NC – Family Travel Blog

Family travel in North Carolina

Every week until we run out of states, I plan to post about family-friendly vacation ideas, attractions and events in each one of the US states, taking input mostly from Twitter and Facebook.

Yes, I know how to search for travel ideas on a destination or attraction Web site, but a tweet or a Facebook Wall recommendation is a much more engaging and public way to spread the word.

Please don’t email suggestions to me; that’s nice but it is one-to-one communication. Tweet me and/or Facebook me, so that all of our networks can see what’s cool about your state.

We’re going in alphabetical order but started with the end, so our first state for the series was Wyoming, then we investigated Wisconsin, West Virginia, Washington, Virginia, Vermont, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, South Dakota, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Oklahoma, Ohio, North Dakota and now we’re moving on to….North Carolina!

Their state tourism organization is on Twitter at @VisitNC, plus there’s a Visit North Carolina blog, a North Carolina Flickr Group for photo-sharing, a Visit North Carolina YouTube channel and here’s the NC Tourism Facebook page.

When I asked for ideas, here’s what came in….

Twitter Travel Tips for North Carolina

*** From the Wilkes County tourism office via @WilkesNCtourism on Twitter — [Wilkes] Heritage Museum is a great activity for families. Also 45+ miles of mountain biking trails, 8 sites on NC Birding Trail. Whippoorwill Village – collection of restored log cabins, 1-room schoolhouse, Chapel of Peace (here’s a TwitPic photo: https://twitpic.com/2e0yj)

*** From Barbra Rodichok via @NOCBarbra on Twitter — Don’t forget whitewater rafting as part of your visit to the coolest mountain town, Asheville NC! [More from the Nantahala Outdoor Center – https://www.noc.com/index.php/french-broad.html]

*** From Shannon Lane via @Cajun_Mama on Twitter — My family loved gem searching in Cherokee. Found a 3 karat emerald!

*** From Maria Reed via @Maria_Reed on Twitter — Great family beach vacations in the Outer Banks! Jockey’s Ridge and Nag’s Head Fishing Pier.

Dueling tourism taglines for North Carolina and Ohio

Here they are, and coincidentally both were on Chevy cars parked right next to each other in Dayton, Ohio.

You know I had to drop everything and take travel geek photos.

The plates feature taglines for two different states in two different regions of the US that both use an aviation angle to tout some “historic cred,” and perhaps encourage tourism along with state pride.

North Carolina, of course, is the home of Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks, where the Wright Brothers conducted their famous experiments in flight around the wide-open, unpopulated sand dunes (at least, they were unpopulated way back in 1903.)

Today it’s still a nice place to visit, if a bit touristy. Plenty of lighthouses to see, although there are so many shipwrecks offshore that it’s called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

Sainted Husband and I liked the area so much, we got married there a few years back, in the tiny town of Duck at the Sanderling Inn.

Ohio, on the other hand, was actually the home of the Wright Brothers and their famous bicycle shop in Dayton.

You can visit the Dayton Aviation Heritage site, but ironically the original Wright shop was transported to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan by automotive titan Henry Ford, in an effort to preserve important historic locations.

My esteemed contacts at the Dayton Daily News tell me that the National Museum of the Air Force, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, does an excellent job of telling the aviation story in that part of Ohio.

Pick your state plate – you’ll get a fun flying story either way!