Many families who consider North Carolina to be the bet vacation spot in the nation will be thinking right about now, what plans can we make for the kids this summer? A fine answer to this question is to book those kids at one of NC’s great summer camps, to coincide with a full family vacation to any of NC’s wonderful summer festivals and events when the camp period is over!

There are literally hundreds of choices, and camps located in every region of the state offering a regular smorgasbord of activities and skills to learn and adventures to enjoy for kids of all abilities and ages. There are some good web sources listed below this post, where I’ll highlight a few of North Carolina’s best special-purpose camps.

Teen Overnight Surf Camp in Wrightsville Beach. Money Magazine named the southern NC coast as one of the top vacation spots in North America. The week-long overnight camps offer instruction in the art of surfing the Outer Banks’ gentle waves, improving your surfing skills, and exploring different coastal ecosystems while you’re at it! Enrollees stay in air conditioned suites on the campus of UNC-Wilmington and the staff of professional instructors are well qualified to deal with both beginner and intermediate surfers. The $1495/week fee includes lodging on campus, meals, 24-hour adult supervision, shuttle transportation from Wilmington’s airport, equipment, instruction with a 3-1 camper to instructor ratio, daily transportation to the beaches, admission and private tour of the Fort Fisher Aquarium, surfboard factory tour and extras.

If your teen is thinking about a future in computer technology, consider iD Tech Camp, which will introduce him or her to campus life while enjoying one on one instruction in campus computer labs from instructors with a six to one student-instructor ratio. Camps are held Wake Forest University in the Winston-Salem area, and UNC-Chapel Hill in the Raleigh-Durham area. Overnight campers live in university dorms, study in the university’s computer labs and eat in the university dining halls. Instruction in designing computer games, producing digital movies, designing web pages and even programming and robotics is available to broaden your young ITer’s skills.

Talisman Programs offers a “wilderness experiential” exceptional program for exceptional children in coed residential summer programs geared toward campers age 7 to 17 struggling with ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities and Asperger’s Syndrome (high functioning autism). Enrollment is limited so that the staff to camper ratio can encourage meaningful bonds, and there is a high return rate as kids come back year after year to enjoy the adventures. There are programs specially designed for younger children and teens, and include wilderness and water skills, rock climbing and activities designed to encourage group interaction and leadership skills.

Check out the many offerings at these listing sites and see if you can coordinate your summer plans to offer your children a wonderful adventure before reuniting to take in one of the fine family festivals our state offers!

Links:

North Carolina Summer Camps for Boys and Girls
North Carolina Summer Camps: Black Mountain
Mountain Adventure Guides
Special Needs Summer Camps for Kids & Teens
Family Support Network Resource Guide Directory

There is much more to North Carolina’s agritourism movement than just what was reported in Green Dreams, Green Schemes. There is also an alliance between the North Carolina Arts Council and the NC Cooperative Extension service called HomegrownHandmade that has mapped out “Art Roads” and “Farm Trails” in the foothills, piedmont and coastal regions that allow visitors to travel along back roads, sample fresh goat cheese and scuppernong wines, visit artists’ studios and sidewalk cafes in charming little towns. Each trail is unique, so check the links below of some HomegrownHandmade trails (their titles sort of describe the gist of what’s to see and do), and then explore at the pace you like best!

In the foothills:
Foothills, Vineyards & Old-Time Music
Rockingham, Stokes, Surry and Yadkin Counties. Travel through the “heart” of North Carolina’s wine industry, stop off in rural communities like Skull Camp or Beulah for some old fashioned fiddle, guitar and banjo bluegrass, or explore Hanging Rock and Pilot Mountain state parks..

In the Piedmont:
Potter’s Wheels & Organic Fields
Alamance, Chatham, Durham, Guilford, Lee, Orange, Randolph and Wake Counties. the Seagrove area attracts visitors from everywhere with its many talented potters who for generations have practiced salt-glazing to produce functional yet masterful works of art. There are two major pottery festivals in the region every year, and many working artist studios that welcome visitors. The rich earth that produces such fine clays also holds the largest concentration of organic farms in North Carolina. You can visit many of these and sample tasty goat cheese, herb breads and fresh-picked fruits and vegetables while learning all about the benefits of sustainable organic agriculture.

