A PINEHURST VACATION

Fly into Raleigh, North Carolina, and take an hour and a half shuttle to the Pinehurst Resort, and forget about renting a car. Why? Just in case you want to wander outside the resort and village, a free Acura is available for three hours.

Although Pinehurst is known to be a "golf mecca", it just may not be your form of play. It certainly isn't mine. Let's see. There is the 24 tennis courts, 2 groomed croquet courts, championship lawn bowling course, and Lake Pinehurst and Beach Club with a 200-acre freshwater lake for sailing, canoeing, paddle boating, kayaking, fishing and swimming. Wait, I think I'll go to the spa for a Sea Grove Clay Wrap and Magnolia Luxury Facial and then relax in one of the rocking chairs on the porch.

The first thing that you may want to do is board their shuttle bus and tour the resort area. This way you can decide what is in walking distance from where your accommodations or activity site is in relation to how tired you may be from what you last did. Make sure you visit the Given Memorial Library housing the Tufts Archives and get the 101 on all.

I stayed at The Carolina, one of four spots to park my body for the evening. It looks to be the "fanciest" and where the 4 p.m. tea and is located. Nothing like some tasty pastries a few hours before dinner at the Carolina Dining Room. I had to change from my jeans a t-shirt to slacks and great "golf shirt" that I purchased as this restaurant has a "no jeans" policy. That doesn't mean that all of the other restaurants are like that. The menu fits the dress code.

With a choice of riding an old fashioned foot peddle bicycle into the village, walking or shuttle bus, I took the later. I couldn't resist a sample of Kraz Elegant Cakes and it was around the corner that I encountered a shop called Green Gate Olive Oils where I could taste a whole bunch of both olive oils and balsamic vinegars via spigots. Bread or sip as if you're tasting wine. Choose and it gets bottled. How about mixing a blood orange oil with a blueberry vinegar or marinating fish in lemon oil and a jalapeno balsamic?

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA: PROXIMITY HOTEL & PRINT WORKS RESTAURANT

I stayed at the Proximity Hotel where it couldn't be "greener".

Dinner was at their restaurant Print Works.

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA: O. HENRY

Have you ever read the O. Henry short stories such as "The Ransom of Red Chief" or "Gift of the Magi"? Greensboro has an outdoor, three-piece sculpture that honors it's famous writer, William Sydney Porter with a bronze likeness of him, a 7 by 14 foot book of his short stories and a statue of his small dog. The statues are located on the corner of N. Elm and Bellmeade Sts.

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA: NATURAL SCIENCE CENTER

The full name of this place is Natural Science Center of Greensboro & Animal Discovery Zoological Park/OmniSphere Theater. That is probably due to the availability of so much to take in. There’s a science museum with exhibits and exploration for the young ‘uns which includes a small but varied aquarium. I skipped that part first to check out the animals. Don’t even try to get eye-to-eye with the tigers, as they will “spray” out to you and about a foot or two from the fence. Due to the rain I was unable to view those cute meerkats, but I did see the howler monkeys, gibbons, lemur, fox, parrots and more.

Back inside I got myself lost for 40 minutes in the OmniSphere Theater showing a 3-D movie of Sea Monsters. I also got a preview of an upcoming Laser Beatles. I hear that they are going to expand both the aquarium and zoological park next year.

I did take in some of the aquarium just so I could get video.

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA: REPLACEMENTS

Are you missing (or broken) a piece or two from a set of china, crystal, silver or some collectible? You can most likely find it at Replacements, Ltd., the world's larger retailer of the old or new. They have more than 14 million pieces of inventory from over 320,000 pattens with about 12,000 sq. ft. of showroom and museum. Well behaved pets are allowed here. Not only will you find shoppers bringing in their pet snake, cat or aardvark, but also allows the staff to not leave their cute doggies home. Replacements, located in nearby McLeansville, gives tours which that include the back area where the goods are examined, as well as the "stacks". I actually brought in a cup and saucer to get replaced. Oh yeah, Replacements can also repair some crystal and silver.

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA: LUCKY 32 SOUTHERN KITCHEN

After checking into the Proximity Hotel I had some time to take a tour of this LEED hotel, where "green" rates 32 points. Dinner was at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen on Westover Terrace. Chef Jay Pierce centers on Southern and locally sourced food. I wanted to sample the menu and the best way was to order a few appetizers and an entree of four side dishes. Sweet potato hush puppies sitting on a Country Ham cream sauce and topped with scallions. Pig Bread. It's pulled pork here and from the butt, which would make it non-kosher. Voodoo Sauce consisting of: sugar, Texas Pete BBQ Sauce of vinegar, tomato paste, brown mustard, fresh garlic, black pepper, Kosher salt, mustard seed, basil leaves and celery salt, is laid upon toasted ciabetta, then topped with the pulled pork, red onions, chevre, provolone and cilantro and baked.

For the side dishes I had: Tomato-basil chicken soup; collard greens, mac and cheese, and deviled eggs with Benton Ham. There was absolutely no room for dessert.

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA: INTERNATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS CENTER & MUSEUM

The new International Civil Rights Center & Museum, located on South Elm Street, focuses on the landmark lunch-counter sit-ins at this restored 1929 F. W. Woolworth building. Four students ignited this 1960 sit-in movement. It's certainly not a boring museum of just photos. Managing Director for Development Amelia Parker gave us much of the tour. Quite interactive and includes the original lunch counter as well as a sort of maze area that depicts the experience of "white only" and "colored only" ways of life. Price for bottle of coca cola is more for "colored" Museum is meant not only to view history of segregation but who and what groups that helped lead the way to integration. You can hear Amelia talk about the tour on my radio show.

There are other places that you will view the four sit-in guys as well.