North Carolina!

.
The Tar Heel State, here we come! We’ll be taking a week-long family vacation on a visit to our 27th state, trying to get in as much of North Carolina as we can by going from the Mountains to the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain. Our mountain adventure we’ll begin in Asheville, the quirky “Portland of the East”. With both city and surrounding area offering plenty of attractions, we’ll be spending three days there. Given that it snowed just last week in the city, we’re really hoping for some pleasant weather, especially during a couple of our ventures into the higher elevations of the Blue Ridge. Saturday is going to be the first of several official stadium visits, as we’ll be at Historic McCormick Field for an evening Asheville tourists game. Midweek college baseball is a schedule planner’s savior and for this go around, we’ll be taking advantage of the Tar Heels having a home game (ironically, against UNC-Asheville). The afternoon will be spent in Chapel Hill before going to Boshamer Stadium. Piecing the next part of the trip took some thought, but a weekday late morning game in Kinston an hour away worked well with the schedule. That’s where we’ll see the Down East Wood Ducks at Grainger Stadium. Now unfortunately, I think you all know what a Wednesday 11:00 AM game means…School Day. Kids, screaming kids will be everywhere we turn and I’m hoping we’ll be able to find a corner of the stadium to keep my sanity that day. Right after the game, we’ll head south to the beach with a few days in the Wilmington – Carolina Beach area. The Seawolves (UNC-Wilmington) aren’t in town, so that will be a sports-less few days that I’m sure the wife and daughter will be happy about. Towards the end of the week, we’ll drive up to Bull City, where we’ll spend time in Durham. I was really hoping that USL’s, North Carolina FC would be playing in nearby Cary, but they are unfortunately on the road. I wouldn’t exactly call a visit to Durham Bulls Athletic Park as “settling”, because that should be an awesome stadium visit in and of itself. I’ll also be taking in a brief bonus game Saturday afternoon as North Carolina Central University plays at the original Durham Athletic Park (scene of Bull Durham). They have an afternoon doubleheader and though the stadium doesn’t meet capacity for The List, it is well worth checking out. The venture gets kicked off later in the week and let’s cross our fingers for no rainouts! I will try to give a daily update on the blog, depending how early I zonk out each night. Until then!
.