Our England/Ireland trip was the big event of our summer, but we also got a chance to visit one of our other dream destinations: Greensboro, North Carolina.
Okay, if I’m being completely honest, we were really in Greensboro because our 16 year old, Milo, attended music camp at UNC-Greensboro. It’s about five hours from home, so it made more sense for us to take the trailer and camp for the week than to make the round trip twice and probably need to stay in a hotel for a night or two. Greensboro is a perfectly likable little city, and we found some really fun things to do there, but were it not for music camp we probably would have preferred a long weekend there over a full week AND we would have preferred spring or fall over a very hot July.
Music camp!
We stayed at Hagan-Stone Park Campground. We stayed there for just one night a few years ago when we were passing through, and you can read that review here. One thing I remembered from that experience was that the spaces there are very tight, so we spent some time on google maps satellite view picking our spot this time. We picked out a corner spot that looked easy to back into (it was) and that had a little more space next to it than most.
But take a look at the spot next to ours; we weren’t sure how anyone could back a trailer into that corner spot. Or the one next to it. That’s TWO sites there. And notice our van isn’t even there (it’s parked across the road in the grass, because these sites are tight!):
It didn’t really matter, because the campground was virtually empty for most of the week, though. I think it’s largely locals who come here for weekends and take advantage of the nice pool/waterpark set up the park has. At any rate, my assessment from last time stands: it’s a bargain of a campground in a convenient location, and the park has nice amenities, but the sites are too close together and the bathhouses could use some updating. Also, Fergus the Scottie very nearly stepped on what I’m 99% sure was a copperhead right next to one of the trails, so be careful!
Had we been here in cooler weather, we would have done more hiking-type stuff, but with temps in the 90s every day, we stuck with either inside or inside/outside stuff for our daytime outings. After I talk about what we did, I’ll mention some of the outside things and a few other places we didn’t make it to. Winston-Salem is about half an hour from Greensboro, and expanding our search for things to do that way gave us a good bit more to choose from. (And looking over my stuff we didn’t get to list makes me want to go back to Greensboro…will there every be ANYWHERE I don’t say that about?! The world is awfully full of stuff to do and see).
Greensboro Science Center
Most of the time when we go somewhere we’re left wishing we’d had more time, feeling like we missed some things. So it was nice to have a trip that unrolled at a pretty relaxing pace for a change. We enjoyed the Greensboro Science Center so much, for example, that we went back for a second day and managed to see pretty much everything they have there.
There are three distinct areas to the science center: the science museum part, the aquarium, and the small zoo. We got in for free with our ASTC membership; admission prices are $14.50 for adults, and $13.50 for kids through 13 and seniors.
We started at the aquarium, arriving just in time for the penguin feeding:
The aquarium is small but nicely done, with some neat stuff we hadn’t seen anywhere else, like the “fishing cat.” I didn’t get a picture of the fishing cat, apparently, but it was very exciting to watch the cat think about trying to catch a fish.
Then there were more typical offerings, like the stingray touch tank:
…jellyfish:
….and, you know, lots of fish and stuff:
Then we checked out the more traditional science museum part, with exhibits on prehistoric animals:
…reptiles:
temporary exhibits like this color maze:
…and a really lovely area for smaller kids:
The zoo is outside, so it was very hot. We didn’t make it to much of it on our first day, but we tried to get there early the other day we went so we could see some animals before it got too ridiculously steamy. I always appreciate zoos that have peacocks wandering around:
There’s a petting zoo area with goats and adorable theming:
And some of the other small zoo standards like red pandas and meerkats.
This outside area is also where you can find the Skywild ropes course, which looked really fun (separate fee).
Back inside, we also saw all the shows that were happening. We caught a planetarium show and watched the two sort of movie/live action hybrid shows. In both, there’s a movie playing on a screen but also a live performer interacting with the movie and the audience. There’s an Indiana Jones parody:
and a musical featuring singing meerkats:
Both shows are super campy and fun. My kids are still singing the songs from the meerkat musical months later (except poor Milo, who was at music camp and missed it. We’ve searched youtube for it in vain).
Greensboro Grasshoppers
Both Greensboro and Winston-Salem have minor league baseball teams. We’ve done minor league games in a couple of different places now, and it’s always a fun, inexpensive night out. We went on a Saturday night, which meant a post-game fireworks show. And the Grasshoppers won! The stadium is right downtown; there are pay lots very close to the stadium, but we were able to find on street parking (metered, but no charge after…6? I think) a couple of blocks away no problem.
Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
If there’s an National Parks Service site anywhere in the vicinity, we are, of course, going to stop by. Honestly, Guilford Courthouse is a lot like most battlefields we’ve visited: museum, movie, monuments…and some trails. But I liked that this one is a Revolutionary War battlefield instead of Civil War (somewhat harder to come by in the south, whereas I feel like you can’t walk a mile without tripping over a Civil War site of some sort). And we always like a chance to pick up another Junior Ranger badge.
The movie and museum were nicely done; there was a fun exhibit on music in the museum and an “ordinary people going to war” focus in the film, which is my favorite approach when I have to try to follow people talking about battles and strategy and all that.
We walked the trails a little, but…so hot! We did want to see the big Nathanael Greene monument, since he’s the guy Greensboro is named after and he’s mentioned in Hamilton, so we feel like we know him.
You can also drive or bike to see more of the battlefield. This was probably a 2 hour or so stop for us, but it’s certainly possible to spend longer here if you want to see everything.
Old Salem Museums & Gardens
Old Salem was the surprise highlight of our trip. We almost didn’t go at all, because it’s fairly pricey and I had a hard time figuring out from the website what exactly there was to do there. It looks like the website has been redone somewhat since then, so it’s a little more informative…but it still doesn’t make it entirely clear that it’s a living history site with numerous historic buildings to go into and interpreters, exhibits, demonstrations, and activities in every public building (there are also private homes in the district). Now that Abe’s past toddler age, we always find these kinds of living history sites, with lots of hands-on activities, perfect for all our kids’ ages (and grown-ups). There’s also a really well done scavenger hunt activity for Abe’s age (and probably up to middle school), where he had to figure out a clue and get a stamp in each building and then return it at the end for a small prize. On the website it says this is offered on Saturdays and Sundays, but we did it on a weekday.
Old Salem is a historic district in Winston-Salem, the site of the original city of Salem, settled in 1753 by the Moravian community. Moravians are a protestant denomination that originated in what is now the Czech Republic. We knew nothing about 18th century Moravians (or any other century Moravians, for that matter); it turns out they’re fairly run of the mill Protestants in most respects, with some quirks thrown in like how their cemeteries are segregated by age and sex. Admission is $27 for adults and $13 for students (which includes all kids 4 and up) and is good for two consecutive days. We didn’t plan on it, but we ended up spending pretty much two full days here, so that we could see EVERYTHING.
I won’t go through every single building (even though we saw them all!), but here are a few highlights:
St. Phillips told the story of the African American population of Old Salem (there’s a chalkboard sign like this outside of every building that’s open to the public, letting you know what you’ll find inside). After the heritage center, a guide can take you over for a tour of the African Moravian Brick Church:
At the Single Brothers’ House, they had this
And a lot of other fun things to check out, including dress up clothes:
We spent a long time in the Boys’ School:
This thing appears to magically roll uphill, but really it’s all science:
Curiosities!
It said to write your name, so I did! Get it?! I am so funny:
The doctor’s house had some interesting information about herbs, a scale to use, and a pretty old kitchen with nice light to take a picture of, which is my favorite thing:
The Joinery was Dave’s very favorite stop, because he got to spend a long time learning about old woodworking tools and trying them out.
And I liked how the Potter’s Workshop was so heavy on adorable things:
The cemetery was really interesting to see, particularly due to the aforementioned segregation by age and sex. Also, they only use identical, flat gravestones:
We met a friendly cat:
A ticket also includes admission to the two art museums (I believe one features regional folk art and the other Moravian art):
We always take pictures of Ari with lions, and this one was especially charming:
Old Salem is right on a multi-use path that runs through Winston-Salem, and, on our first day there we walked down it to the Willows Bistro (recommended by the person who sold us our tickets at Old Salem). It was surprisingly crowded, and we had to wait a bit for a table, but we all enjoyed it.
The other day we were there, we ate at the Tavern in Old Salem itself, where the wait was even longer (also surprising, because the town itself was not especially crowded), but which we also very much enjoyed.
Greensboro Restaurants
Speaking of places to eat, a couple of others that we tried and enjoyed were a pizza place called Sticks and Stones (where we met up with some friends, so had great company in addition to great food) and Natty Greene’s Brewpub (where we also ate last time we were in town).
Stuff we didn’t get to
International Civil Rights Center and Museum : this museum, commemorating the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins, sounded great….but from what I understand you can only see the museum on a guided tour, and that wasn’t likely to work well with Abe.
Bog Garden and Arboretum: a couple of the outside things we might have done had the weather been a bit more reasonable.
Kaleideum: Winston-Salem and Greensboro both have children’s museums, and, in fact, Winston-Salem has two–the downtown one and a second location that’s more of a science museum. Children’s museums tend not to offer a lot to my older kids, which means Abe doesn’t get to go to them as much as he would otherwise. But had we not spent a second day at Old Salem, our plan was to check out one or both of the Winston-Salem museums.
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