I promised more details on our Segway Tour of Charlotte. It was really cool! I got the trips for us through Groupon. Groupon is a great site! It is free to sign up. They list great deals every day and they have to have enough people to sign up for it to be a "go". For instance, I paid $30 each for the segway tour and it would have been $50 if I'd gotten it on my own. If you are interested in signing up, click here -
http://www.groupon.com/r/uu4114616. (I get a $10 referral fee if you click it so thanks!)
I wasn't nervous about the segway bike until everyone kept asking me if I thought I could do it without falling off! It is a litte scary at first to balance on it. They give you a little 20 minute training and start out pretty slow. I never fell completely off the thing - only once did I just jump off but I was trying to turn and go up a little ramp all at the same time. We started right in the heart of uptown Charlotte at the corners of Church & MLK. From there we went through the Wells Fargo Cultural campus and down to the Square (the corner of Trade & Tryon.) We cruised around the Panther football stadium by the practice fields. We were supposed to go under some bridges but it had been raining and the water was too high. We drove through Frazier Park and the Irwin Creek Greenway, places I didn't even know existed downtown! Then we went through the Historic Fourth Ward district and looked at some of the historical homes there. We went through the oldest cemetary in Charlotte - Elmwood Cemetary. We had stopped to take a quick rest in the cemetary when Ashley spyed some graves of my ancestors! My maternal grandmother was a Kuester and there were a whole bunch of them there. I went over to take a closer look and took some pictures. It started raining on us about 30 minutes into the tour but we kept on going. At one point, the rain was coming down really heavy so we took refuge in a building downtown. But we were good sports and kept on going once the rain let up a little bit. I would really recommend this tour even if you have lived in Charlotte all your life!! Check in your city if you don't live here and see if there is a Segway Tour for you! It is really a lot of fun!!
This is the three of us in front of the Firebird statue at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.
Hard to see us, but .... this is at the Panther Stadium.
Me with the skyline in the background. This was in the Elmwood Cemetary - you can see Sonny & the guide way ahead of me!
After the tour, we met Margaret and Graham at Black Finn Restaurant downtown for lunch. If you have never eaten there, I would recommend it. They have great burgers and beer! After lunch, Sonny took them to the airport for their flight back to Dallas. Ashley & I had the rest of the day to explore Charlotte before the Paul McCartney concert that night. We walked all over Charlotte and I pointed out things I remembered from growing up here. We visited the Harvey B Gantt Museum for African Americans. I have been to other museums in Charlotte but this was one I had not visited. It is worth the visit if you enjoy art. Our best discovery of the afternoon was the Press Wine Restaurant/Tapas on Trade Street. The place is a little quirky with a great selection of wines and food. They also serve beer so Sonny should like it too. I can't wait for visitors to come see us so we can take them here!! I'll look forward to going there in cooler weather and sitting outside with my wine. Won't you come join me?
