After Santa made his stop on Christmas Eve, Alex hustled onto to North Carolina to wrap up the end of 2007 in Charlotte. As one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, Charlotte is a great for children of all ages. Alex took it easy visiting family, looking for after Christmas deals at the Mall and strolling in local parks. But, for a 2 year old, it can’t get much better than that.
The Charlotte Nature Museum sits next to Freedom Park, around a large pond, it’s a great spot to walk your dog or chase your kid -- but maybe it’s not so easy to do both at the same time. At the Nature Museum there are lots of activities for the little ones to learn about trees, plants and animals native to the region. One of the highlights is the Butterfly Pavillion where many different species fly free and you can enjoy searching them out in the flowers and plants. If you really take the time to look, you’ll see dozens at once. The museum is also home to different breeds of turtles, snakes and even a few small mammals. There are weekly puppet shows to teach the children about conservation. And, for the wild wanderers, you can check out the gopher holes can crawl through holes and tubes that, at least for me, were as small as the real thing.
Alex made it home just in time to ring in the New Year in his own home, with dreams of where he’ll be flying off to next.
