A Taste of Carolina Contest! Something Different -- for a Change...

Hi Y'all. Hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of summer.

Summer is officially over for the Recca family because Sabrina went back to school today.

In honor of the end of "our" summer -- we've decided that instead of sending out our usual weekly newsletter, we'd do something fun instead.

If you're reading this, it's because you read our newsletters, visit our Carolina Pines Realty website and/or visit our blog -- which tells us YOU are curious about North Carolina, or even thinking about the possibility of making a move to beautiful North Carolina and are curious about the area and the "Carolina" lifestyle.

Accordingly, we have decided that instead of giving you facts and information about North Carolina which we typically do in our internet communications -- this week, we'd share with you some of our favorite goodies and put together a little basket and give you a....

TASTE of North Carolina

Here's What's in the Basket......

A Carolina Panther's Hat; House-Autry Mills Old Fashioned Cornmeal (from Four Oaks, NC); Callahan's Original Calabash Hushpuppy Mix - Sabrina's favorite!(from Wilmington, NC) (click here if you want to know what "Calabash style" is) ; Carolina Treet original Cooking Barbecue Sauce (also from Wilmington, NC); Scott's Barbecue Sauce (from Goldsboro, NC) and two homemade potholders straight from Cathie's quilting studio here in Raleigh, NC.

All the items in this basket were MADE in North Carolina and are considered Carolina Kitchen Staples and we wanted to share them with YOU.

Here's what you have to do to enter your name into the contest:

1. Send an e-mail to: cpines@nc.rr.com with the following information in the subject line:

"Enter me in the contest"

and let us know in your e-mail who you are, where you're from (city and state), and if there's anything that you would like to know about North Carolina.

2. If you leave a comment to this post (by clicking on the comment link below), we will enter your name twice - so you will have "double" the chance of winning.

And if you live in North Carolina, we want you to enter too! This contest is open to all our blog and website visitors.

So there you have it! That's all you have to do. Now the contest will only be open for 30 days -- so hurry and get your name into the drawing.

On Monday September 15th, we will put all names received into a drawing and choose a winner which will be posted here, on our blog. The winner will also be notified by e-mail in order that they can provide us with their mailing address.

Have a great week and Good Luck!

Memorial Day Weekend Motorcycle Trip

Hope you had a safe and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend and that you took a moment to Honor the meaning of this special holiday.

We are not big fans of taking off during "holiday" weekends. We hate crowds, we hate traffic and we hate rushing. Instead, we prefer to take our three day weekends one day at a time -- maybe catching up on a little work, or yard work, hanging out with the kids and, such as was the case this weekend, taking a day trip on the boat or the motorcycle.

This weekend, Blaise and I got up very early on Sunday morning and decided to head out toward Wilson - a historic town, named as one of North Carolina's Most Beautiful Cities. And THAT it was -- with gigantic oak-lined streets, to sprawling historic southern mansions, Wilson is an absolutely lovely town that epitomizes "southern charm."

From Raleigh, we drove about an hour and a half through the country. We were surprised to see how far along the tobacco and corn crops are this early in the year -- and WOW do they look healthy. Last year it was rather a depressing site as the drought took a huge toll on the the crops causing many of them to wither and die before coming into fruition. And I know I've said this before, but one of the things I love so much about riding the Harley out in the country is the smells. Every corner we turn brings about a new smell -- freshly cut fields, recently turned earth, animals, jasmine, magnolia, etc., etc., It's beautiful -- and there's nothing like it.

Continuing on our journey, after exploring Wilson for an hour or so, we decided it was time for breakfast. We drove around a bit looking for a place to eat and didn't have any luck until we came upon a rather dapper gentleman obviously on his way to or from church. We pulled over and asked him if he could recommend a place nearby where we could have breakfast. He immediately told us to turn right at the light and go down a "piece" and there is a place right there on the right hand side of the road.

Well, we did just as he said and sure enough -- there was a restaurant with real down home cookin' -- right where he said it would be. It was an adorable looking little restaurant, but as good as "gizzards and livers" sounded (at 7:30 in the morning!) I really had my heart set on french toast -- so we continued on until we found a Denny's!

I think we were only gone about 4 hours -- start to finish. That's another thing we love about living in North Carolina -- in an hour we can get far enough away it actually feels like we took a "trip" somewhere. We came home from our little excursion renewed and refreshed -- ready for part 2 of the weekend and ready to spend time with the kids.

Alas -- the weekend is over and it's time to get back to work!

Have a great week -- and don't forget to checkout our website when you get the chance. There you can search for homes (without passwords), check out schools, universities and employment, and just get a really good feel as to what living in the Raleigh/Triangle area is all about.