Charlotte

I thought I'd open tonight's blog with this holdover photo from last night's family gathering. It's such a happy group! L to R back: Torri, Cooper, Bill, Keaton; middle: Colleen, Carol (Mom); front: Harold (Dad).

 The highlight of today's activity was a solo drive to Charlotte (2 1/2 hours each way). My friend, Patrick Hamrick, who was previously at Fountain Street Church, is now working in Charlotte. I missed the opportunity to see him last year when we were in the area, so it was worth it to me to drive over to Charlotte today.

I got an early start on my day, heading out for what I thought would be about a 6-mile bike ride. I took a wrong turn, though, ended up in Apex, and then had to ride back, so I didn't get back to the house until about 15 minutes before I had planned to leave, and I still had to eat and shower. It all worked out fine, though.

I arrived at Patrick's church, First United Methodist Church, about 11:40. He showed me the sanctuary and a little of the rest of the church on our way out to walk Tryon toward the center of town.

We went directly to an Irish pub (Ri Ra) for lunch -- excellent food and service -- and chatted for a while. Before returning to the church, Patrick showed me a little bit of the downtown area (photos below), introduced me to some of the church volunteers, and caught me up a bit on the logistics and demographics of the area. It seems like an area I wouldn't mind visiting again, but as far as cities/towns in this climate zone, I like Asheville better.

This plaque explains the statues at all four corners of this major intersection. I only got photos of two.

The Future.

A gorgeous negative ion park only a few blocks from the church. Patrick said he enjoys coming here, and I can see why. There are plaques with historical information, but I didn't read or photograph them this time around. Maybe next time I visit.

This plaque tells about the fresco pictured below, which was commissioned for this spot.

Very interesting painting.

Patrick is much better at selfies than I. am, so here are a few. The one that is obviously not a selfie was taken by his friend and volunteer, Jackie.

First United Methodist in the background.

The biggest skyscraper in downtown Charlotte and 30-somethingth in the world.

You can see more of the beautiful waterfall park in this one.

I had driven over to Charlotte by going up to Greensboro and then down to Charlotte on I-85, but there was a considerable amount of construction on 85, and I decided to take a different route back. The return trip was more 2-lane roads and also involved some construction, so I didn't save any time, but it was more interesting.

The weather was just a bit cooler after some rain today. On my way back to Cary, I saw a horizon rainbow -- don't know if you can really see it in the photo. I've never seen one before that wasn't raised up and curved. This was just stripes across the horizon.