Tag: North Carolina

Carolina On My Mind

Posted in Free Kids Fun, Read Them All, United StatesTagged , , , , , , , 1 Comment

A few years ago my parents’ relocated to South Carolina between Greenville, South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina. Visiting them gives us the perfect excuse to explore the Upstate. There’s an affordable direct flight ($80 each) on Allegiant Air from BWI to AVL (Asheville) airport.

Greenville

Downtown Greenville is a must see! It has an incredible bridge and waterfall, a wonderful bookstore, an underground coffee shop and mice statues set-up as a scavenger hunt throughout town. The library is worth a visit too. During the holidays, one of the hotels nearby displays incredible gingerbread houses you can see for free.


Inman

A very small downtown, but there’s some great street art, a consignment store, a coffee shop, an escape room and a few other stores to pop in. Nearby Lake Bowen has a fully fenced in playground (Anchor Park) with bathrooms. And if you come during the holidays, don’t miss The Christmas House (a beautiful drive through with a recommended donation).


Landrum

The market is great here, especially when you can see and hold the baby goats. The town is really cute too with The Shops at Landrum Antique Mall with a variety of vendors, a great pub, and coffee shop.

Spartanburg

Downtown Spartanburg houses the Denny’s World Headquarters and a fully fenced in playground that’s accessible in the evenings and weekends. There’s a bookstore with a kitty, a toy store, multiple coffee shops, an ice cream shop and other places to pop in. There’s also a really nice Children’s Museum.

If you’re looking for more in the area, you can venture to:

About the Author

Lydia Garry and her family, TeamTravelsBaby, live in Silver Spring, Maryland, and are working to achieve “vagabond status”. Much of their affordable family travel experiences include U.S. travel, national parks and Europe. Adventure with them here, subscribe to their newsletter and follow along on Instagram!

Memorial Day Mountains (Great Smoky Mountains)

Posted in National Parks, Read Them AllTagged , , , , , 2 Comments

Great Smoky Mountains

The Smokies | TeamTravelsBaby

Thinking about the upcoming Memorial Day weekend during quarantine, I figured I would reminisce on our road trip from last year. We made our way through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the Asheville side (NC) by Cherokee to the Gatlinburg side (TN). It was a perfect long weekend getaway from the DC area. We were able to do some hiking, see some beautiful scenery and explore downtown Asheville.

Sunset in the Smokies | TeamTravelsBaby

Asheville, NC

Love seeing well done street art | TeamTravelsBaby

Asheville is known for being an artsy city. There’s a cute walkable downtown with the mountains in the background. If you’re looking for a unique coffee experience, I recommend checking out Double D’s Coffee & Desserts. It’s situated inside a double decker bus. There is also street art to walk around and find. From a previous trip, I can also recommend Tupelo Honey for breakfast or brunch – just be prepared to wait if you don’t get there early.

Exploring a city with street art is one of my favorite things to do | TeamTravelsBaby

Oconaluftee Visitor Center

This visitor center has a huge parking lot and a nice trail around a large field. We found tons of elk grazing in this area and turkies! There were quite a few onlookers who brought pop-up chairs and their long lenses to relax, enjoy the sunset and take pictures here. Plus, we had to get our national park passport stamp for Addy’s book!

Chimney Tops

Chimney Tops trail | TeamTravelsBaby

This was a fun and challenging trail in the Smokies. Distance wise it’s only about 2 miles, but there is quite a stair climb and general incline to the trail to make it to the overlook. Carrying Addy (our 7 month old), made it a bit more exhausting, especially with the warm and humid weather. The view from the overlook was beautiful and we saw many people eating their picnic lunch. On the way down, we were lucky someone pointed out the sleeping black bear to us! We didn’t get the best shot, but we could definitely see him as he tried to camouflage in.

Our “big” hike of the trip | TeamTravelsBaby

Mingo Falls

Mingo Falls | TeamTravelsBaby

We found a parking spot in the very small lot. We loaded up with sunscreen and started our walk up the stairs. This is a beautiful waterfall to hike to and we find it’s always most rewarding to hike to a point of interest.

Clingman’s Dome

Clingman’s Dome | TeamTravelsBaby

Clingman’s Dome was a nice paved path, albeit a little steep. We took in lovely rolling hills from the top and popped into the cute bookstore at the bottom.

The view from the top | TeamTravelsBaby

Newfound Gap Road

Great place for a quick pop out to get a picture with the state line sign! There are a lot of different areas in this park to explore! You could definitely return again and again for a good time here!

Sunset in the Great Smoky Mountains | TeamTravelsBaby
Until next time, night night | TeamTravelsBaby

While you’re here, feel free to check out some other recaps like AZ Much As We Could (Arizona National Parks) and Cascading through Washington National Parks.