[Swobee]

I have a conference to attend Feb. 21-24 in Raleigh, NC. My wife gets to go along, but she won't be in my 'boring' meetings. The conference is at the Hilton. What I'm after is suggestions on sight-seeing, things to do, where to avoid, etc. for us during the evenings and for Sandy to consider doing during the daytime. We'll have Sunday 2-20 and some of the 25th to ourselves. Thanks!

 

[drobbins]

I'm in Raleigh
Which Hilton? Wake Forest Road?
if so it's kindof a suburban wasteland
There's interesting things to do but not really nearby
What kind of stuff do you like?
Downtown is the State Capitol with lots of museums and stuff
excellent art museum out by the fairgrounds
big flea market out there too
give me an idea what interests you

Dave

 

[Swobee]

The one on Wake Forest Rd. is our location. When looking at the hotel's website, it seemed many things we may like to do was "3.5 miles away". Sandy is a die hard shopper, but we both like museums, some other attractions, flea market is right up her alley. We're not night clubbers, but will sip a little something once in a while and love to eat. Is there a unique food fare to Raleigh? Hard to pin down really what we like to do - maybe a list like this- antiques, nature, haunted houses (her thing, not mine), local history, general sight-seeing, flea markets, etc. In a city wev'e never been to, we don't want to miss the 'don't miss this...' sort of things. The hotel has a courtesy van and we can get a taxi to go to the interesting sights as needed.

The last conference for this group we went to was in New Orleans. I can tell you the swamp tour was the biggest hit with us both. Touring the damage from Katrina was interesting. And it happened to be just before Mardi Gras, so we did hit the night life some. I'm sure Raleigh is nothing like N.O. and that's a good thing.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[drobbins]

I'll give it a whirl

antiques,
flea market at the state fairgrounds is pretty good, I haven't been in a while but it always was good so I assume it still is. numerous antique vendors out there. they have more than people selling old junk, they have stores out there

shopping,
I wouldn't do that to you buddy, tell her those backwards folks in North Carolina don't have malls ( it's ok, a local told you so) if she insists ask about Crabtree or Triangle Town Center

nature,
the state zoo is excellent but you'd need a car, it's about a hour away
not much else going on in February, I don't think you want to spend much time outside

haunted houses (her thing, not mine),
only on halloween

local history, general sight-seeing,
it's the state capitol so there's lot's of stuff downtown. the natural history museum is excellent, the history museum is good, they're a block from each other and a block from the capitol building

the area around the fairgrounds has lots of stuff going on, the flea market is every weekend. ask the hotel staff about other things, it varies by weekend, they know how to find out. car shows out there sometimes, sometime craft show of various types, it changes. the state art museum is nearby, it's good if you're into that kind of thing. if you want to go out on the town ask the hotel folks about Glennwood South. it's the old district downtown that been totally rehabbed and turned into trendy restaurants and bars

Dave

[edit]here's the schedule at the fleamarket/fairgrounds

http://www.ncstatefair.org/events/2-10.htm

looks like ya got a horse show, boat show, cat show or the roller derby

this is good

http://naturalsciences.org/

a block over

http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/

might want to look here

http://www.visitraleigh.com/

might want to hit the museums Sunday then take a cab 10 blocks to Glennwood South to find something to eat
keep your fingers crossed and maybe you'll get descent weather, that's still pretty early in the year
I'm guessing the hotel van will take you to/from downtown, only a few miles


Dave