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About 4 months ago my family and I relocated from Australia to the triangle for work. My parents (from Australia) are visiting here in a weeks time so I would appreciate any suggestions on 'things to do and see' while they are here. We are still getting used to the area so any suggestions would be a great help.
Wow, I'm sure it will be hard to beat Australia! But you could try hiking some hiking trails in Umstead or the Eno River. They're pretty scenic and peaceful.
My sister has Aussie friends who come to NC to visit ever so often, and this last trip, she made a point to take the family to the restaurant, The Outback. The Aussies never laughed so hard, and had great fun telling the staff everything they were 'doing wrong.' Your parents might get a kick out of it, too.
SunnyCoast, if you can afford the time, a trip to Washington, DC, would be worth the effort. You could all take Amtrak to one of the outlying areas (my husband and I really like Alexandria, VA), and then take the METRO into DC each day. Most hotels will drive you to the METRO, and the METRO goes anywhere in DC you'd care to see. It'd make for a lovely long weekend, but I'd only pick one or two things to see each day -- you'll see more of it, and won't wear yourselves out trying to see everything.
The first trip I ever made to DC, I took one of the tour buses around the city, just to get a feel for the place, and to make a list of places I wanted to go back and see. A night cruise on the Potomac is also very lovely.
Most foreigners who come to visit seem to enjoy seeing our nation's Capitol.
The mountains or the coast, we have it all here. The Azalea Festival in Wilmington is coming up soon, the azaleas are usually spectacular this time of the year. Check out the website, Welcome to the North Carolina Azalea Festival Official Website. Have fun!
Big Ed's for breakfast. Its located off of Moore Square so you can hit the downtown museums afterward. Make sure they try the grits with red-eye gravy.
The Raleigh Trolley. This is free and it makes the rounds to all of the historic sites and museums in downtown Raleigh. Be sure to go to Mordecai. You can pick up the Trolley from Moore Square after you have breakfast at Big Ed's. :-)
Durham
Duke Homestead/Tobacco Musuem Home Page We've taken our families there and its very fascinating. Tobacco is such a huge part of NC's history and it was interesting to learn about it.
Stagville Plantation http://www.historicstagvillefoundation.org/
Pre-Civil War plantation and slave quarters. This was particularly interesting to me since my image of plantations was that they were all HUGE like we see in the movies (i.e., Gone With the Wind). NC was relatively poor compared to the other southern states so that wasn't the case here.
Duke Chapel and the surrounding campus. Beautiful Gothic architecture and you can see what all that tobacco money paid for. :-)
Sarah Duke Gardens. Located on campus--very beautiful.
Forgot something else--take them out to eat some Eastern Carolina style BBQ. Clyde Cooper's downtown is good or if you're in the Chapel Hill area you can try Allen & Sons.
I also really like to go to Big Ed's or The Farmer's Market Restaurant for lunch. Especially chicken & dumplings. Mmmm.
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