city of oaks

a couple of weekends ago (yes i am slow...no, not slow just very busy) marvin and i went to raleigh, north carolina, for a quick overnight trip. i love exploring new cities and getting away for a bit, even if only 3 hours away.

marvin was less enthused than i was to walk all over the city and 'explore' as i said, but once we saw how great raleigh was he came around :) we really fell in love with this southern capital! here are some highlights of the trip:

tiny temple! we went to the raleigh temple and laughed a bit at the contrast with the DC temple (which is ginormous)

great architecture....i found tons of architectural gems and little details

north carolina state capitol...old, civil war era building = cool. built in 1840, the building was luckily untouched through the civil war and they keep it up well so history crazies like me can still enjoy it.

the coolest doors i've ever seen

another awesome door

yes that is the ceiling... i know, i couldn't stop staring at it too.

bbq....delicious carolina bbq. we waited 45 min to get a table...for lunch! but omg SO worth it. it was amazin.

SO GOOOOOOD

churches...there are a bazillion churches in raleigh. seriously there was one on every street surrounding the capitol. better than none right?

walking...downtown raleigh is super accessible and easy to walk around. smooth, wide sidewalks. cross walks. streets blocked off in between the museums. loved it.

spring! it was a gorgeous spring day with flowers blooming all over.

loved the colors here-- blue building?! blue railing?!

parks...downtown raleigh has great little parks with trees and benches that are kept up well. it ain't called the city of oaks for nothing. gorgeous large oak tress are everywhere.

yay for historic, friendly southern cities :)

don't mind the random people doing yoga on the lawn of the state capitol...wait what???

library inside the capitol building