As I maneuvered the car around the hair-raising twists and turns of N.C. 194 between Valle Crucis and Banner Elk on the first afternoon of our North Carolina mountains vacation on Thursday, Courtney joked that I should start getting driving merit badges for successfully completing obstacle courses in England and now the North Carolina highlands. If that were the case, I would’ve added one more merit badge today — driving up Grandfather Mountain in the fog.

Today being the final day of our highland getaway, we packed everything into the car and bid farewell to our lovely vacation stay around mid-morning. After getting coffee, tea, and breakfast at a cute little nearby cafe that we’ve quickly come to adore, we started driving up to the top of Grandfather Mountain around 11 a.m., driving past the thinning traffic for the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games along the way. The entrance fee for the mountain was $15 per person, which struck me as pretty steep (it is just a mountain, after all), although it did come with an audio tour guide CD with a soundtrack straight out of “Back Porch Music.”

The price of admission, as it turned out, was nowhere near as steep as the drive up to the top. After a few expectedly curvy loops around the mountain, the bends in the road started approaching ridiculous levels in steepness and curvature. Every turn was a blind turn, and there were parts that were so steep that my Camry was revving hard just to make it up the hill. We were very glad that we took this car instead of our other one, a subcompact, which would have no doubt struggled on this ascent. Add to it all a thick layer of fog or cloud that enveloped the whole road, reducing visibility to only about 10 feet, and it was one of the more … umm … interesting drives I’ve had.

Nonetheless, we managed to make it up to the top of the mountain, where the fog continued to engulf everything. After we parked, we could only faintly make out the visitors center building on the opposite side of the road. The center contained an elevator that took us three floors up to the top of the mountain, where we crossed the Mile High Swinging Bridge. Even though I had been to Grandfather Mountain before, this was a different bridge than the one I remembered, as it was rebuilt in 1999. The 228-foot suspension bridge, named for the fact that it is actually more than a mile above sea level, spans an 80-foot chasm. On this day, the abyss below was mostly concealed by the heavy fog, yet the fog also added a sense of mystery to the scene and made you feel like you were even higher up since it was as if you were walking amongst the clouds.

After crossing the bridge, we were briefly diverted and entertained by the sight of a tiny, chubby mouse that was scurrying back and forth among the feet of a circle of visitors and trying to find its way back into the shrubbery, which it eventually did. We then pushed on, traversing a stretch of rocks to reach a ledge sitting on top of a cliff. This was, as a sign informed us, as far as we would go. The view from up here was breathtaking, even with the veil of fog limiting our field of vision. After snapping some pictures, we made our way back across the bridge and started back down the mountain, stopping at a couple more lookout points along the way.

We then made an extended stop at the nature museum and animal habitats at about the midway point of the mountain. I don’t remember these being here when I visited as a kid. I really liked the animal habitats, which were basically a mini-zoo with bears, otters, cougars, eagles, and deer, all housed in large, picturesque backdrops. The bears exhibit was especially impressive, as the four bears lounged around in an expansive exhibit set against a breathtaking backdrop of the peaks.

We got to the animal exhibits at the right time, as the staff was just about to give the animals their enrichment activities, which basically meant making them work a little bit for their food. Of course, not all the animals cooperated. One of the cougars watched a bundle of ground turkey wrapped in paper towels drop and roll right into a little crevice in front of him, yet made no attempt to retrieve it, acting as if he didn’t know where it went and eventually just giving up and flopping down next to a tree way off in the distance. The bears, meanwhile, did exactly what the enrichment activity was designed to keep them from doing all day — sitting in front of the exhibit wall and begging for food. Initially, the keeper threw handfuls of food into their little pond, hoping to motivate them to get off their butts and go in the water to get them. However, only one of the bears actually did that, while the others showed no inclination to follow suit. Eventually, the keeper caved in and tossed each of them a few treats while they sat on their behinds and caught the food in their mouths. It must be a good life being a kept bear on the mountain.

Combine a track meet, a state fair, and a music festival, and throw in a dash of Scottish flair, and you have … the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, where we spent spent day 3 of our North Carolina mountains getaway.

Our day began with a topsy-turvy ride on an old school bus with faded yellow paint. Since the Games were being held on the mountain, there was no public parking at the site and we had to park in nearby Linville and take the shuttle, aka said school bus, to the event along a steep, winding, gravel-covered back road up the mountain. This was definitely the road less traveled, since few in their right minds would want to drive on it in their car, much less a giant bus.

Upon getting off the bus, we made our way through a path lined on both sides by tents and campers until we were greeted with two giant flags — American and Scottish  – at the front entrance to the Games. The event could not have asked for a more picturesque setting, as the mountain and sky provided a beautiful backdrop for the bustling scene in front of us. The event was centered around the track on which most of the competition was taking place. The heavy athletics — such as caber toss and hammer toss — were taking place on the infield, while the track itself was used for running events. Stationed all along the inside of the track were bagpipers and Scottish country dancers who performed virtually nonstop. From the moment we got off the bus, we were enveloped in bagpipe music that never ceased, blaring on until it blended into the tapestry of background sounds.

The spectators were kept behind the fence ringing the track, along which a tent city had formed, with each tent proudly sporting a banner announcing the Scottish clan that particular tent belonged to. Among those not fortunate enough to have a tent, the savvy ones had arrived early with their folding chairs, which now piled a couple rows deep along the fence and occasionally interspersed among spectators who sat on the ground. The metal bleachers in the back were generally full, though there was never really any trouble finding a seat as people came and went throughout.

We walked around a bit when we first arrived, taking in some music at one of several stages set up in the fields away from the track. We also checked out some of the stands behind the spectators, including a stand where you could look up your family clan. However, that tent proved to be a place of reckoning for Courtney, who was always told that one of her grandparents was Scottish but was miffed to find that his family name was missing from the registries at the tent and to be told that “maybe he went to Scotland from England.” We then stopped for a lunch of haggis and chips (the first time I had haggis, which I thought was delicious with all its livery goodness). After that, we found ourselves a spot on one of the bleachers and waited for the action to really pick up.

The competition schedule for the day was jam-packed, but we mainly came to see big guys toss weighty objects around, and we were not disappointed. We had arrived just as the Scottish wrestling competition was taking place. After about an hour of tossing each other around, the wrestlers made way for the heavyweights — big burly guys in kilts who were preparing to hurl hammers, boulders, weights attached to chains, and giant telephone poles.

The big guys started off with the hammer toss, in which they swung a giant sledge hammer 360 degrees above their head several times while spinning and then let fly, at which point the hammer always seemed to have an affinity to seek out the guys marking the spot where it landed, as those guys seemed to be always scrambling away from the hammer while it sailed through the air and then scrambling toward it after it landed.

After the hammer toss, the guys moved on to boulder throw. It was funny to watch the competitors line up in two rows during warmup, face each other, and hurl a big boulder back and forth like baseball players playing catch before games, except of course no one was going to try to catch one of these throws.

The highlight of the day was no doubt the caber toss, which involved guys picking up, running with, and then trying their darndest to not only throw, but also try to make bounce end-to-end a giant lumber pole the length of a telephone pole. Somewhat disappointingly, none of the competitors were able to make the caber go end-to-end, though a couple did come sort of close. Nonetheless, they received enthusiastic cheers from the crowd, which was obviously as jacked up as we were to see big guys toss big objects while wearing kilts.

We awoke on day 2 of our highland vacation in the western North Carolina mountains to find that a local black cat had made itself quite at home on the hood of our car. It was just chillin’ on the car for a whole hour or so while we got ready to go out and explore the area around Linville.

Before the exploring, we stopped at Pappy’s Barbecue and Country Breakfast for brunch. When the food came, I found that I had severely underestimated the size of the item listed as Pappy’s Big Ol’ Breakfast. It was so much food that it came on two full-sized dinner plates: pancakes, bacon, sausage, hash brown, and pretty much anything you might think of with breakfast.

The giant brunch turned out to be a good thing, though, as we got in quite a workout while hiking to our next destination, Linville Falls. There are a couple trails leading to various vantage points around the falls, and we chose the “moderate” route, which, as it turned out, was more than enough exercise for us. The shady, rhododendron-lined trail meandered along the uneven, undulating landscape and took us to several overlooks with spectacular views of the falls and the surrounding mountains. It was a relatively cool and breezy day, though we did work up a sweat when the humidity kicked up with a brief shower midway through the hike. Aside from the beautiful scenery, I also enjoyed the falls because they gave me an opportunity to play around with my camera, slowing the shutter speed way down to get pictures of the blurry water like in so many beautiful water pictures I’ve seen.

After we descended from the last lookout point at the falls, we decided to do some driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Instead of just wandering aimlessly, Courtney picked a destination — Emerald Village, a mining museum and tour located at a tiny community along the parkway called Little Switzerland. The mine, as it turned out, was a pretty podunk attraction. The so-called museum was just a room filled with old mining equipment. Then you go out the backdoor to the mine, which was just a tall, shallow cave bordering a pond and littered with more old mining equipment. Even at just $7 a person, this “tour” felt like a ripoff. When we were driving away, we saw a guy pulling over at the side of the road overlooking the cave and snapping a picture. That’s what we should’ve done instead.

The drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, though, more than made up for the disappointing mine tour. The sparsely traveled road wound up and down the mountainside, offering up plenty of awespiring views of peak after tree-covered peak, all with vapors wafting upward toward the blue sky. It added up to a very relaxing afternoon drive.

We’re spending a few days near Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina this week. Our main reason for coming here is the Highland Games, but we’re not attending until Saturday, so we’re spending the rest of our time here exploring the area.

After arriving at our lovely vacation rental in Foscoe around mid-afternoon, we backtracked into Boone and spent a couple hours checking out the shops along King Street. Since Boone is home to Appalachian State University, it was no surprise that the area had a very college-town feel. Being amateur potters, we stopped into Doe Ridge Pottery and checked out its studio, where we picked up some tips on painting over glaze with wax and were impressed with the giant glaze buckets that were so big that they needed to be stirred with oars.

After we were done with King Street, we decided to drive to Banner Elk for dinner. That’s when the adventure really started. Our GPS pointed us onto a quiet backroad that went through the beautiful, secluded community of Valle Crucis. This little stretch of rural paradise offered up some wonderful scenery, with vast tracts of pasture and farm land backed by lush green peaks and crisp blue skies dotted with white clouds. The whole scene reminded me of some the views we had when we were driving through England last year.

Then the road really started to remind us of England. Somewhere along the way, the “highway” we were on — N.C. 194 — turned into a bellicosely curvy beast, with ascending hairpin sporting cliffs on one side and big dropoffs on the other. The pleasant sightseeing drive soon devolved into a white-knuckle affair. We had to slow down to well below 30 mph in order to safely maneuver around the bends and twists without clipping rocks, swerving into oncoming traffic, or falling off the mountain. It went on like this for about 40 minutes, and we were very, very glad when the road unwound itself back into a straightaway as it fed into Banner Elk.

Later, after we had returned to our vacation stay (via a much straighter, less hair-raising route), we googled NC 194 and came across this description of the stretch we traveled, which pretty much said it all (check the link for some nice pictures of this part of the road)

NC 194 in its three miles of climb to Matney has more hazards thanPebble Beach . The pavement surface is rutted, patched, negative cambered, and unmarked in many places. The edge of the road has drop-offs, deteriorating asphalt, 18 inch tall posts with connecting chain link fence, asphalt berms, exagerated crown and even some barb wire fencing. There is one double switch-back that is unbelievably tight and steep. Want to see the action here? Rent the Shook Home called Sweet Retreat right in the corner. And you might meet some truck and trailer traffic with just inches to squeak by. NC 194 makes the Dragon look like a safety course.

But that wasn’t our last adventure on the roads. After dinner, we returned to our vacation home and was about to settle in for the night when we realized that we didn’t have any soap. So we drove back out onto N.C. 105 looking for a place to pick up some soap. Alas, there was basically nothing around here except a few restaurants and a bunch of home-remodeling businesses, and everything except the restaurants closed around 6 p.m. (another reminder of our England trip). To add to the fun, the road was almost pitch black since we’re in the middle of nowhere and there were no lights along the road since all the businesses were closed. Even with headlights, I couldn’t see much more than about 20 or 30 feet in front of me. After about 20 minutes, we decided we could do without soap for one night.

To end the post on an upbeat note, I should tell you a little about the place we’re staying in. It’s another one of those independent vacation rental listings on VRBO.com and homeaway.com that we’ve become so fond of discovering on our travels. This place sits near the top of a peak rising up on the side of N.C. 105 in the tiny community of Foscoe. To reach it, you must drive up a narrow, meandering mountain path that rises sharply.

Sporting three bedrooms, the house is kind of big for just the two of us, but it actually was cheaper to rent this big place than most of the other smaller properties we had looked at. The thing I really love about this house are the little touches and accents: coffee tables with slate tile tops, a half log for a fireplace mantle, rafters running across the ceilings, oil-rubbed bronze fixtures throughout the house (it’s amazing how much more attention you pay to the finish of the fixtures when you’re right in the middle of buying a house). It feels very cozy inside, and there is both an outside deck and an enclosed patio on the back of the house, looking out on to a steep hill covered with trees. With the elevation and the lush trees surrounding the house, we feel like we’re far removed from civilization (such as it is in Foscoe) even though we’re basically right off of a major artery in the region.

The workshop, run by nature photographers Vinny Colucci and Melissa Southern, took the dozen attendees around the zoo, taking pictures and getting tips from the two pros. The highlight of the day was a becoming-part-of-the-scene tour of the prairie exhibit in the North American section of the zoo. Two zookeepers put us in the back of a big truck and drove us into the prairie exhibit, giving us a chance to get up close and personal with the bison and elks. The elks stayed away at a distance, but the herd of bison came within a few feet of the truck, which they associate with the arrival of food, and one of them came right up to the side of the truck and started sniffing and even munched someone’s shoelaces at one point. When the truck started moving, the whole herd followed with a moderate trot. Being this close to the bison gave us a new perspective on these animals, who pretty much all looked alike and didn’t seem all that interesting from a distance. The weather cooperated as well, with a swath of clouds rolling in just as we were pulling into the exhibit, blocking out the bright sun and giving us a softer light under which to photograph the herd.

After the prairie tour, we also got to go to the back of the grizzly bear exhibit, where we were introduced to the bear that wasn’t on display that day. One of the zookeepers showed us some of the tricks they taught the bear to do as part of the training to help them keep him healthy, such as getting him to keep his mouth open and pressed up against the cage so they can brush his teeth. She said bears are pretty easy to train because they are very food-oriented. We stood a mere couple feet away from the bear (on the other of the fence, of course), and its claws, which were easily at least six inches long, were something to behold.

During the rest of the day, we also got to see a couple of the zoo’s newest arrivals — an albino alligator in the African Pavilion exhibit and the baby chimp named Nori who was born last August. We got about a 60-second glimpse of the adorable baby chimp, who was clinging to her mother as she walked from one end of the exhibit to the other and disappeared over the ridge, not to be seen again for the rest of the afternoon. I think next time we go to the zoo, we’ll have to stake out the chimp exhibit for few hours to get a better look at Nori.

As for the workshop, it was a terrific experience and definitely worth the $50. Aside from getting the chance to go into the prairie exhibit, we also picked up some good tips from Vinny and Melissa, who were very friendly, approachable, and entertaining. It was also funny to have people ask what’s going on and mistake us for a professional wildlife photography crew when they saw a dozen people walk by with a bunch of big lenses and a few tripods in tow.

If you are interested in animal photography, I would definitely recommend the workshop, if you can get in. It is the most popular event that the zoo society puts on, and the workshop we attended was filled up just a few minutes after registration opened. The only reason we got into this session was because it had to be pushed back a week due to weather and some people who were signed up couldn’t make the new date, so we got moved up from the waiting list. Vinny and Melissa told us that they are planning another zoo workshop in October that will take the participants into the African savanna exhibit to get near the rhinos and antelopes. We’ll most likely try to get into that one as well.

Also, here’s a short video of one of the performances:

We’ve been to the aquarium a couple times already, and most of it was pretty much the same. The one new addition since our last visit was the albino alligator. We’ve seen albino gators before at other aquariums, but not this big or this close up. The albino gene is a recessive trait, and a white alligator has little chance of surviving in the wild as it would be easily spotted by predators while young and would make a lousy ambush predator if it actually grew into an adult. The albino gator at the aquarium, as we were told by a volunteer, came from a nest of eggs hatched by a licensed alligator breeder in Mississippi who then gave the albino gators to a gator farm in St. Augustine, Florida.

After whiling away a hour and a half at the aquarium, we headed to the Cameron Art Museum. It was a small museum but a decent place to spend an hour or two. The most interesting exhibit was the Mini Museum, a collection of miniature replicas of famous works of art from museums around the world. The collection is created by Richard McMahan, who has actually never been to any of the museums in which the actual pieces on which his work is based are displayed, and includes replicas of everything from the mummies of the British Museum to Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in the museum, so I don’t have a bazillion pictures of mini masterpieces to share with you. However, check out this neat site about the collection. Aside from the miniature collection, the museum also had an interesting exhibition about the Bread and Puppet Theater.

We hadn’t been to the North Carolina State Fair in a couple years. I’ve never been too enthusiastic about the state fair ever since a nightmarish ride on the swinging pirate ship at the fair back in my childhood, and the traffic had always seemed too much of a hassle. However, after looking at the list of new foods at the fair this year, we were tempted into making the trek over to Raleigh this afternoon.

