Ginger Ale

I'm somewhat of a ginger fanatic. I love ginger candy, ginger ale, ginger beer, crystallized ginger, etc. This is partly because I'm allergic to most anti-nausea drugs and am prone to migraines, and ginger's anti-nausea properties are well documented. Anyway, although this is the North Carolina Bucket List Project, I'd like to make a little shout out to a South Carolina product that has my heart and soul.
Blenheim's Ginger Ale. http://www.blenheimgingerale.com/

Specifically, variety "Old #3- Hot."
This stuff is the greatest. It's easily the hottest ginger ale I've ever had and I've had a lot of ginger ale. When I get a stomachache, I reach for the Blenheim's every time. It's magic, I swear. The first time I had red cap Blenheim's, I couldn't finish a quarter of a bottle, it was so hot. Over the years, I've gained a tolerance and now can down bottles no problem (although I do have to keep chapstick handy for the lip burn.)
Anyway, I've found Blenheim's at A Southern Season and at Fresh Market, but not at Whole Foods. If you're ever in NC and have a craving for some ginger, you should definitely try it out.

List Plan for this Weekend

This weekend I am going to be tackling one of the largest (if not THE largest) items on my list, The Biltmore Estate. My friend Chris and I are leaving Friday for Asheville and will do the Biltmore (http://www.biltmore.com/) on Saturday and then Linville Caverns (http://www.linvillecaverns.com/) on Sunday. It should be quite a trip!

List Item #2: Celebrity Goat Dairy

List Item #1: Celebrity Dairy Open Barn (http://www.celebritydairy.com/)
Location: Siler City, NC
Date: 3/7/10
Cost: $12.50
Results: Adorable

This weekend my friends Grady, Kim and Xandi and I visited Celebrity Goat Dairy for their Open Barn. We met at Kim's house for lunch before heading out for Siler City, and headed out at about 1 pm. The drive was beautiful, we passed Jordan Lake and commented on the relative insanity of those boaters who were racing around the lake in 50 degree weather as if it were actually warm outside and not just "warm compared to last week."
The trip took about an hour since we left from Kim's house, and was a pretty straight shot. We pulled up to the Dairy at about 2 pm and it was PACKED. We parked on the long drive and walked up towards the barn. There was a large pen packed with chickens and some children were looking at them and throwing bread to them.




The barn was behind the main dairy house, which is also a bed and breakfast. We, of course, made a bee-line for the baby goats. There were some that were about two weeks old, according to the farm workers who were taking questions.



And then some TINY babies that were less than a week old. These guys had a heat lamp in their pen, but clearly preferred to take advantage of the sunny day.



Kim and I got to hold one of the babies, they called him "Teeny" and said he was born on March 1, making him 6 days old. He grunted and bleated a little when we held him.



Grady and Xandi were interested to see that the baby goats had been given a jungle gym to climb around.



Inside the B&B part of the Dairy, they were selling fresh eggs, chevre logs and some jam, I picked up some fig preserves and some peach jam.



There was a peacock on the farm.


We thought he was going to display his plumage.



But then he just lay down and lounged in the sun. Can't say I blame him.




Overall it was a lovely trip with some lovely friends. I wish that I had bought some eggs, but c'est la vie.

Plan for this weekend

This weekend, I have been invited to go to an Open Barn event at Celebrity Dairy (http://www.celebritydairy.com) with my friends Kim and Xandi. It should be really fun, there are baby goats at the Dairy and they will be selling some of their locally famous cheese. This place had not been on my Bucket List, but it is now!

In case you're wondering...

The following is a selection of the other things on the NCBL:
North Carolina Pickle Festival in Mt. Olive, NC
The Collard Shack in Ayden, NC (famous for its yellow collard greens, yum!)
NC Zoo and Jugtown Cafe in Asheboro, NC
Carowinds in Charlotte, NC
Korner's Folly in Kernersville, NC
and of course, many many BBQ restaurants!

List Item #1: Museum of Life and Science

List Item #1: Museum of Life and Science http://www.ncmls.org/
Location: Durham, NC
Date: 2/28/10
Cost: $15.44 (plus gas)
Results: Freaking awesome.

So it turned out that Steve has never been to the Museum of Life and Science. This had to be fixed. I spent many a frivolous teenage hour in that museum running around with my friends and really wanted to show Steve how awesome it was before we leave. Flush with dough from our tax return and needing a break from worrying about moving and law school applications, we decided that Sunday would be the perfect day to check it out.
The museum opens at noon on Sundays, which was just enough time to do some serious lounging and heavy breakfast eating before heading out. The drive wasn't too bad, we listened to music and obsessed about which law schools were likely to admit me. Steve was surprised when we arrived, he was expecting it to be a lot farther away.
We got to the Museum almost exactly at noon and were given some corporate passes by the people ahead of us in line! That saved us the $24 bucks that it would have cost us for admission, so we went into the Museum very pleased with ourselves.
The first part of the Museum that we attacked was the weather exhibit. Steve was enamored by the "tornado machine" and I still liked the "dune machine" that I had enjoyed years ago.


We explored the rest of the indoor portion of the Museum and then went outside, where we climbed all over the jungle gym like idiots. It was a blast, and no one looked at us funny, even though we were the only folks over three feet tall doing so.



After looking at the farm animals (and having a cow crush on Steven), we decided to take a break and get some lunch at the cafe. We were really pleasantly surprised by what they had, it was a little pricey, but the food was WAY better than any other zoo or museum food we'd ever tried. Steve had a BLT and I had an egg salad sandwich, which were both served on delicious ciabatta bread.
We noticed on our map that 2 pm was the time that the keepers released ladybugs in the Butterfly House, so we made our way down there after eating lunch. The Butterfly House is a beautiful place and we spent a long time looking around and enjoying it. The ladybug release was a little disappointing, but it was still quite fun.



After we left the Butterfly House, we took a walk around the grounds to see the bears, lemurs and wolves. The bear habitat is incredible and HUGE, the lemurs were asleep and the lone wolf was incredibly depressing. We also spent a good bit of time playing with the "wind toys."
All in all we had a good trip. The weather was lovely and the museum wasn't so crowded that we couldn't experience everything we wanted to experience. It makes me a little sad that we probably won't be back for a long while, but I'm glad we went.

The Basics

We're leaving in five months and there are lots of things we want to do/eat/see in North Carolina before we do. This blog will document our activities as we attempt to complete our North Carolina Bucket List. Enjoy!