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Overthinking Food & Drink Since 2006

Sarah P. Duke Gardens and Downtown Raleigh

  • 2009-05-08
  • downtown-raleigh
  • durham-gardens
  • knights-of-the-black-flag
  • lilacs
  • nc-museum-of-history
  • rebecca-mann
  • sarah-duke-gardens
  • walking-raleighdurham
  • travel-guides
  • Sarah P. Duke Gardens and Downtown Raleigh

I've had a couple of visitors in the past month, the first being my good friend, Jessen.  She came down from Boston to spend a couple of low-key days with me on her spring break.  We tried out Mez, named tunes at West 94th Street Pub, and did a couple daytime exploration trips.

The first of those was taking in the mid-spring blooms at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.  As always, the terrace of lilacs was gorgeous, though we were scared away by a school field trip.

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The tulips were also lovely and I swear, I took nearly the same picture two years ago, when I went with my sister.

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We spent the next day exploring a few blocks of downtown Raleigh, with the help of Walking Raleigh/Durham by Rebecca Mann, a guidebook I picked up when we first moved to the area.  We mainly checked out the statuary on the capitol lawn and I really must take a tour inside the building sometime.

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We also explored out the Knights of the Black Flag exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of History.  I can never say no to pirates.  The exhibit was well put together and I was most intrigued by this reproduction of a navigation system used in the 1600s.

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I'm determined to work something like that into a fantasy story.  Doesn't it just look fascinating?  Also interesting was the display on how x-ray is used to identify the artifacts found in what is believed to be the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's last ship.  The curators also did a great job of linking pirates from their earliest history to today's profiteers in Somalia and Indonesia.  Definitely check out the exhibit if you have a love for pirate lore.  It will be in town through the end of the year.

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