Pictures from the Piedmont
Alexander, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston and Lincoln Counties. The rich fields, covered bridges and fertile orchards of historic wagon road byways offer great opportunities around every bend for those who treasure the American landscape nearly unchanged since German and Scots-Irish settlers put down roots. Here you can tour farms, textile mills, historic parks, and the 450-acre Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. There are festivals, community theaters and regional museums as well, so take your time!

Scenes of the Sandhills
Anson, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond and Scotland Counties. Golfers will love this trail, which includes the Pinehurst Resort, one of the most prestigious golfing destinations in the world. It also highlights the importance of North Carolina’s pottery tradition, where the fine clays of the piedmont are turned into useful things and works of art. There are studios to visit, workshops to attend, and peaches to eat!

Crossroads, PatriArts, and Native Ways
Bladen, Cumberland, Harnett, Johnston and Robeson Counties. Here in the agricultural heartland of North Carolina farmers grow some of the world’s best strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, tomatoes, sweet corn, peppers, cantaloupes, melons and squash. Visitors can buy while visiting the farms or shop at produce stands and farmers markets in all five of these counties. You’ll also find some of America’s tastiest cured hams – smoked, honey glazed, even wine glazed! In addition to the Scots-Irish settlers, this area was home to freed blacks and runaway slaves as well as still being home to the Lumbee, Tuscarora and Waccamaw Siouan tribes of Native Americans.

On the Coast:
Lights… Waves… Action!
Columbus, Brunswick and New Hanover Counties. This trail offers shimmering ocean views, picturesque lighthouses, sun-dappled pathways through graceful live oak trees, fragrant fields of flowers and herbs, and some really cool seafaring craft. There are riverboats, battleships, shrimp and fishing fleets as well as farms producing fruits, veggies and wines. Don’t forget to take in a NASpig race while you’re there…

There are so far 16 different Art Road & Farm Trails trails mapped out for your touring pleasure by the HomegrownHandmade agritourism alliance, each offering a fine, well thought-out mix of places to go, people to meet and things to do. Just pick some that sound good to you, and your family will be richly rewarded season after season with memorable experiences, historic knowledge and a new appreciation for the art and agriculture that makes North Carolina such a great and beautiful state!

Links:

HomegrownHandmade Criteria

HomegrownHandmade Trail Home

Foothills, Vineyards & Old-Time Music

Pictures from the Piedmont

Potter’s Wheels & Organic Fields

Crossroads, PatriArts, and Native Ways

Lights… Waves… Action!

North Carolina visitors who harbor dreams of living ‘green’ have a host of great opportunities to indulge their interests while enjoying North Carolina’s stunning rural scenery, from mountains to sea. There is much to see, do, learn and enjoy on our active organic farms, many of which offer learning programs, hands-on work programs, pick-your-own fruit and produce opportunities, recreational facilities, lodging and home-grown, home-cooked meals your family will love!

North Carolina’s history as a tobacco growing state could have spelled disaster to farmers and farming communities as that crop has become untenable in the modern marketplace. Yet instead of giving up, the necessary change has engendered a strong commitment to innovative alternatives. Family farmers have invented new ways to keep their farmland productive while at the same time leading the movement toward sustainable practices, new income-producing crops, and clever private-business-government partnerships that add to NC’s important tourism industry.

In the mountainous west, smaller farms on hilly terrain have embraced the “organic revolution” heartily and their offerings for visitors are abundant. In rugged Madison County north of Asheville, there is Eagle Feather Organic Farm, part of the agri-tourism consortium. The farm is home to the North Carolina Ginseng & Goldenseal Company as well as the Southern Appalachian School for Growing Medicinal Plants.

