Over the Labor Day weekend Jackie and I, along with some of her girlfriends, went down to Charlotte, NC to visit one of her friends. I tagged along because her friend is also married to a pretty cool guy, and it would be a total dick move to leave him alone with a 1-year old and 5 ladies for a long weekend. The “bro” thing to do would be go down there and make the most of it, and to remind him of his epic faceplant, so that’s what I did.
All in all a pretty chill long weekend, taking a few days off work never hurts. Here’s the wrap-up:
The gals went to some wineries on Sunday, RJ and I pretty much just hung out, watched too much Anthony Bourdain, headed downtown with the kid in tow for some pizza & beers.
I discovered that Heaven Hill Bourbon is surprisingly decent considering it costs $14/half-gallon, you’d think it would taste like charcoal-filtered turpentine. I also sampled more than a few local beers.
Death by Hops was the runaway favorite. Red Oak Amber was very good, followed by Sweetwater IPA and Peak Organic IPA which were pretty good, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to mail-order for them.
We did a lot of dining out, yes I sampled the Bojangles and the Chick-Fil-A, we don’t have either of those anywhere near my house. The Beer Tower at Charlotte’s Philosopher’s Stone was a pretty good and cost-effective way to get beer for your table.
Sunday RJ and I headed out to the US National Whitewater Center for some kayaking. The USNWC also has a bunch of hiking trails, mountain biking, and rock climbing. I’ll definitely go back there next time we visit NC.
I have done a little bit of kayaking on fairly tame creeks in Michigan, but nothing serious. It was a pretty decent little introduction for about $50 they’ll teach you some basics and let you hit a few rapids; we did class I, II and and III. Interestingly enough, I ate it on the beginner stuff but made it through the gauntlet of class II and III at the end without capsizing.
Monday night I watched one of the better college football games that I’ve ever seen, as Boise State came from a late deficit to beat Va Tech on the back of a superb performance from their QB. They beat a good Va Tech team in what was basically home-field for Va Tech.
If it ever snows in Charlotte, that place would be absolutely ridiculous for urban shredding. There’s a wicked rail outside the Bojangles Coliseum. Actually, just about everywhere we drove there were good looking rails and such. Too bad it never snows, as evidenced by this Vimeo clip:
