Cheryl's Birthday

We celebrated the occasion a little late, taking the day yesterday to see some of Charlotte for the first time - that is, it was our first visit other than the airport there. We took a lot of photos.

But let's start at the beginning.



On the way out of town, we stopped at the North Asheville Tailgate Market for some lunch for the journey.


You don't think Norris goes to the Farmer's Market for vegetables, do you? He got fudge from his favorite vendor, while Cheryl got a strawberry.

Then, still a half-hour from our destination, we stopped at Mary Jo's in Gastonia


Mary Jo's is a unique fabric store, with amazing prices. The photo shows some of the red fabrics in the home-dec area.

Finally, we moved on to the object of the excursion. This is the Mint Museum, the oldest art museum in North Carolina. (There was a big reception being set up for after visiting hours - hence the limousine.)

It's called the Mint Museum because it used to be a U.S. Mint - established back when North Carolina was a gold rush area (you probably forgot that the first big U.S. gold rush was in NC's Piedmont area). Minting operations were shut down after NC seceded during the Civil War, and in one of those amazing stories, the building was dismantled in the 1930's and moved, to become an art museum -- with no collection. The curators have been very busy since.


The reason for the trip was an advertised exhibit of Chanel designs. But it was a bit of a disappointment - most of the garments on display were very recent vintage, of the last decade. However, in the next two rooms were other garments from the museum's collection. The exhibit told the story of fashion's changing silhouette, from the earliest colonial days.


We didn't take our camera inside, but photography of the Museum's own pieces was permitted - Norris' cell phone came in handy.


The display space at the museum is not huge, and there were no Rembrandt or Monets among the paintings, but we enjoyed the other exhibits, particularly Chinese court robes, and all the pottery - both ancient from Latin America, and recent from North Carolina.

Finally, we dined at a contemporary Indian restaurant, housed in a historic home.


We both ordered from the "modern" part of the menu since we have nothing like Modern Indian cuisine in our area. We were not disappointed in the colors, flavors and textures.


We had a mile or two of downpour on the return trip, and hoped we had some rain at home. It did show up here - hours after we were sleeping.