Eagle Feather Farm has been designated a Native Botanical Sanctuary by United Plant Savers, and the NC Department of Agriculture has named it a North Carolina Nursery. Eagle Feather offers books, a video, classes, apprenticeships and tours that demonstrate natural ways of growing beneficial medicinal herbs in their own natural habitats, specializing in woods and forest crops. Owner Robert Eidus leads the tours, workshops and classes. The full schedule is available on the websites, so planning a weekend or a week at one of Madison County’s wonderful Bed and Breakfasts while spending afternoons on the farm will inspire visitors to consider the opportunities presented by caring for the land as it comes naturally, and being rewarded for it with valuable cash crops!

Closer to the resorts and tourist corridors of Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, Boone, Linville, Grandfather Mountain and the Blue Ridge Parkway, there is The Mast Farm Inn Bed and Breakfast in Banner Elk. The Inn is situated on a historic mountain farm and offers guest rooms in the farm house, romantic getaway cottages and rustic cabin for guests. Gourmet dining features organic vegetables and herbs grown by a master gardener for chef Ed Winebarger.

No matter where you’re staying there are many Western North Carolina farms who offer pick-your-own outings in season. Everything from apples, grapes, strawberries, cherries and blueberries to tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, broad beans, sweet corn, eggplant, pumpkins and melons. There are cooperative classes open to the public on canning, pickle-making, drying fruit and vegetables, ice cream making, and how to make prize-winning berry pies. Check out the offerings at Western North Carolina Pick-Your-Own Farms.

Farther east in north-central North Carolina (Franklin County) is another agri-tourism partnership project, Vollmer Farms. This is a unique outreach collaboration between the NCSU College of Design (Department of Landscape Architecture) and the NCSU College of Natural Resources with the Vollmer family farm. The farm offers spring pick-your-own strawberry tours, an educational puppet show and the “Back Forty” play area for school groups, company picnics and other events. There’s a Farm Market & Cafe (opens April 1), and offers apprenticeships and farm hand job opportunities to eager would-be organic farmers.

There are share farms and organic growing operations in almost all of North Carolina’s rural counties, and the number is growing every year. North Carolina’s greatest treasures include natural beauty, fertile soil, abundant forests and friendly, hard-working people who serve this natural heritage with their hearts and hands. Visitors from in and out of state will find fresh air, healthy food and a new appreciation for the land by getting to know our outstanding organic farms and farmers up close!

Links:

North Carolina Ginseng & Goldenseal Company

Southern Appalachian School for Growing Medicinal Plants

The Mast Farm Inn

Western North Carolina Pick-Your-Own Farms

Vollmer Farms

Way back in the middle ages – 1174 to be exact – a French businessman from Lyons caught the radical gist of Jesus’ teachings in the gospels and committed himself to a life of voluntary poverty and itinerant preaching. His name was Valdes. He renounced his previous business practices, threw all his money into the street, and started a soup kitchen during the famine of 1176. He traveled the countryside preaching the gospel of Jesus and eventually creating a rift with the dominant Catholic Church.

Valdes inspired other wandering preachers including Peter Waldo, who established the Poor Men of Lyons sect that preached apostolic poverty as the way to perfection. They traveled to Rome around 1177 and received the blessing of Pope Alexander III, who at the same time forbade their preaching without authorization from local clergy. The Waldensias (as they became known) of course disobeyed the papal edict, and were formally declared heretics by Pope Lucius III in 1184 and by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.

More than 80 Waldensians were burned at the stake as heretics in Strasbourg in 1211, an act that signaled the beginning of centuries of persecution that very nearly destroyed the pious sect. The sect was granted refuge in Piedmont by the Count of Savoy, even though the House of Savoy remained staunchly Catholic. Persecutions continued through the 1400s until the only refuge left was in the Cottian Alps southwest of Turin. When news of the Protestant Reformation reached the Waldensians, the Tavola Valdese decided to seek fellowship with the Protestants. Their acceptance by German and Swiss Protestants put them firmly in the Calvinist camp rather than on a fringe of Catholicism, even though Calvin’s beliefs did not follow Peter Waldo’s original sectarian beliefs. Later Waldensians aligned with the Presbyterian Church.

