Barnette Family Happenings: Raleigh

We took a family field trip to Raleigh today, where we spent some time visiting the state capitol building of North Carolina. Interesting stuff.

This monument (in both the above and below pictures) stands at the entrance to the capitol building, and is strikingly similar in both size and shape to the monument in Battle Park in Rocky Mount.

This monument is dedicated to Henry Lawson Wyatt, the first Confederate soldier who died in the Civil War.

This monument pays tribute to the North Carolina soldiers who fought in Vietnam. This was the one our family probably studied the most, because the detail on it was phenomenal: the tourniquet, weapons, shoe laces, etc. were all so realistic that it was amazing that this was just a sculpture.

And it struck a chord with Anna (below), who was concerned about "the man who got hurt."
She wanted to know if he was OK or if he died....

While we were in downtown Raleigh, we ate things like fried chicken, mac and cheese custard, biscuits, and creamed collard greens at Beasley's Chicken and Honey. This was a restaurant specially mentioned in the April 2012 issue of Southern Living magazine as one of the best places in Raleigh to eat, and in that edition SL named Raleigh one of the ten best food cities in the South.
I thought the food at Beasley's was outstanding.
Tim thinks it should be against the law to put honey on fried chicken.

As a point of interest, those who know me know that I am borderline obsessed with Southern Living magazine, and I was quite an oddity in Ohio to receive a subscription to it for several years. It is so exciting for me to now be able to try some of the restaurants they recommend! (The next restaurant I'm dragging Tim to is a little place in Durham that I read about in a recent issue of SL. But he doesn't know that yet. :D)

While in Raleigh, we spent some time at this really awesome state park, which has an interesting history for our family...

Kudos to the William B. Umstead folks for putting together a nice visitor's center with lots to see for the kids.

The exhibit inside the visitor's center told us about the rich milling history of the area, and outside they had actual millstones sitting around. What a great lesson for all of us, as we looked at and sat on those huge, weighty millstones, and remembered what Jesus said in Matthew 18:5-7... “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (NKJV) I had never seen a real millstone before, so I so much better understand that verse now.

Looking at this state park map, I asked the children to find Rocky Mount, but they weren't entirely sure where it was. Reminded me how still very new we are in the Tarheel state.

We walked the Sal's Branch Trail, which is a moderate 2.8 mile hike.
Just a nice stroll on a hot August afternoon.

We saw SO many critters today! The animal we saw the most were toads. Tim brought his handy-dandy Reptiles and Amphibians of North Carolina book that he received as a candidating gift along with us, and he and the boys had fun trying to identity the kinds they saw. Some were really large, such as the Fowler's Toad above, but others such as the one John is holding below, were just tiny babies. Those baby toads were EVERYWHERE near the lake. It was like they parted when we walked, and we had to be careful not to step on them. We joked that it was like the 2nd plague on Egypt!

This was an Eastern Fence Swift.

And then there was this guy.

Just watch the video...

Tim was bit by the snake 4 times, although not every bite broke the skin.
He laughed it off and cleaned-up his wound with some alcohol wipes.
Then he got out the Reptiles and Amphibians of North Carolina book
and showed the boys that it was a Black Racer Snake. Completely harmless.

One of the great things about Eastern North Carolina state parks like Umstead is the gorgeous quartz that is all over the ground. Tempted though I might have been to take some home as mementos,
I DID NOT. :)

So here's our family history about Umstead. Six years ago we were passing through Raleigh on our way from Cincinnati to the beach, and Tim decided to stop in Raleigh and take a walk through that state park because it had caught his eye. We fell in love with Umstead. We loved the smell of the pine trees (there aren't as many pines in Ohio), and the soft pine needles that lined the path and the winding paths that were easy to walk. I now remember talking about how amazing it would be to visit a park like Umstead anytime we wanted. Little did we know that Jesus led us to stop by Umstead six years ago to whet our appetite for the great plan He was working for our life! Thank you Jesus.

Tim and the boys at Umstead today...