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I've learned so much from you all reading all the posts here in the past couple weeks! We will be visiting Raleigh to check out the area and real estate in a little over a week. While our visit is mostly for exploration purposes, we will be traveling with our two boys age 5 years and 20 months. We realize that we are going to have to mix the exploration part of our trip with some fun as well. Do you all have any suggestions for fun distractions for the kids while we are in Raleigh? My oldest has mentioned mini golf or a zoo. We are open to any suggestions that might be appealing to children! Swimming and water parks are about the only thing we have a hard time with (both boys have tubes in their ears and it's such a hassle keeping water out!). Thanks for any help!
I think that Marbles or Pullen Park provide the most fun for the two age groups.
Marbles was made from two different kids places - one for the younger and one for the slightly older. So there's something for a wide age range. Right now they have something going on that ties into the Olympics. My daughter (who is at camp there this week) told me it's a lot of fun. It's in downtown Raleigh at Moore Square. That's a nice place to walk around.
Pullen Park is lovely. There's no admission charge - you simply buy tickets for the rides you want, such as the train and the vintage carousel. There is a big playground and rolling hills, and a pond. It's a nice place for a picnic as well. And if you ever watched the Andy Griffith show, you will want to check out the bronze statue of Andy and Opie.
Pullen Park is off Western Blvd. When you leave there, if you head north towards Hillsborough Street, you can stop by Loco Pops. It's just past the junction with Oberlin Road, opposite the Bell Tower at NC State. They sell Mexican-style paletas, frozen popsicles in the most wonderful varieties. They're all $2.00 including tax (cash only).
I was going to suggest all of these places as well. The NC zoo is about an hour away from Raleigh, but the Durham science museum has a small "zoo" of a few select animals (lemurs, wolves, donkeys and they had a small brown bear for a while).
Shelley Lake has a wonderful shaded playground, air conditioned bathrooms (in sertoma arts center during business hours) and a great walk around the lake where you can feed the ducks.
Sertoma Arts Center
1400 W. Millbrook Road, Raleigh, NC 27612, Phone: 919-420-2329
Shelley Lake
1400 W. Millbrook Road, Raleigh, NC 27612, Phone: 919-420-2331
In which areas are you going to be looking for houses? We can probably name a few little places for breaks from house hunting. For instance if you are looking in Wake Forest off of 98 some nice little places to take a "intermission" from house hunting would be Blue Jay Point over on Six Forks or Holden Park. If you look in Heritage there is a playground at the sales center, a couple more playgrounds over at Heritage South. You can take walks on the greenway trails in Heritage or fish in the pond/ feed the turtles. Grab some lunch at one of the resteraunts in the neighborhood and have a picnic down at Smith Creek Park (between the Lake Pool/Sales Center and Heritage North) and then play on the playground or walk the trails.
If you are looking over at Rolesville there is a great park in the middle of downtown Rolesville.
All the little towns have farmers Markets so that's a nice break on a Saturday morning.
The places that I mentioned in my first post are more if you have a chunk of time to spend but if you are looking more for a fun place to take a break from house hunting it might help to have a better idea of areas that you want to check out then we can give some ideas around those areas for little breaks for the kids.
In which areas are you going to be looking for houses? We can probably name a few little places for breaks from house hunting. For instance if you are looking in Wake Forest off of 98 some nice little places to take a "intermission" from house hunting would be Blue Jay Point over on Six Forks or Holden Park. If you look in Heritage there is a playground at the sales center, a couple more playgrounds over at Heritage South. You can take walks on the greenway trails in Heritage or fish in the pond/ feed the turtles. Grab some lunch at one of the resteraunts in the neighborhood and have a picnic down at Smith Creek Park (between the Lake Pool/Sales Center and Heritage North) and then play on the playground or walk the trails.
If you are looking over at Rolesville there is a great park in the middle of downtown Rolesville.
All the little towns have farmers Markets so that's a nice break on a Saturday morning.
The places that I mentioned in my first post are more if you have a chunk of time to spend but if you are looking more for a fun place to take a break from house hunting it might help to have a better idea of areas that you want to check out then we can give some ideas around those areas for little breaks for the kids.
Some great ideas - thanks so much! I think we are going to focus on exoloring a couple of different areas while we are there. We're definitely interested in Wake Forest and I was just looking through the pics that were posted of Apex and checking out what kind of prices to expect on homes in that area as well. We are looking at the areas that have more of a small town feel rather than city-like. I've been talking with a realtor whm I met on here and she also suggested we might look at Holly Springs or Garner. Although we are looking more on the "outskirts" of Raleigh, we will be staying in Raleigh at an apartment community called Governor's Point (my husband's company owns this community and we are able to stay for free), so we might look for quick things to do in that area as well. My understanding is that there are walking trails around Lake Lynn right there, so that could be a good distraction for a bit in the evenings (provided it's a safe area - does anyone know anything about that area? It's near Ray Rd, Lynn Rd, Leesville Rd.) Also, any parks with a playground in that area?
I will definitely look into the places you suggested in Wake Forest as I know that is an area we will definitely be spending some time. Thanks again for all the great suggestions! Keep them coming!
If you coming to Wake Forest (especially Heritage area) check out the Factory too. They have a couple resteraunts there, 2 Ice rinks and they have the walkers for little kids, they have a pottery shop for kids to paint and do pottery, jumping beans (inflatable jumping playground), some little rides, batting cages, Go carts, skate park (too old for your kids though).
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