Activity Idea # 8 - Historic Brattonsville

Located in the southern Charlotte metro area in South Carolina (close to Patti & Mark's home), Historic Brattonsville is a 775-acre historic site that includes a Revolutionary War battlefield. Each July a two-day event commemorating the Battle of Huck's Defeat (a revolutionary war skirmish) is recreated near its original battlefield site.

The working farm features more than 30 historic structures, which may be toured and are also used during living history programs where costumed-interpreters relive the past by demonstrating a variety of programs. Of interest to many visitors is Historic Brattonsville's role in the making of the Revolutionary War epic The Patriot. Several buildings on site were used in the production.

Visit www.chmuseums.org for more information.

Activity Idea #7 - Discovery Place Science Museum

Discovery Place is one of the nation's top science museums. Regarded as a premier Charlotte attraction, the wonderful hands-on Science Museum is a priority, but you should also allow at least two hours for the aquariums, the three-story rain forest, the Omnimax theater, and the Morphis MovieRide Theater, a motion simulator in a space-age capsule. A ham-radio room, a puppet theater, and a 10-foot model of an eyeball that you can walk through are other highlights.

For more information visit www.discoveryplace.org.

The Grand Strand: Myrtle Beach, SC

Interested in the Wisconsin Dells - East Coast style? See why 14 million visitors annually visit the Myrtle Beach area (less than a 1/2 day drive from Charlotte). With a beautiful 60-mile stretch of Atlantic Ocean beach and attractions for every taste, the Myrtle Beach area is full of fun. The Charlotte Observer www.charlotte.com published an article in the Sunday paper today with the following recommended activities:

Family Kingdom: Famous for the Swamp Fox roller coaster, this is the area's main seaside amusement park. www.family-kingdom.com

Myrtle Waves: The area's most prominent water park with tubes, rivers, pools & slides. www.myrtlewaves.com

Myrtle Beach Pelicans: Minor-league baseball at a charming park not far from downtown Myrtle Beach. www.myrtlebeachpelicans.com

Mini Golf: Visit a jungle, volcano or dinosaur with trying to notch a hold-in-one at one of more than 30 courses.

Ripley's Aquarium: Walk through a tunnel surrounded by sharks, touch stingrays & catch a new exhibit on the lives of pirates. www.ripleysaquarium.com

Children's Museum of SC: Playing doctor, digging for fossils & driving a car are among the interactive exhibits. www.cmsckids.org

Waccatee Zoo: Kangaroos, parrots, camels, zebras & more. www.waccateezoo.com

Alligator Adventure: Snakes, tigers, turtles, bears, alligators, crocodiles & live shows. www.alligatoradventure.com.

Huntington Beach State Park: Considered the area's best-preserved beach. Also has a freshwater lagoon & saltwater marsh with plenty of birds & alligators. www.southcarolinaparks.com.

Brookgreen Gardens: 9,200-acre nature preserve that includes one of the USA's largest collections of outdoor sculptures. www.brookgreen.org

Activity Idea #6 - Touring of NASCAR Race Team Garages

Mooresville, North Carolina - Race City USA.

Due to its proximity to auto racing speedways at Wilmington, Charlotte, and Darlington, S.C., and the tremendous popularity of NASCAR, the community now calls itself Race City USA. Mooresville (just north of Ann's home in Huntersville) is home to more than 60 race teams representing some of the sport's biggest names.

Between races, cars from NASCAR's Nextel Cup, Busch Series, the Craftsman Truck Series, and ARCA head back to Mooresville for maintenance, improvements, and testing. Visitors are welcome at most of the race shops, where you can view the cars as they are repaired and primed for action.

Most race shops provide a View Window into the garage area. In addition a few offer showrooms, gift shops, and museums. For more information visit Auto Racing in Race City USA at http://www.racecityusa.org/racing.html.

South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston

Charleston, SC is just a short 3.5 hour drive from Charlotte and is a favorite destination of Patti, Mark, Alex and Matthew who generally visit the city 3-4 times a year. While summer is a beautiful time to visit the sandy Atlantic Ocean beaches in Charleston, there is another worthy water option available - the relatively new South Carolina Aquarium!

Visitors can explore Southern aquatic life in an attraction filled with thousands of enchanting creatures and plants in amazing habitats, from five major regions of the Appalachian Watershed. Jutting into the Charleston Harbor for 2,000 feet, the focal point at this attraction, which opened in 2000, is a 93,000-square-foot aquarium featuring a two-story Great Ocean Tank Exhibition. Contained within are more than 800 animals, including deadly sharks but also sea turtles and stingrays. Every afternoon at 4pm the aquarium offers a dolphin program, where bottle-nosed dolphins can be viewed from an open-air terrace.

