Coming to Visit (Raleigh, Durham, Cary: to rent, chapel, houses)

[Birch]

Hello all,

My wife and I will be coming to the Raleigh area for a preliminary scouting visit in April and wanted to find out the things that we should definitely see while we're there. Yes, we're thinking very strongly about moving there, and we'll just be 2 more people on the roads, but we could be your neighbor and we're really good cooks.

Please let us know what we should see to make decisions about the area. We are considering Cary(of course), Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Knightdale currently.

Thanks!

[DanielChang]

Do you have any idea about what you're interested in seeing? Parks and Rec? Homes and neighborhoods/community amenities? Are you looking to rent or to purchase? Do you have kids? Are they school-age?

[weluvwakeforest]

Originally Posted by Birch

Hello all,

My wife and I will be coming to the Raleigh area for a preliminary scouting visit in April and wanted to find out the things that we should definitely see while we're there. Yes, we're thinking very strongly about moving there, and we'll just be 2 more people on the roads, but we could be your neighbor and we're really good cooks.

Please let us know what we should see to make decisions about the area. We are considering Cary(of course), Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Knightdale currently.

Thanks!

. Not knocking Cary, but why is it "Cary of course?"

[MrsSteel]

Originally Posted by jinxor

Do you have any idea about what you're interested in seeing? Parks and Rec? Homes and neighborhoods/community amenities? Are you looking to rent or to purchase? Do you have kids? Are they school-age?

Ditto what Jinxor said. How long will you be here and what specific things do you want to accomplish with this visit? Do you want to focus your time on house-hunting and getting a feel for neighborhoods, or do you want to explore the parks and museums of the area?

April is a really beautiful time to be here so if you have time I suggest you visit some of the gardens in the area.
Parents & kids really love Umstead State Park in Raleigh
Division of Parks and Recreation--William B. Umstead State Park, Things to do (http://ils.unc.edu/parkproject/visit/wium/do.html - broken link)
If you find yourself in the Chapel Hill area, you might like to check out the NC Botanical Garden
North Carolina Botanical Garden - A Conservation Garden
And then there's my personal favorite, Duke Gardens in Durham
The Sarah P. Duke Gardens

[Birch]

OK...so the "of course" was directed at the fact that it seems a large percentage of these posts from people are about relocating to Cary in particular. Therefore I was adding myself to that list. No offense intended to anyone who would not consider Cary.

I will give some background:
We are moving from Vegas, so we are already well aware that the Raleigh area has a little bit more "family-friendly" atmosphere. We want to drive around and see if there are are areas we could picture ourselves living in. We have 2 non-school age children, but are still a little confused about how schooling works in NC. It seems as though in Wake County it doesn't matter if you live next door to a school, your kids might not be going there.

I guess just looking for areas we should look at in particular. Places where houses are 150K-250K maybe. I know, that is a big range.

[beckycat]

Let me know where you move. You can come over and cook something for us.

[stephz1008]

By two non school age children do you mean too youg or too old for school? If they fall into the too young crowd, my kids (2 & 3 yr. old) absolutely LOVED Marbles Kids Museum