While finally granted freedom of worship after the French Revolution, a group of Waldensians emigrated to North Carolina in the late-1800s to establish the town of Valdese in the western piedmont region. And there the Waldensians remain to this day, with a rich history, a great winery, and even an outdoor drama to depict their flight from persecution. They have a Waldensian Museum and a Waldensian Trail of Faith open to visitors, as is the Waldensian Heritage Winery which offers tours and wine-tastings to small groups during operating hours all year long.

There is a Waldensian Festival held every August, where a Bocce Ball tournament is held on the Waldensian packed-clay Bocce Court, and the Trail of Faith and Visitor’s Center offer historic information. The outdoor drama, “From This Day Forward” is staged every Friday and Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. during July and August every year at the outdoor amphitheater.

Check out some of the links below for further detailed information, and be sure to include a visit to Valdese on your North Carolina travel itinerary this year!

Links:

Visit Valdese: Tourism Site

Waldensian Heritage Wines

Anabaptist Network: The Waldensians

People who choose to live in the countryside are bound to encounter bears, and most are no worse for the experience. Yet as the countryside becomes ever more populated, the number of bear encounters in more urban settings rises as well. The last installment provided some good links to information about the habits and habitats of NC’s considerable bear population, good to keep in mind whether you’re living in North Carolina or just visiting.

Bears are smart critters. They can become expert at cracking “bearproof” latches on coolers, cars and trucks door handles, garbage bins and dumpster lids to avail themselves of food. They readily learn to beg, pretty much like dogs do. They can put up some impressively aggressive bluffing in order to gain access to golf carts, campsites and your dog’s food. They’ve been known to walk right into cabins, garages, pubs, restaurants and even resort hotels, making themselves right at home.

There are stories about bears that move in to hibernate in the earthen basements of mountain cabins as well as inside the barns, spring houses and root cellars of backcountry homesteads. Advice from old timers familiar with bears (and chock full of bear tales) can be useful. During unexpected encounters they advise body postures, direct eye contact and the kind of dominant behaviors that tend to work well on aggressive dogs to scare them out of an attack. Of course, bears are pretty good at the same sort of behaviors, and often scare people more than people scare bears!

Enough bears are killed on North Carolina roadways every year to have the state engineering wildlife underpasses into road expansion projects. Not just in the mountainous region either, as most of North Carolina’s bears live in the piedmont and lowlands. Wildlife researchers estimate about 2 bears per square mile in parts of the state from Charlotte to the coast.

“It was a weekend camping trip to the Smokies back in ‘72,” Clint Thomas reminisced. “The boat [a Polaris submarine] was in dry dock in Charleston for refit and refueling, my buddies and I often made the 6-hour drive to the mountains for some R&R in those days.” Thomas is still wiry and fit, but not as young now as he was then.

“There were three of us packing along a trail into the backcountry for some non-suburban camping in the rough. An early summer evening rain was falling steady,” he said. We were getting really soaked, which didn’t help our mood any. When we first sighted the bear he was almost as grumpy as we were, started snapping his jaws at us and making front-paw jumps toward us where we’d frozen in our tracks.”

They were in no mood for a bear-fight, so the three young sailors headed off the trail up the mountainside directly for about a hundred yards, catching a further switchback of that same trail higher up. “We thought we’d put some actual distance between us and the bear, and kept on hiking for at least a mile along the trail as it zig-zagged up the mountain. By then it was dusk, so we began to pitch our camp and gather firewood.”

Thomas went to the nearby creek for water, suddenly found himself face-to-face with that very same bear. “He was big, more than 300 pounds,” he says. “He was perched somewhat clumsily on a big boulder in the creek, acting like he wasn’t happy at all to have us in his yard.”

Seems the men had neglected to envision the actual distance from the bear they were when they decided to make camp. Despite the mile or more of trail, the switchbacks gave only an illusion of distance. In truth they’d chosen to make camp just a couple of hundred yards from where they’d first encountered the bear. Thomas and his friends stood still, warily eying the perched bear.

“All of a sudden that bear took a flying leap off that boulder straight at us, graceful as a gazelle despite his size. We knew right then that he could have us in a moment, whenever he chose. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this bear wasn’t going to share his territory with us happily.”