You can read about our culinary experience at the fair on our food blog. In short, we enjoyed most of the things we tried. The major exception was the much-talked-about Krispy Kreme burger, which turned out to be a total FAIL not because of the sweet-and-savory combination of doughnuts and beef, but rather because the hamburger patty was a small, dry, and cold piece of junk. In any case, that little disappointment didn’t spoil our experience. We had a good time sampling the food, walking around the grounds, and petting the animals. We would have liked to have seen the pig races, just out of curiosity. But 10 minutes before each of the two race sessions that were held while we were at the fair, the small track was completely enveloped by people packed several layers deep and we couldn’t see a thing. Who knew pig racing would be such a popular pastime? A fair number of people were already waiting in the bleachers by the track when we walked past it an hour before the race, and by the size of the crowd five minutes before the race, you would think they were eating the loser afterward. So here’s a tip for fair goers: If you want to see pig racing, go early to secure a seat, or at least a line of sight.

Here are the pictures our afternoon and evening at the fair:

We arrived at the zoo around mid-afternoon so as to take in some regular sightseeing before the night event. We were eager to see the latest addition to the zoo — two species of lemurs, ring-tailed and red-ruffed. The ring-tailed lemurs did not disappoint, as they were just lounging inside a log most of the time (but the log was half open, so we got to see them clearly). The red-ruffed lemurs, however, were more elusive, hiding behind a rock formation for most of the time. We couldn’t see them at all when we first got to the exhibit. Later, with closing time drawing near, we swung by Lemur Island again. This time, the red-ruffed lemurs obliged us as they leaped out from their hiding place and climbed up a tall tree.

Aside from the lemurs, we also took in other parts of the zoo’s African exhibits. We discovered a nice little gazebo at one end of the trail that goes by the elephant exhibit. Because it sat at the opposite end of the elephants, there wasn’t much traffic there. We found three species of antelopes grazing and resting in the shade. They probably haven’t seen a whole lot of visitors up close, as they seemed a tad startled when we first walked up to the gazebo. However, they soon determined that we’re no threat and went back to their business.

We had about three hours to kill between when the zoo closed and when the Starlight Safari started. We went out for a quick bite, and then whiled away the rest of the time at a local mall, where we found a pet store with two tiny, adorable black kittens who were fast asleep. If we hadn’t already reached the maximum number of  cats our house can hold (three, all black, by the way), we would’ve probably taken them home.

Upon returning to the zoo around 8:30 p.m., the sky had dimmed, and the zoo staff had put out luminaries on the trail leading to the lions exhibit. The festivities started with the lion keepers tossing a few papier-mâché balls into the exhibit, which the lions quickly pounced on and ripped open to get at the treats inside. Next, a few cardboard boxes went into the exhibit. The male lion showed some interest in them, but the female really did a number on the boxes, shredding them in a matter of minutes.

By this time, the sky had gotten so dark that it was getting difficult to see the lions without the keepers shining a flashlight on them. I had my camera with me and snapped almost a hundred shots during the event, but with almost no light and with flash photography prohibited, most of them did not come out. Of course, we were standing next to the zoo’s officially sanctioned photographer for the event, and he was setting off his flash every 30 seconds or so throughout the one-hour event, so obviously the flash can’t really bother the lions too much. Nearing the end of the event, with the zoo photographer flashing away, I said the heck with it and turned on my flash for my final four or five shots, coming out with slightly better results. The event wasn’t exactly lions and Christians in the coliseum, but still interesting nonetheless (it was amazing how much the lions acted like our cats), and the money for the tickets went to a project to rescue chimpanzees.

A short video of the lions:

More pictures:

From a distance, the new museum looks more like a storage warehouse than a palace of art. The outside looks like white, prefabricated metal sheets. Upon closer inspection, however, the walls turn out to be glass. Whereas the old museum looked like a pretty normal building that happened to house art, the new building is an ultra-modern construction with artistry infused into every nook and cranny, from the oval skylights to the oval urinals. The glass exterior and the white interior make the building feel airy, open, and light. As soon as we entered, my attention was drawn to two lit-up giant figures sitting on the walls:

The building may be new, but many of the pieces on display were  familiar. There were a couple interesting pieces that I don’t remember having seen before. One was a collection of a myriad of small stone faces, each distinct:

The other was an inverted Mona Lisa made of spindles of sewing threads. There’s a lens in front of the inverted mosaic that flips the image into a correctly oriented replica of the painting:

More photos from the museum:

Though we only stayed a couple hours, we had enough time to sample some Turkish food and drink, take some pictures, and enjoy the stage performance, which featured some nice dancing and drumming, accented by vividly colorful costumes.

