Thursday, May 14th Charlotte, NC

We had an awesome breakfast at the mansion, one of the best breakfasts I've had in a long time.  The tea was "the other brew" from Asheville.

We drove to Uptown Charlotte, there is no Downtown Charlotte.  Charlotte is on a slight hill so town is not down, hence Uptown is "downtown".  I know this because we took a golf cart tour of Uptown Charlotte.  It sounds like something old people would do...  We wanted a walking tour but settled on the golf cart instead of the Segway tour, 1/2 the price and I'm not sure I trust Tom on a Segway.

From our tour we learn lots.  Charlotte is sometime referred to as the Queen City.  That's because in 1750 or so the colonist of Carolina asked Queen Charlotte (of England) for money to help them build a courthouse and she gave it to them.  So they honored her and named the city after her.  There's a statue of Queen Charlotte, she was 4'11" and loved children, she had 15.  So a crown is a symbol of the city.

Another symbol of the city is a hornet's nest.  That comes an American Revolution battle when Cornwallis' men got stung by some bees and called Charlotte a hornet's nest.  I can't find a reference to this online but that's what the tour guide told us. 

Charlotte is home to lots of banks; Bank of American, Truist, and others I can't remember.  BoA has lots of building in the skyline, one is blue and another has a stylized crown on top.  The low glass building is the Nascar Museum.

Charlotte has lots of American Revolutionary history within it.  A big one which I  don't remember learning about is the Mecklenburg Resolves which denied the authority of British Parliament in May 1775.  You would recognize some of the wording from the Declaration of Independence.  Why don't I remember learning about this in school but I know all the words to Hotel California...

We past several art museums and outside is the Firebird which is made up of 7,000 pieces of mirror.  The locals call it the disco chicken.  There are several pieces of art we past.

We past the stadium where both football team play, Panthers, which were indigenous to the area, and the FC, The Crown.  We also past the stadium where the Knights (protector of the queen) play which is the Chicago White Sox farm team.

The big church is a Presbyterian church.  I think this covers all the pictures.  Let me know if I missed something or you have questions.

After our tour we had a +3 1/2 hour drive to Wilmington.  Good thing we're listening to a good book, The Project Hail Mary.

We had dinner with my college friend Val & her husband Steve.  We have met up with Val & Steve when they lived in MI and when they were visiting their daughter & family in Portland and now we've followed them to Wilmington.  They were great hosts and we had a lovely evening.  

Let me know (email or comments) if you have questions on any pictures.

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