They left the tent half erected, grabbed their packs and headed straight down the mountain in the growing darkness at a full gallop. “We got back to where we were parked in maybe a fifth of the time it had taken us to hike to the campsite,” Thomas laughed. “Funny how mountains can disorient you that way. You think you’re miles away but you’re really not.”

They spent the night uncomfortably in the car, drove home the next morning in what turned out to be a solid 3-day rainy period. “It wasn’t good camping weather anyway,” Thomas reflected. He says the three old Navy buddies tell their bear story whenever they get together, and in their own circle of family and friends more than 30 years later.

“A good bear story lasts a lifetime, you see,” Thomas gleams with an ironic smile. “And we don’t even have the scars to prove it!”

Links:

Victor the wrestling bear took on all challengers – and won

Most Bear Visits Motivated by Food and Lack of Habitat

The Bears Among Us

Visitors to North Carolina’s capital city of Raleigh, or to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle have a number of excellent museums to explore. Whether your family’s interests tend toward great works of art, natural science, wildlife and ecology or history, the area has institutions that offer just what you want to see or know.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh is free to the public and offers a unique view of the world through the lens of North Carolina’s diverse geography, geology, plants and animals. Beginning on October 27and running through March 2, 2008, the museum will be hosting an innovative dinosaur exhibit featuring a 60-food model of an apatosaurus, a full-sized T. Rex skeleton as well as a robotic version that boasts of being the most accurate three-dimensional representation of a dinosaur in motion ever created.

There will also be one of the largest re-creations of a prehistoric environment ever built, and the museum is planning to offer a wide range of lectures, hands-on workshops and other programs for adults, families and children throughout the duration of the exhibit. The museum’s Prairie Ridge Ecostation in west Raleigh offers a stroll-through lowland arboretum that showcases every single wetland tree species in the state, a working exhibit of green architecture and a display of wildlife friendly landscaping.

The North Carolina Museum of Art boasts a permanent collection of masterworks that span a 5,000 year history, from ancient Egypt to modern artists. There are examples of Egyptian funerary art, sculptures and painted vases from the Greek and Roman periods, and important european works from Botticellii, Raphael, van Dyck, Rubens and Monet. There are galleries dedicated to African, ancient American and Oceanic art as well as Jewish ceremonial artworks.

Like the Natural Sciences museum, the NC Museum of Art offers daily guided tours and is free to the public. There are usually concerts, lectures, book signings, films, workshops and special exhibits going on as well, so check out the calendar of events when planning your visit.

Another treasure of free knowledge and fascinating facts is the North Carolina Museum of History, also in Raleigh. With artifacts and exhibits covering North Carolina’s native American prehistory and every century between then and now, there are also special events, exhibits, films, lectures and child-parent activities offered on a regular basis. The museum also houses the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Indian dance, basket weaving, mountain music, folk artists, even organized field trips make this museum a regular part of family life for residents of the tri-cities area and a popular attraction for visitors.

The Exploris IMAX theater offers the only 3D IMAX experience in North Carolina, so families will want to have tickets in hand when they arrive in the Raleigh area. There are other wonderful places to visit in the tri-cities area that would fill a family week up to the brim. Duke Gardens occupies 55 acres of the Duke University campus and is recognized as one of the premier public gardens in the U.S.

Just down the road at Chapel Hill’s UNC campus is the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Offering tours, classes, lectures and special events, the Garden also runs a self-service plant sale on a daily basis from April through October for everyone interested in gardening. While your family is at the UNC-CH campus you will want to visit the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, where you can meet some real scientists and view the heavens both at the planetarium shows and through the lenses of the observatory’s telescopes.

There’s always something going on for kids and families to do. Plenty of things to learn and fun adventures to be had at any of the fine museums, gardens and educational attractions in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.

Links:

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Prairie Ridge Ecostation

North Carolina Museum of Art

North Carolina Museum of History

Exploris IMAX theater

Duke Gardens

North Carolina Botanical Garden

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center