Greensboro, NC - Old Salem, NC - Winston-Salem, NC
This trip started out as a journey to experience the fast, the new, the twisty and the wet wonderland that is the Wet 'n Wild waterpark in Greensboro, NC. But what I didn't know is how we'd stumble across intrigues from the past and end up spending a day surrounded by ladies wearing cambric caps and talking with low, genteel drawls and men wearing wigs and spectacles and high-waisted pants.
Sure, the allure of a waterpark on a hot, humid, molasses-air kind of North Carolina summer day is an obvious one. Who doesn't want to escape the stifling, heavy heat by wearing as few coverings as publically allowed and spending hours jumping from water attraction to water attraction? Pour into all of that the fact that my daughter has never been to a waterpark in her life and you can see why our car headed west on US-70 and then I-40 and closer to Greensboro's Wet 'n Wild. For almost the entire drive, my daughter's excited fidgeting and twisting and jumping looked like she was already navigating the waterslides from her car seat.
Walking in, we could hear the refreshment in each wave as it crashed in the wave pool. My daughter's disdain of having to don a life-jacket due to swimming abilities being judged by a ruler instead of ability (she's a great swimmer) quickly faded as she saw that cresting wave heading toward her.
My personal most vivid memory of a wave pool? It's where, as a young child, I had a loose tooth finished off by a whitecap that slapped my mouth. My next memory was trying to find a white tooth on the white bottom of an enormous pool. The tooth fairy found a note that night under my pillow that explained to her what happened. So what are the odds my daughter would also have a very loose tooth on this day? Pretty good, apparently.
But she didn't leave a tooth on the pool's bottom - instead, she left laughter in the air and breaks in the waves as she pounced on top of each one... over and over and over again.
She greeted the slides with the same laughter and exuberance but heaped on top squeals to go faster and faster. She still wants to be five going on 15 and expressed disappointment and not being able to tackle all the waterslides due to being a few inches short of regulation. But that only brought promises of a return when she grows a bit. And me, I will return for this delightful pineapple concoction that is extremely reminiscent of the truly addictive Dole Whips you can find at Walt Disney World!
Day two of our exploration of the area took us for a ride we didn't see coming - we obviously didn't do our research well. At some point, we unknowingly stepped into a time machine and wound up in 1772. There is a smell of ginger spice Moravian cookies drifting on the breeze; the joyful sound of a pipe organ bounces out of a nearby building; stones dug from the earth more than 200 years prior line the outside of a home; a farmer's market bustles with shoppers searching out the freshest local vegetables. We have arrived in Old Salem.
Since we had a 5-year-old in tow, with the attention span of a cricket, we opted not to buy the all-day ticket for $23/$11. Instead, we figured the cricket would be up to touring two historic sites, so we went with the two-stop ticket for $15/$7 (even though she was free being 6 or under). And it was the right choice. Two historic tours maxed out her patience for history.
But during our Old Salem history lesson, we learned people used to sleep on uncomfortable straw beds, that George Washington stopped in this town and stayed the night, that you really needed to have a cellar back in those days, and that a lot of beer was enjoyed (not so different from today, eh?).
Afterwards we stopped at Winkler Bakery, where you don't need a ticket, just a sweet tooth.
Pick up some Moravian cookies, it's a must, and try something called Moravian Sugar Cake, you'll thank me later as you lick the buttery, sugary goodness from your fingertips. But make sure you eat it all that day, it's just not the same a day later. Here, I'll point you in the right direction... it looks like this.
And speaking of sweetness, did you know Krispy Kreme, that palace of "hot now" goodness, first opened up shop right here in Old Salem?
So with our brains full of a pleasant history lesson, we made a few more stops on our weekend trip. If a town has a children's museum, we'll usually find ourselves there at some point. We've seen good and we've seen bad... but no doubt the Children Museum of Winston-Salem is one we'll return to next time we're in town.
I love to witness the ingenuity of children's museum - the magic within them and the everyday items they twist into creations that spark a young imagination. Connect some tubes, add some twists and turns and make them suck up and blow out rainbow-hued pieces of cloth... my daughter could have stayed there all day, laughing and twirling to catch the falling rainbows. Or how about a little great outdoors in the indoors?
And they even pay homage to the sweet giant that started in this town...
Just a hop, skip and a slowly-savored beer away from the children's museum (yeah, those two just don't go together, I know) is Foothills Brewing. It was lunch time, and since my husband just endured three hours in a children's museum, I figured I could "endure" a craft beer for him to go with my lunch. ;)
I must say, the atmosphere and the lunch were delightful. A low-key, relaxing place to sip on a tasty brew while munching on food that is better than your average brew pub. Certainly a step above a bunch of greasy burgers and fries. Even the appetizer was simple but delish!
