Moving to Winston-Salem has given us two new calendars to govern our lives. The first is the seasonal cycle, featuring four honest-to-goodness seasons, each with distinctive delights and challenges. The other is the academic calendar. Several of my volunteer activities are university-affiliated, and my library gig is work-from-home this summer while renovations are happening on campus. More generally, the rhythms of life in a college town are oriented around the academic calendar; once all the students left for the summer the roads became noticeably emptier and the restaurants less crowded. The summer season means that plants (read: weeds) are growing like mad at the various ornamental gardens where I volunteer, while vegetable garden bounty galore is on offer at the weekly Cobblestone Farmers Market. Summer is also the season for free outdoor concerts and movies in a variety of locations around town.
The intersection of these two calendars in the summer — hot, humid weather combined with time “off” from school — really changes the way we plan our schedule, from the time of day we choose to work or exercise outdoors to the days we elect to patronize local restaurants (Fridays and Saturdays are on the table once again!). It makes summer into its own special season in a way it hasn’t been for me since I left school. When we were working in Florida we barely noticed the change in seasons, since we were cocooned in air conditioning year-round. When we were traveling full time and chasing 70 degree weather, summer generally meant more elevation and trees while winter meant desert or beach, but our activity schedule remained pretty similar.
Seeing the seasons flying past (why was spring so fleeting?) could cause disappointment, but I find myself energized by the prospect of something new just around the corner. And after I returned from the big trip to Scotland with my mom (posts here and here), it was already time to focus on our summer adventures. Many people in our area plan summer getaways to the mountains, the beach, or both. As believers in the wisdom of crowds, we were more than happy to try out this practice of summer getaways, and started out with two short trips to the higher elevations and pleasant temperatures of our nearby mountains. This also gave us a chance to direct some tourism dollars to places that were devastated by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024.
Birthday at the Pisgah Inn
When we traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway late last summer — obviously an inspired choice since large sections sustained significant damage in Helene and have no certain timeline for repair — we made a brief stop at the Pisgah Inn and vowed to make a return visit. In an unusual (for us) example of following through on good intentions, we actually made that visit! The Inn itself did not suffer damage from the storm, but with the Parkway closed both north and south of its location, the Pisgah Inn is experiencing a dramatic decline in traffic and visitation.
Our three-night stay in late May included my birthday, and it was a marvelous place to visit for a special occasion. While the hotel is not especially luxurious, every room has a sizeable balcony with breathtaking long views across a mostly-undeveloped mountain landscape. While not lounging on the balcony enjoying the views and chilly temperatures, we took several hikes directly from the property. For our day-of-arrival leg-stretch we hiked out to the summit of Little Bald Mountain, which was poorly named as there was no clearing at the peak offering views. For our main hiking day, we chose to just take the Mountains-to-Sea Trail east from the Inn out for several hours, then return. Our initial leg was along the Buck Spring Trail and then we continued on the Shut-In Trail. We enjoyed the nice views provided by hiking along the face of the ridge, and didn’t feel one bit of regret for avoiding the punishing vertical ascent up nearby Mount Pisgah.
One day we headed down to Asheville to visit the North Carolina Arboretum and meet up with friends Eric and Laurel. Together we explored the spring plant sale, although none of us have any place to put more landscape plants, and we thoroughly enjoyed catching up with them. During our stay we also had several delicious meals in the hotel dining room, which has the best views on the Parkway along with matching prices, and supplemented this with grocery store subs and snacks. During our drive home we marveled at our ability to reach a completely different climate and terrain in just a three-hour drive, which explains why mountain trips are the “done thing” here.
June Visit to Blowing Rock
We followed this up with a second mountain trip to a location that’s even closer to home. With a drive time of less than two hours, reaching the cute town of Blowing Rock near Boone is so easy that we’ve visited before as a day trip. For this trip, we decided to use Blowing Rock as a base to explore several different towns and get to know the area better. Ken located an excellent AirBnB between Blowing Rock and Boone (this one) and we booked a mid-week stay in late June.
Our trip coincided with a heat dome bringing unusually high temperatures to the entire eastern half of the US. While we got at least 10 degrees of relief in temperature compared to home, highs in the 80s were still pretty warm for hiking. On the afternoon of our arrival we hiked the well-maintained and gentle inclines of the carriage trails at Moses H. Cone Memorial Park and we were quite glad for the abundant shade. For our second day, we ventured out to Banner Elk to take a look at the town and the surrounding ski areas, Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain. We hiked on the multi-use (hike and mountain bike) trails in the Emerald Outback complex, and our journey to the trailhead took us directly through Banner Elk (charming, but no nicer than Blowing Rock) and the Beech Mountain ski resort community (completely full of Florida license plates). Then in the afternoon we stopped in at Grandfather Vineyard & Winery to sample the wares. While the wines weren’t as good as the ones we enjoyed in the Charlottesville area last summer, the prime views of Grandfather Mountain, attractive outdoor seating areas, and live music made for a mellow afternoon visit.
