet to come. I wasn’t sure what the silver fishy thing was at first, but upon closer inspection, I realized it was a very fancy lemon juicer with a lemon wedge in it! 😆
The tempura pieces then started to arrive, one or two at a time, over the course of the next half hour or so. Starting off with two different types of shrimp, followed by okra, shitake mushroom, maitake mushroom, seabass, salmon, eggplant, scallop, and summer squash. Everything was cooked to perfect doneness, but Joel though it was still a little oily, compared to the tempura we had in Japan. 🙄
Then, we moved on to the end of the meal, which included a choice of either udon or soba noodle soup, followed by ginger ice cream. Joel opted for the soba while I went with the udon, so we got to try both. We each maintained our choice was superior, so we just tried one bite of the other’s then went back to finish our own. 😆 It did not look like a lot of food, but we were completely stuffed by the time the dessert came. 🥴
The ginger ice cream, however, turned out to the quite the star of the entire meal! 😍 It was so perfectly scrumptious Joel couldn’t resist asking if they would sell that to us separately. Turned out we weren’t the only one asking! 😆 Our awesome waitress, Claire, made sure to include a little togo side of the ginger sugar sprinkle, so we could recreate the perfect serving at home when we got back! 🥰
On a cloudy weekend in June, we headed over to Wendell, a small outskirt triangle town that is about a 30 minute drive east of where we live. We started off with a quick hike at Turnipseed Nature Preserve. The forecast originally said rain, but then it changed to no rain… 🤔 By the time we left, it really looked like the sky was getting ready to dump down on us. We proceeded anyway with our fingers crossed, but brought along our rain jackets, just in case! 🙄
The parking lot was empty when we got there. There was one other guy that was leaving right when we pulled in. He kindly reminded us to apply our bug spray before heading off! 😬 The kiosk at the trailhead was fully stocked with different brochures as well as maps for the park, which was very handy since we didn’t have time to do any research before arrival. 😝
This was by far one of the best well-maintained parks we have ever seen! The sandy gravel trails were nice and wide. The park consists of a few very short trails interconnecting with each other. We started off with the Lupine Loop Trail since it was closest to the parking lot.
Then, we took Boulder Trail to Gin Branch Creek Trail, before going on over to Meadow Loop Trail and then back to the parking lot via Gin Branch Creek Trail again. There were clear signs indicating the turnoff for each separate trail. The entire hike was just such a breath of fresh air, very straightforward from start to finish. There was no need for trail markers of any sort, since it was just one very distinct path the whole way. There were multiple signs you can scan along the way to get information about specific species of trees you spot on the route.
หลังจากเดินครบรอบ เราเลี้ยวไปที่เส้น Gin Branch Creek จากนั้นจึงต่อไปที่เส้น Meadow Loop เดินวนจนสุดวงแหวนแล้วจึงวกกลับตามเส้น Gin Branch Creek กลับมาที่รถ ป้ายบอกทางของเค้าปักไว้ชัดเจนทุกแยก มาเดินที่นี่ได้บรรยากาศที่แตกต่างจากที่ไปเดินป่ากันตามปรกติ เหมือนมาเดินเล่นสูดอากาศบริสุทธิ์ซะมากกว่า ค่อยๆเดินไปไม่ต้องกลัวหลง แถมยังมีป้ายตามทางที่สามารถสแกนเพื่อเรียนรู้รายละเอียดเกี่ยวกับต้นไม้นานาพันธุ์ที่ขึ้นอยู่ในบริเวณนี้อีกด้วย
Wildlife spotting! 😆
เจอสัตว์ป่ากลางทาง 😆
We clocked in at 2.12 miles which took us less than 45 minutes. Overall, a perfectly easy and pleasant hike that felt more like a stroll in the park! 😆 Best of all, it never actually rained on us!
On the way out, we stopped by for a photo op at Kioti Tractor. I had spotted this cool transformer-like sculpture on the way to the beach during one of our trips and always wanted to come check it out. It was a lot cooler up close! 😍 The entire thing was made from tractor parts, and sits right out in front of their main building.
We took a detour to the little town with a big name – Lizard Lick. 😅 At a Cashpoint ATM machine right outside of Lizard Lick Swift Mart, the town namesake sits atop its roof to greet visitors with a hanging tongue! 🤣
Then over to Bearded Bee Brewing Company where we enjoyed some freshly brewed alcoholic beverages in a very trendy establishment. Their outdoor seating section offers a view of the Wendell Bee Mural. And a very cool vintage car!
ตบท้ายด้วยเบียร์เย็นๆจาก Bearded Bee Brewing Company ตึกเค้าดีไซน์ไว้ซะเก๋ไก๋ทั้งด้านในและด้านนอก ที่นั่งจิบเบียร์ด้านนอกของเค้ามีวิวสวยๆให้ชมเป็นภาพเพ้นท์ลายธรรมชาติ แถมนั่งๆอยู่ยังมีรถยนต์รุ่นคุณปู่ขับมาจอดไว้ให้ชมกันถึงตรงหน้าอีกด้วย
For lunch, we grabbed a few tasty offerings from the Barone Meatball Company food truck, which was parked right outside.
ส่วนมื้อกลางวันเราได้ชิมเมนูอร่อยๆจากร้านอาหารเคลื่อนที่ Barone Meatball Company ซึ่งมาเปิดให้บริการอยู่ที่ลานจอดรถหน้าร้านพอดี
We had such a great time in Wendell that day and hope to come back and visit again soon! 😍
We spent one cold dreary Saturday back in February visiting nearby Pittsboro and surrounding towns. This small but charming area has a few spots that are quite near and dear to our hearts. Besides being the place where Miss Mia, our second fur baby was adopted from, it was also where Joel and I officially met for the first time, ages ago! 😊
We started the trip down memory lane with the place where we first met as bridesmaid and groomsman at our good friends’ wedding back in 2008. Fearrington Village is a popular wedding venue in the area. Not only do they have pretty cows and goats grazing in an idyllic pasture out front, but you can also find boutique shops, an inn, a spa, and a couple of places to grab a bite while you are there. There is even a few of the infamous Vollis Simpson‘s whirligigs out on display too!
Next stop was Clyde Jones’ Critter Crossing, a quirky collection of wooden carved ‘critters’ and whimsical paintings which can be found decorating the artist’s home and front yard. This former mill worker had no formal arts training, but loved to create beautiful pieces of arts, which he then gave away to people. His lovely designs can be found all over town in neighbors and friends’ yards in Bynum, NC.
From there, we headed over for a short hike at Lower Haw River Trail. Before the hike, we parked by Bynum Bridge, a pedestrian bridge crossing Haw River that features very cool graffiti art all over it.
ตามธีมศิลปะมากันที่สะพานข้ามแม่น้ำ Haw River ซึ่งอยู่ถัดไปไม่ไกล ที่นี่ศิลปินสมัครเล่นนับไม่ถ้วนแห่กันมาใช้พื้นสะพานคนข้ามแห่งนี้เป็นผืนผ้าสเปรย์ลวดลายสร้างสรรค์กันตามใจอยาก
A short walk led us over to the parking lot at the trailhead. There was more street art for us to see along the way.
จากสะพานเดินมาไม่ไกลเป็นที่จอดรถของเส้นทางเดินป่า Lower Haw River Trail ซึ่งเราตั้งใจมาเดินกัน ระหว่างทางมีผลงานศิลปะสวยๆไว้ให้ชมกันอีกไม่ขาดสาย
