Things to do in North Carolina
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Price's Chicken Coop
A Charlotte institution, scruffy Price's regularly makes 'Best Fried Chicken in America' lists. Line up to order your 'dark quarter' or 'white half' from the army of white-jacketed cooks, then take your bounty outside - there's no seating.
reviewed
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Mimosa Grill
What says 'New South' like filet mignon topped with pimento cheese? This stylish-yet-relaxed Downtown eatery is equally classy for impressing a date or making a business deal.
reviewed
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Biltmore Estate
With 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces and a private bowling alley, the Gilded Age Biltmore Estate, is a veritable American Versailles. The country's largest private home and Asheville's number-one tourist attraction, it was built in 1895 for shipping and railroad heir George Washington Vanderbilt II, who modeled it after the grand chateaux he'd seen on his various European jaunts. Viewing the estate and its 250 acres of gorgeously manicured grounds and gardens takes several hours. There are numerous cafés, a gift shop the size of a small supermarket, a hoity-toity hotel, and an award-winning winery offering free tastings.
reviewed
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Historic Site
The historic site is located among the same windswept Kitty Hawk dunes where self-taught engineers Wilbur and Orville Wright launched the world's first successful airplane flight on December 17, 1903 (it lasted 12 seconds). A boulder now marks the take-off spot. Climb a nearby hill where the brothers conducted earlier glider experiments for fantastic views of sea and sound.
reviewed
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Mingus Mill
The 1886 Mingus Mill, 2 miles west of Cherokee, a turbine-powered mill that still grinds wheat and corn much as it always has. The on-site Mountain Farm Museum is a restored 19th-century farmstead, complete with barn, blacksmith shop and smokehouse (with real pig heads!), assembled from original buildings from different parts of the park.
reviewed
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Salsa's
This tiny, brightly painted joint serves amazing, mutant Latin fusion cuisine - think lamb empanadas with goat's cheese and banana salsa or crab-jalapeño-saffron-fennel egg rolls. Beware huge crowds, unreasonably spicy appetizers and unannounced substitutions, and always order off the specials menu.
reviewed
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Blue Point
Overlooking Currituck Sound in the upscale town of Duck, this contemporary bistro serves refined Southern coastal cuisine - think seared sea scallops over arugula - and is considered by many to be the best fine dining on the Banks. At lunchtime, paninis and fancy salads are delicious and reasonably priced.
reviewed
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Chimney Rock Park
At Chimney Rock Park, a 20-mile drive southeast of Asheville, the American flag flaps in the breeze atop this popular park's namesake 315ft granite monolith. An elevator takes visitors up to the chimney, but the real draw is the exciting hike around the cliffs to a 404ft waterfall.
reviewed
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Kitty Hawk Kites
Kitty Hawk Kites has locations all over the Banks offering beginners' kiteboarding lessons (three hours $200) and hang-gliding lessons at Jockey's Ridge State Park (from $89). It also rents kayaks, sailboats, bikes and in-line skates and has a variety of tours and courses.
reviewed
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Afro-American Cultural Center
The Afro-American Cultural Center, largely housed in a historic old church has excellent visual-arts exhibits, films and performances in the outdoor amphitheater. The fine art collection is well worth a look and performances cover everything from trad jazz to poetry 'slams'.
reviewed
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Lost Colony Outdoor Drama
Attractions at the site include the Lost Colony Outdoor Drama. This beloved long-running musical from Pulitzer Prize-winning North Carolina playwright Paul Green dramatizes the fate of the colonists. It plays at the Waterside Theater throughout summer.
reviewed
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Jolly Roger
The atmosphere in this OBX institution could be described as 'pirate bordello, ' with Christmas lights, mermaid murals and evening karaoke contests. Come for huuuuge Southern breakfasts, groaning platters of shrimp fettuccine, or late-night burgers at the bar.
reviewed
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Nantahala Outdoor Center
The huge and highly recommended Nantahala Outdoor Center, specializes in wet and wild rafting trips down the Nantahala, French Broad, Pigeon and Ocoee Rivers, and rents out bikes, kayaks and more. It even has its own lodge and restaurant.
reviewed
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Visitor Center
The visitor center has exhibits, artifacts, maps and a free film to fuel the imagination. Look for the prints based on 1585 illustrations by colony leader John White, now some of the best-known depictions of pre-European North America.
reviewed
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North Carolina Aquarium
Just south of Fort Raleigh, head to the North Carolina Aquarium to watch tiger sharks glide through the gloomy depths, chill by the gator pond or stroke the slimy bellies of (de-barbed) stingrays in the touch tank. Great for kids.
reviewed
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Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
At 208ft, the black-and-white-striped Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest brick lighthouse in the US and is one of North Carolina's most iconic images. Climb the 248 steps and check out the visitor center (open year-round).
reviewed
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Awful Arthur's Oyster Bar
Oysters go down easy at this friendly restaurant and raw bar (emphasis on the 'bar'), as do the excellent soft-shell crab sandwiches and sky-high, homemade key lime pie. Don't be shy about ordering a beer before noon; the locals aren't.
reviewed
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Mint Museum of Art
The Mint Museum of Art is housed in the imposing 19th-century US mint building. The hushed halls display historic maps, American paintings and an impressive number of gruesome Spanish Colonial bleeding saint statues.
reviewed
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Bar-B-Q King
Wilkinson Blvd, the first four-lane highway in North Carolina, has several retro drive-ins, including this venerable place where carhops deliver minced-pork platters and perfectly-fried trout sandwiches to your driver's side window.
reviewed
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Discovery Place
Wander through a rainforest, peer inside a huge eyeball or sample liquid-nitrogen ice cream in the chemistry lab at the hands-on Discovery Place science museum, complete with an Omnimax cinema.
reviewed
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Howard's Pub
Howard's Pub has been around in one incarnation or another since the 1850s. Listen to live music on the big wooden porch while snacking on a crab cake sandwich and sipping a mug of one of the 200 beers of tap.
reviewed
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Boudreaux's Louisiana Kitchen
'Laissez les bon temps rouler' (Let the good times roll) is the motto at this purple-, red- and green-walled converted NoDa warehouse, featuring New Orleans standards like gumbo, crawfish etouffee and blackened catfish.
reviewed
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Whalehead Club
The sunflower-yellow, art nouveau-style Whalehead Club, built in the 1920s as a hunting 'cottage' for a Philadelphia industrialist, is the centerpiece of this manicured park in the village of Corolla.
reviewed
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Rí Rá
A friendly mixed-age crowd downs Guinness and nibbles fish-and-chips at this cozy uptown pub, meticulously outfitted with worn brass and burnished wood to transport you to Victorian Ireland.
reviewed
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Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge
At the northern end of Hatteras Island, the 5834-acre Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is a bird-watcher's heaven, with nature trails and 13 miles of unspoiled beach.
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