Carolinas, Georgia & South Trips (Lonely Planet, 1st Edition) - Alex Leviton [53]
• Carrboro: Saturday 7am to noon and Wednesday 3:30pm to 6:30pm at 301 W Main St.
• Raleigh: Monday to Saturday 6am to 5pm and Sunday 8am to 6pm at 1201 Agriculture St.
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From Durham, take Hwy 85 northwest to the historic town of Hillsborough, whose heyday was around the Revolutionary War. The entire downtown is on the National Registry for Historic Places with more than 100 buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s no wonder that dozens of writers have made it their home, including novelist Lee Smith and the late Doug Marlette, creator of the “Kudzu” comic strip. If you’re here on the last Friday of the month from April to September, downtown turns into an art walk, with open studios, wine and cheese receptions and live music. If you’re looking for lodging that’s historical and charming, Hillsborough has several, including the Webb House B&B, a 200-year-old Colonial home in downtown with claw-foot tubs, four-post beds and filling breakfasts. Start the next day at Ayr Mount. The stately brick Federal-style home still has some of the original family furnishings from almost 200 years ago. The serene Poet’s Walk past the woodsy Eno River really shows off the beauty of the area. The Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail, off exit 165 from I-85, is, surprisingly, exactly as it sounds. It’s not often you get to call a hiking trail “eclectic,” but this one leads to the Occoneechee Speedway, used in NASCAR’s inaugural 1949 season. The overgrown track and surrounding area, blanketed with pines and weepy thickets, has been turned into a 44-acre nature preserve, accessible to day hikers. The original oval track dates back to the early 1900s, when it was used to train horses, and backs up against the Eno River, the unexpected final resting place of many an out-of-control stock car.
From Hillsborough, head back to the I-40 and take exit 265 for Hwy 86 to dine and drink in collegiate Chapel Hill. The University Tour of the Triangle trip will introduce you to university life, but the noncollege crowd will appreciate one of Gourmet magazine’s top 50 restaurants in the country, Lantern. The chef and owner heads up a local Slow Food convivium and many of her ingredients are grown within a 50-mile radius. The sake- and tea-cured salmon bento box appetizer is like an edible toy set where adults are encouraged to play with their food. Stick with child-friendly food with dessert at Locopops, a few doors down historic Franklin St. With flavors like Nilla wafer, mojito, plum black pepper and cherry hibiscus, you’ll understand why obsessed locals are fiercely loyal to their gourmet Mexican popsicle parlor.
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LIVING IN A TOBACCO WAREHOUSE
“In 2003, I bought a loft condo in the first tobacco warehouse converted after Durham’s cigarette industry died out in the 1980s. Next to the elevators, signs read: “Ironically, the hallways and common areas in this former tobacco warehouse are smoke-free.” My neighbors and I still hear stories from teary-eyed visitors about how they loved the smell of cured Bright Leaf tobacco when visiting their dads or granddads at work here in the 1940s.”
Alex Leviton, guidebook author, San Francisco, CA/Durham, NC
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After dessert, go to Hell. No, really, go to Hell. Hidden down a fittingly dank stairway, the seedy but chic late-night bar thumps with activity every night, especially on Monday when the John Waters-esque Mary K Mart hosts the Triangle’s favorite pastime, Drag Bingo. Sleep off your hangover at Siena Hotel, an upscale Tuscan-inspired hotel where the restaurant, Il Palio, marries all that is holy about Italian cuisine with a few Southern touches - fried green tomatoes on mozzarella di bufala or fennel-crusted tuna with watermelon. Start the next morning fresh at A Southern Season, a football field-sized gourmet food store that sells everything, and we mean everything, from Le Creuset cookware and imported prosciutto to artisanal North Carolina organic cheeses and 500 different types of candy bars on its “Wall of Chocolate.” Book the restaurant or