Charlotte, NC USA

My instinct for the title of this post was “Eating My Way Through America”, or more accurately, “Eating My Way Through Charlotte”, because I felt like that’s all I wanted to do on this trip home.

Since the majority of the food I ate ended up in my stomach before I remembered to take a picture, it didn’t make the final cut.

Despite my inability to re-brand The Shwits as a food blog, I had a fantastic week at home with my dad and sister. The weather was warm and I was able to hit all my favorite spots, even some new ones!

First stop (duh)…

12 piece tailgate box for three of us? Yup. That’ll do.

As I mentioned before, I was able to play tourist a little bit this time. I think when you live somewhere, you often don’t take advantage of all the things the city has to offer. That’s definitely been the case for me, and to be fair, a lot has changed since I last officially lived in Charlotte. Therefore, I present to you the new things I did while I was home.

New Thing #1 – BB&T Ballpark

Home of the Charlotte Knights AAA baseball team!

This is by no means my first Knights game. We went a lot when I was a kid, but the stadium only recently moved to uptown Charlotte. And for good reason… what a view!

New Thing #2 – NASCAR Hall of Fame

Opened in 2010… It only took us 7 years to get here! (insert eye roll)

As I learned in the hall of fame, the birth of NASCAR itself was in Daytona Beach, FL, but the origins of NASCAR date back to the days of prohibition when guys would modify their cars to improve their ability to run moonshine out of the mountains of NC. NASCAR fan or not, the hall of fame was very interactive and absolutely worth the visit!

Sis & Terry trying their hand at being part of the pit crew.

and speaking of racing…

New Thing #3 – Lancaster Speedway

Dirt track racing! And while technically not in Charlotte (it’s in Lancaster, SC) I’ve never been so I’m counting it.

And yes, I forced my sister to wear matching pigtail braids with me.

Not pictured – funnel cake fries. I think you can understand why.

As for the rest of the trip, I was able to see some friends, get my fill of Mexican food, sis and I got matching ear piercings (lol), and we had some nice evenings out in the Queen City.