Old Salem Museums & Gardens - A Very Special Interview

Dad: Good morning Alex, how are you doing today?
Alex: I'm doing fine.

Dad: I hear you had a fun adventure this week in North Carolina.
Alex: Yes, I did. I went to Old Salem on a field trip with my class.

Dad: How cool! What exactly is Old Salem?
Alex: It's a place first discoverered by Germans. They eventually started building small houses and shops. They started to build in the 1700's.

Dad: Where is Old Salem?
Alex: It is located in North Carolina about 100 miles or 2 hours away from our house. It is near Winston-Salem, NC.

Dad: What was the best part about visiting Old Salem?
Alex: Umm...the best part was when you got to pump water. In the middle of Old Salem in a grass field is a huge pump that pumps fresh water. I got to drink from it.

Dad: What else did you like about Old Salem?
Alex: There was a tiny gift shop which had dolls inside and they looked like the people that were dressed up at Old Salem. I realized that one of the dolls had a blue bow which means that she was married. At Old Salem, the color of bows indicated how old a female was (red, dark red, pink, light blue and white).

Dad: Would you recommend Old Salem as a tourist site for one of our family members?
Alex: Umm...yes, because it is really interesting and if people want to learn about the old times they can look and walk around and feel like they are back in that time.

Dad: Thank you, Alex, for taking a moment out of your busy play day today to interview with the Benson Family Reunion blog.
Alex: It is a pleasure to do it any time. I had lots of fun.

Editor's Notes: Old Salem Museums & Gardens is a unique community of original museum buildings, authentic craftsmen practicing their trade, fascinating collections of rare antiques, and one-of-a-kind retail shopping opportunities. Visit www.oldsalem.org for more information.

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

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/.

What's Near Charlotte?

Interested in spending time exploring the environs outside of Charlotte before and/or after the 2007 Benson Family Reunion? Some things to consider:

• A two-hour drive west takes you to the Blue Ridge Mountains. (Uncle Gerald & Aunt Julie live in the beautiful community of Kenmure www.kenmure.com near Flat Rock, NC).


• A three-and-a-half-hour drive east takes you to the Atlantic Ocean. (Charleston, SC www.charlestoncvb.com is like no other city in the USA. From beautiful plantations to sandy beaches to a bustling & historic downtown district, this city offers memories to last).


• An hour's drive east takes you to some of the world's finest golf courses. (Does Pinehurst www.pinehurst.com sound familiar?).