Our third and final day we visited Julian Price Memorial Park, which together with the adjacent Cone Park comprises the largest recreational area along the entire Blue Ridge Parkway. Our hike to Hebron Falls was about a mile longer than the AllTrails version since a bridge outage (Helene damage) forced us to start at a different access point. The falls were underwhelming, like most Appalachian waterfalls, but once again the gentle incline and heavy shade were appreciated. We returned to Blowing Rock for lunch at The Speckled Trout and browsed around town a bit, admiring the riot of colors created by the ubiquitous, well-maintained flower boxes. Our conclusion from these explorations is that we like Blowing Rock the best of all the small mountain towns in the area for its blend of charming boutiques and restaurants and close proximity to Cone and Price Parks. Which is handy, because it is also the most convenient for us to drive to.
Summer Essentials
While we appreciated the change of scenery (and temperature) provided by our mountain getaways, we have also tried to make the most of our summer days at home. We finished off the “school year” by attending a talk in May by renowned economist Raj Chetty at an event organized by the Winston-Salem Foundation. Dr. Chetty’s work uses big data to study income inequality and identify factors that can increase economic mobility, and his engaging presentation included plenty of detailed information about our specific state, region, and county. It was pretty inspiring to see a huge ballroom of people at the convention center hanging on every word from this future Nobel Prize winner, hoping to glean policy recommendations to improve economic opportunities for everyone in our community.
As gardens in the area burst with ripe vegetables, we’ve been going increasingly crazy with our weekly veggie purchases at the farmers market, because who can resist plump delicious tomatoes, squashes, peppers, and cucumbers? Add to that the fact that we visited a local U-pick blueberry farm and filled a bucket with five pounds of blueberries, and our vitamin levels have never been so robust.
We celebrated Independence Day by carrying our lawn chairs to the green in Old Salem and tapping our toes along with patriotic tunes at a Salem Band concert. The history nerd in me is thrilled to be able to attend an event on the exact same site as one of the earliest recorded American Independence Day celebrations — a public musical performance on July 4, 1783, the first year that no American cities were occupied by British forces. On the other hand, the misanthrope in me was very amused watching some possibly-a-little-tipsy clowns seated near us almost set themselves on fire with sparklers during the finale (Stars and Stripes Forever, of course). All’s well that ends well, since the fire department did not need to get involved.
Finally, the annual virtual (zoom) summer book club that I’ve been co-hosting for a few years has been reading and discussing two excellent books this summer focused on our relationship with animals:
- Perestroika in Paris, by Jane Smiley
Both books are well-written, thought-provoking, and full of interesting fodder for discussion, but both are also light and fun in a way that makes for perfect summer reading. It’s been a pleasure to take these along to savor during the downtime on our getaways.
And as if there wasn’t enough color in all the previous photos, here are a few of the showstopping scenes I’ve stumbled onto at Reynolda Gardens this summer:
We envy your closeness to the cooler mountains, beautiful gardens, and outstanding farmers markets. Bill and Linda
We are very happy with the mixture of amenities here. It’s not a city that dominates those “best places to live” lists but it meets our needs very well!
Oh, summer! Fruits and vegetables and hiking and flowers and sparkling days. Sure looks like you two have more than enough great activities from which to choose. Sorry the mountain escapes didn’t give you quite the heat-relief you were seeking, but it sure is nice to live close to delightful getaway locales that provide just enough difference to scratch that travel itch.
I am really enjoying the feeling of summer as a separate season with its own benefits and drawbacks. While the heat and humidity are not great, these little getaways give us enough variety to make the weather seem less oppressive. And frankly, it’s not that terrible compared to Florida. Our morning (7 am) blueberry picking was very pleasant even though temps got up to 90 later that day. I’ll take it!
Your posts always make me miss life on the east coast – with the exception of the pictures where I can see the haze in the air… oh humidity – you are the worst. But those gorgeous mountain views really are breathtaking and the idea of abundant flower gardens, farmer’s markets, and college town activities is certainly appealing. Best of all, though, the opportunities to see drunk clowns light themselves on fire as patriotic tunes play in the background. ‘Murica!!!!!! LOLOLOLOLOL
Yeah, the humidity is a real bear. We hiked at 5,000 feet and 74 degrees at Beech Mountain, but high humidity meant we still sweated through our shirts. Not a feeling that I love, but everyone we encountered in the area was complaining about the unheard-of high temperatures so a more typical week might give us a better break from our lower elevations. It was 49 degrees our final morning at the Pisgah Inn so we obviously found cooler temperatures there. Then again, I’ve given up on expecting any predictability in weather any more so we might have a completely different experience next summer.
The college town experience is definitely working for us. But as you point out, a large number of educated people doesn’t mean a community is immune to the clowns that exist anywhere. And sometimes the academics are the clowns. Gotta love the diversity of our great nation!
You guys really are making the most of your new home town! Even though we’re about 2,000 feet higher than you are here in Western NC, it has been way hotter than we expected. (In fact, we’ve had some truly miserable sweaty days!!) But as you said, there are delights to be had in the languid summer season…blueberry picking, abundant farmers’ markets, riotous summer blooms, and summer concerts and festivals galore! Plus swimming! It sounds like you’re having a wonderful time, and your short getaways to the mountains or beach are perfect summer getaways. We’ve also found that Blowing Rock is our favorite of those little towns north of us. Isn’t it fun to have so much to choose from?
Between several deep freezes over the winter and several heat domes in the summer, 2025 is definitely testing our willingness to fully embrace the extreme of all four seasons. That being said, I do like the length of the seasons, since I know they won’t go on forever. And we really love our location! The activities in town plus the proximity to “change of pace” locations is perfect for us.