We started today at an old favorite — the Cotton Exchange in Wilmington, where Courtney went to the bead shop to load up on her beading supplies while I checked out the pottery store and then walked along the waterfront to take some pictures. After lunch, we were on our way to the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher when we drove past what seemed like a small lake on the side of the road where people were paddling boats around. On a whim, we decided to scrap the trip to the aquarium — which we’ve been to several times before anyway — and take a boat out on the lake.

Moments after we parked and started walking along the lake shore toward the boat rental shack, we noticed a couple people stopping on the side of the trail and snapping pictures. As we got closer, we saw the source of the excitement — an alligator lurking in the algae and pollen-covered waters just off the shore. As few more steps up the path, and we spotted another gator swimming into the shallows. When we got to the boat shack, there was a long line waiting for available boats, so we decided to walk around the lake instead, which was just as well, since I wasn’t too excited at the idea of getting into the water with the alligators swimming around.

The day was sunny and breezy, and the lake offered up plenty of interesting sights — ducks, geese, and several other types of waterfowls gathered in flocks close to shore, while turtles congregated in large colonies here and there, basking in the sun and feeding on bread crumbs from passing visitors. At one spot on the trail, we came across a couple of tiny, newly hatched turtles trying to make their way across the trail and to the lake. In a gazebo standing over shallow water, we heard a raucous chorus of frogs and spotted many of them lounging amid the plants and algae nearby, including a couple that was in the act of ensuring the continuing survival of the species. The frogs, in fact, weren’t the only frisky creatures on the lake, as we caught a couple of large waterfowls in the act as well.

After the first quarter of the trail, the path veered off from the lake shore, and we found ourselves walking through some relatively quiet neighborhoods lined with cypress and magnolia trees. The trail just seemed to keep going and going, and the lake turned out to be deceptively large, as it took us more than two hours to walk around it. By the time we got back to the car, we were quite ready to be off our feet.

Some pictures:

The otters didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the water, but did a lot of posing for the camera on land. We also came across a chimp who just camped out right in front of the glass for a long time, giving us the chance to wait for the crowd to move on and then get in up close for a few nice shots. We even got some decent shots of the cacomistle and the coati, nocturnal creatures who usually stay concealed on the high perches in their dark exhibits but were down on the ground and very active on this day. At our last exhibit of the day — the lions — the male lion was just flopping on the ground when we got there, but as I was snapping a couple pictures, he perked up. At that same moment, the sun pierced through the clouds and cast a golden glow on his mane, making for a pretty nice image.

Which one of Marge Simpson’s sisters is she supposed to be?

The museum is a more interesting attraction. It has several exhibits that demonstrate steps in tobacco farming and processing scenes with mannequins. The most striking one was a scene where two factory workers were packing cigarettes. The expressions on their faces, particularly the woman’s (right), look so droll and tired. Ironically, this exhibit probably works better as an anti-tobacco display.

The museum has some displays showing historical statements against using tobacco, but at the same time, it never delves into the harmful effects of tobacco use. Instead, it’s filled with old advertisements for tobacco products. There is even an old TV set rigged to play cigarette commercials, including one in which a “tobaccoland reporter” goes to interview a tobacco farmer for his expert take on the quality of tobacco used in a certain brand of cigarettes. There is also a photo gallery of tobacco farming, with a statement from the artist talking about how this is a rapidly vanishing way of life, and an exhibit displaying all the good causes that the tobacco industry has given money to, such as hospitals, schools, etc.

All in all, the museum feels a bit heavy on propaganda. It’s not necessarily promoting tobacco use, but it certainly stays clear of any real criticism of the industry and the ill effects of using tobacco. It’s still an interesting sight nonetheless and worth a trip (especially since it’s free) to see the Patty and Selma-like mannequins.

On Sunday, we drove to Salisbury to visit the Old Stone Winery, which we’ve been wanting to do for a few months since getting a taste of their sweet muscadine wine at a relative’s home. We did a wine tasting and sampled nine varieties, and that was just their sweet wines (they also have 10 dry wines). We ended up taking home six bottles. If you like wine and are driving past Salisbury, this place is definitely worth checking out.

Picking Grapes Pictures

Old Stone Winery Pictures