One of the most offbeat exhibits replicates a blackwater swamp, with atmospheric fog, a spongy floor, and twinkling lights. The newest attraction here is called Secrets of the Amazon, which features the diversity of this endangered region in sights, sounds, and adventure. You'll meet such creatures as a giant green anaconda, poison dart frogs, four-eyed fish, and flesh-devouring piranhas.

For more information, visit www.scaquarium.org.

Chimney Rock Park (Near Asheville, NC)

Chimney Rock Park boasts that it has the "best of the North Carolina mountains in one place." For the last 100 years, tourists have journeyed to see this 500-million-year-old towering monolith, and the park's "one-stop shopping" for what the mountains are loved for: dramatic scenery, exhilarating hiking trails, rare plants, native wildlife, and one of North Carolina's highest waterfalls at 404 feet (featured in the movie The Last of the Mohicans).

Chimney Rock Park is located 25 miles SE of Asheville and soars above Chimney Rock Village, a ½ mile town situated in a deep gorge lined with shops, craft galleries, ice cream parlors, restaurants and more. For more information visit http://www.chimneyrockpark.com/ and www.chimneyrockvillage.com.

Frommer's Top Must-See Travel Destinations of 2007: Asheville, NC

Frommer's Top Must-See Travel Destinations of 2007 includes Asheville, heralded for its thriving cultural and arts scenes and its scenic Blue Ridge Parkway drives. Asheville is one of just a dozen top travel destinations in the world.

Asheville has joined the likes of Tokyo and Zurich as a must-see destination for world travelers, according to Frommer's Top Travel Destinations of 2007. Asheville is the only destination in the Southeast on the list compiled by one of the most respected names in travel writing.
"This year, editors at Frommer's Travel Guides and www.Frommers.com scoured the globe and polled our stable of authors and experts to identify a mix of surprising, thriving, or emerging travel destinations," said Kelly Regan, editorial director of Frommer's.

In its praise of Asheville, the Frommer's list states:

"Located in the Smoky Mountains, Asheville is a small college town with a thriving arts & culture scene. It is home to the Biltmore Estate, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, and Carl Sandburg's birthplace in nearby Flat Rock. Recently, Asheville has been drawing literati and celebrities who had gravitated to New Orleans as a hub of culture. With the Blue Ridge Parkway nearby, the area is also great for driving tours and shopping trips to numerous crafts and pottery shops.

For more information on Asheville, visit http://www.exploreasheville.com/.

Activity Idea #5 - Lazy 5 Ranch

No matter how old you get, you never get too old to get a thrill out of having a HUGE buffalo stick its head in your car window and eat kibbles out of your hand. This family-fun can be experienced at Lazy 5 Ranch www.lazy5ranch.com, located just north of Ann's house.

You can drive through the 3.5-mile safari ride or take one of the horse-drawn wagon rides for an even closer encounter. The ranch is owned by Henry Hampton and his family. Hampton has spent more than 35 years handling exotic animals and is renowned for his work with these animals.

He started out by allowing school groups to come and visit the animals, but also started to notice people pulling in trying to get a glimpse of these magnificent creatures. He soon started to realize that this would be a wonderful opportunity to educate people about these animals. So, on May 22, 1993, he opened his ranch to the public. They started with five staff members and two horse-drawn carriages. Today, the ranch is home to over 750 animals from six continents. Henry and his staff have been instrumental in the recovery of several endangered species, including the Grevy Zebra, Scimitar Horned Oryx, and Ring-tailed Lemur.

Activity Idea #4 - Carolina Raptor Center

Come to Carolina Raptor Center www.carolinaraptorcenter.org to see one of this country's most extensive collections of birds of prey. Located just north of downtown Charlotte at Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, CRC is home to eagles, hawks, owls, vultures, and falcons--collectively known as raptors.

CRC is nestled on about 57 acres of pine-oak forest in the middle of Latta Plantation Nature Preserve. Your visit will begin in the Edna S. Moretti Education Center, where CRC has some educational displays and a fabulous gift shop. Leaving the education center, you will stroll along a trail through the woods where 23 species of raptors are on display (all of these birds have been injured in some way so that they cannot be released into the wild).

At each cage you will be able to read about the ecology, natural history, and conservation of the birds in front of you. Also along the trail are information kiosks with more information about birds of prey and the mission and operation of CRC. For many, the highlight of the trail is a chance to view Golden and Bald Eagles in CRC's enormous eagle aviary, the only one in the Carolinas. It's an adventure for the whole Benson family.

Coming By Mail...2007 Charlotte Visitor's Guide

Keep your eyes on your mail box! Mark has completed an online order form to request that a print copy of the 2007 Charlotte Visitor's Guide be mailed to each Benson family member. Your copy should arrive in 3 weeks. Click on www.visitcharlotte.com to download an electronic version of the guide and/or to learn more about the attractions in the greater Charlotte area.