Exploring Charlotte

We have lived in Charlotte for 10 days now. The house is not anywhere near being unpacked completely, but it is liveable. We have the kitchen almost 100% unpacked, as are both bathrooms. The living room is finally set up, but as of yet, no cable.

The bedrooms all have mattresses on the floor, but that's due in part to getting rid of 2 horribly put together bed frames for the kids. I have 3 new beds I plan to buy at Ikea soon. In fact, our stimulus check should arrive today, which will cover the $300 needed for the kids beds.

To make the move as easy as possible, I drove our youngest child, Gillian, up to stay with her Grandma for a week. We did that on Wed night before we closed on the house, so it would have been June 18th. Raegan and Chris stayed with us, but on Saturday after the big move, Chris went home with my aunt, then spent time with my mom, and my dad & step-mom for the week.

Raegan went up to Mt. Pleasant on Monday to stay with a friend for the week, so we ended up kid free from Monday the 23rd to Friday the 27th. Chris was the first one to come home. I met my step-mom at noon half way between where we each live.

After picking him up, we drove and picked out a new bike for Chris, and when we got to the new house, we saw that there was something going on at the Courthouse downtown, with tables set up and vendors around, and police and fire trucks.

We unloaded the bike, got my bike out, and then we rode our bikes over to the courthouse. This courthouse was built in the late 1800's, but has not been used as a courthouse since the late 1970's. It was converted to a museum, which houses items from the area, along with a restored court room, a replicated doctor's office from the 1800's, a replicated 1930's school room, and more.

 Chris and I arrived, and the hoopla at the Courthouse was done, so we missed out on whatever it was, but we had a nice bike ride, and Chris wanted to go to the museum, so in we went. For the bargain price of $3, we spent an hour at the museum.

The main floor had many different artifact rooms- items from different time era's, items from the county, including old store front signs from the past, and more. There were 2 carriages from the late 1800's, and a sleigh. 1 room was dedicated to the area's past argriculture, including tools used in the late 1800's and early 1900's for farming, and hands on items. There was even a bike from the late 1800's, complete with wooden wheels. It was found in a closet in the basement of the courthouse, where it had sat for almost 80 years before it was discovered, still completely intact, hanging by the delicate wooden wheel.

Chris had a blast, and has been bothering me ever since then to go back. He really wants the girls to go, so I told him we could go this week on Wednseday, since that's the free day each week. Kids are free anyway, but I'm $3. Not that it's much, but free is still better.

After leaving the museum, we went to the local library, where both Chris and I got cards. The prior Monday, before Raegan went up north, I had stopped in and got one for her. Chris picked out a "Ripley's Believe it or Not" book, and took a moment to pose beside a realistic "life size" Dobey from the Harry Potter books/movies.



The older two kids and I have taken many bike rides, and with Gillian, many walks. We're only a few blocks away from a good sized park, and the library is a block over from the park. Then, there is a Dairy Queen down the road about 4 blocks, which we've gone to twice now. The kids elementry school is two blocks down the road.



There is a larger park about a mile away, as well, though we haven't explored that just yet. There is also a community swimming place with several indoor pools. It's kind of expensive, though, so we'll wait and see about that. Though, they do have a thing when school is back in where they'll bus kids over after school 1 day a week for $1, and bus them back to the school afterwards as well, so we may take advantage of that. We'll wait and see.

We also found the BEST pizza place -ever-. It's a local place, not a chain, and they have a lot of italian dishes, as well as a lot of subs. They deliver, carryout, and have a dining room as well. We've eaten in twice, and done delivery once, and carry out once already. They have the best lasagna I've ever had, and thier alfredo is excellent.

I can foresee that place becoming addicting! I should get a job there, then I won't have to worry about the cost of eating there every week. ;)