Bellies filled to the brim, it was time to turn our car towards home. Heading back eastwards on I-40 gave us time to reflect on our trip, the fun we found along with some surprises. I'm sure we will find ourselves heading back to the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area for more exploring in the near future.
Sure, the allure of a waterpark on a hot, humid, molasses-air kind of North Carolina summer day is an obvious one. Who doesn't want to escape the stifling, heavy heat by wearing as few coverings as publically allowed and spending hours jumping from water attraction to water attraction? Pour into all of that the fact that my daughter has never been to a waterpark in her life and you can see why our car headed west on US-70 and then I-40 and closer to Greensboro's Wet 'n Wild. For almost the entire drive, my daughter's excited fidgeting and twisting and jumping looked like she was already navigating the waterslides from her car seat.
Walking in, we could hear the refreshment in each wave as it crashed in the wave pool. My daughter's disdain of having to don a life-jacket due to swimming abilities being judged by a ruler instead of ability (she's a great swimmer) quickly faded as she saw that cresting wave heading toward her.
My personal most vivid memory of a wave pool? It's where, as a young child, I had a loose tooth finished off by a whitecap that slapped my mouth. My next memory was trying to find a white tooth on the white bottom of an enormous pool. The tooth fairy found a note that night under my pillow that explained to her what happened. So what are the odds my daughter would also have a very loose tooth on this day? Pretty good, apparently.
But she didn't leave a tooth on the pool's bottom - instead, she left laughter in the air and breaks in the waves as she pounced on top of each one... over and over and over again.
She greeted the slides with the same laughter and exuberance but heaped on top squeals to go faster and faster. She still wants to be five going on 15 and expressed disappointment and not being able to tackle all the waterslides due to being a few inches short of regulation. But that only brought promises of a return when she grows a bit. And me, I will return for this delightful pineapple concoction that is extremely reminiscent of the truly addictive Dole Whips you can find at Walt Disney World!
Day two of our exploration of the area took us for a ride we didn't see coming - we obviously didn't do our research well. At some point, we unknowingly stepped into a time machine and wound up in 1772. There is a smell of ginger spice Moravian cookies drifting on the breeze; the joyful sound of a pipe organ bounces out of a nearby building; stones dug from the earth more than 200 years prior line the outside of a home; a farmer's market bustles with shoppers searching out the freshest local vegetables. We have arrived in Old Salem.
Since we had a 5-year-old in tow, with the attention span of a cricket, we opted not to buy the all-day ticket for $23/$11. Instead, we figured the cricket would be up to touring two historic sites, so we went with the two-stop ticket for $15/$7 (even though she was free being 6 or under). And it was the right choice. Two historic tours maxed out her patience for history.
But during our Old Salem history lesson, we learned people used to sleep on uncomfortable straw beds, that George Washington stopped in this town and stayed the night, that you really needed to have a cellar back in those days, and that a lot of beer was enjoyed (not so different from today, eh?).
Afterwards we stopped at Winkler Bakery, where you don't need a ticket, just a sweet tooth.
Pick up some Moravian cookies, it's a must, and try something called Moravian Sugar Cake, you'll thank me later as you lick the buttery, sugary goodness from your fingertips. But make sure you eat it all that day, it's just not the same a day later. Here, I'll point you in the right direction... it looks like this.
And speaking of sweetness, did you know Krispy Kreme, that palace of "hot now" goodness, first opened up shop right here in Old Salem?
So with our brains full of a pleasant history lesson, we made a few more stops on our weekend trip. If a town has a children's museum, we'll usually find ourselves there at some point. We've seen good and we've seen bad... but no doubt the Children Museum of Winston-Salem is one we'll return to next time we're in town.
I love to witness the ingenuity of children's museum - the magic within them and the everyday items they twist into creations that spark a young imagination. Connect some tubes, add some twists and turns and make them suck up and blow out rainbow-hued pieces of cloth... my daughter could have stayed there all day, laughing and twirling to catch the falling rainbows. Or how about a little great outdoors in the indoors?
And they even pay homage to the sweet giant that started in this town...
Just a hop, skip and a slowly-savored beer away from the children's museum (yeah, those two just don't go together, I know) is Foothills Brewing. It was lunch time, and since my husband just endured three hours in a children's museum, I figured I could "endure" a craft beer for him to go with my lunch. ;)
I must say, the atmosphere and the lunch were delightful. A low-key, relaxing place to sip on a tasty brew while munching on food that is better than your average brew pub. Certainly a step above a bunch of greasy burgers and fries. Even the appetizer was simple but delish!
Bellies filled to the brim, it was time to turn our car towards home. Heading back eastwards on I-40 gave us time to reflect on our trip, the fun we found along with some surprises. I'm sure we will find ourselves heading back to the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area for more exploring in the near future.
