Guilford Courthouse National Military Park and Tanger Outlets

So, over the weekend, Hurricane Irene came to North Carolina and the east coast. There was a lot of damage to the Outer Banks and to some of the sound areas, but the Triangle was unscathed other than the ran. On Sunday, it was time to do something...anything. Obviously anything to the east was ruled out. It was almost noon already, so it had to be something quick, looked at the map for a while, a decided, hey, why don't we go towards Greensboro, and go explore the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.

Depending on how traffic is, Greensboro is about an hour west from the Raleigh area. Instead of taking the interstate, we took US70 most of the way there just for a different view, and likely added a few minutes to the drive time. Right before the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, is the Tannenbaum Historic Park. A sign on the visitor's center indicated it would be closed until Spring 2012, however, the bathrooms were still open.

 Tannenbaum Historic Park
Tannebaum Historic Park had several old buildings on a small lot. The early archeticture was interesting, but the buildings themselves were locked up. We took a few pictures here, and moved on.

Guilford Courthouse National Military Park

We arrived at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park around 3:00 PM. The park gates close at 5:00, even during the summer. There is a small museum in the visitor's center detailing the Revolutionary War battle that took place on this spot. In addition, there are a number of monuments on the grounds, and over 2 miles of walking trails that can take you to them all. There is also a 2.5 mile driving tour that circles the park. With Jennifer being 8 months pregnant, and the temperature in the mid 90's, we decided to just do the driving tour. The one way road for the driving tour is also very popular with walkers and cyclist, so be sure to pay attention. There are a number of places to stop and very short walks from the parking spaces to the monuments. In the time it took us to drive from one end to the other, we actually saw someone else walk it in the same amount of time. We'll have to do this again in the spring  when it isn't quite so warm, and Jenn isn't pregnant.







Tanger Outlets
On the way back to Raleigh, we stopped by Tanger Outlets in Mebane. We both had gift cards leftover from the Grand Opening nearly a year ago and decided we should use them up before they start incurring fees. We got some good deals on shoes, and I got a pretty sweet Columbia jacket for this fall that I'll use for cycling and hiking. Outlet centers are outlet centers, check the website to see if there is anything there that interest you.

Food:
On this trip, we actually ate lunch before we left the house, and we didn't have dinner until we got back to the Triangle. We did still have a really nice dinner at Rockfish Seafood Grill. Food was good, many entrees from $10-$15. We both had the crab stuffed flounder and really enjoyed it. I've eaten there before and knew it was a chain, but didn't realize how small of a chain it was untill I looked the the website, 13 locations in Texas, and just the one in North Carolina. 

Links:
Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
Guilford Battleground Company
Tanger Outlets - Mebane
Rockfish Seafood Grille

First Post

Over the weekend, it was suggested that I start writing up some of the day trips Jenn and I take. Most of the trips here will be day trips from the Triangle, but, most should be easily adaptable from your location.

You may notice that there are some posts that are "older" than this one. The magic there is predating articles. For trips that we've taken prior to now, I'm going back and adding them when they happened, so the dates aren't always right.