MEANDERING MID-STATE NORTH CAROLINA (Mark)

I believe this is excellent advice!  More about the bookstore later in this post.

We were in a different part of North Carolina for a couple of days, and stayed in an AirBnB for the trip.  The building backed up on a golf course and we had dinner sitting on the balcony, enjoying the peace and quiet in absolutely perfect weather.  If you pay attention to the ground you will notice something different.

The soil in this area of North Carolina has sandy soil very reminiscent of Pacific Grove, rather than the red clay soil that we have.  Pinehurst has a number of famous golf courses as this type of soil is perfect for links-style golf.  But we were not here for the golf on this trip.

Cheri came to attend a quilt show in the Pinehurst Equestrian Center.  This complex was huge!  It has at least two full-size horse racing tracks, as well as all sorts of other horse-related activity areas.

I could hear an announcer in the distance, and I decided to see what was happening.  I began hiking toward the sound and came across a golf course, actually Pinehurst Number One.  This was located between the two main race track areas.  And arriving at the infield of the second track I was able to watch parts of two polo matches.

On the way home we decided to stop in the very small town of Pittsboro to take a look around.  The town has an interesting traffic circle around the courthouse.  As Cheri went to check out the ice cream availability I walked uphill just a bit.  At one corner I found these three historical markers. 

Cheri saw this striking photo in a display window, but there were too many customers inside to ask about it.

I was taking this photo:

when I realized it was chocolate behind the glass!  My pun-loving friend Ross would approve of the shop name:  The Chocolate Cellar.

Inside was quite the selection of sweets.

It was a good thing we did not taste test anything until we were in the truck driving away, as the taste of each item was incredible, some of the best chocolate I have ever tasted.  If we had tried anything in the store we would have brought way too much home!

The next business up the hill, Circle City Books:

This is a wonderful bookstore, and an interesting story.  The owner said this was the only building that he would use for his business.  He had visualized the books being painted down the side of his building, and if he could not get this building, he was not going to do a store.

His daughter did a primo job painting the mural:

and the owner has possibly excelled her work in his pursuit of the new, used, and rare books he sells.  His used books are high-quality (which is not something I would say about all used book stores). 

We will be going back to Pittsboro and we will definitely get some more chocolate at the Chocolate Cellar, and we will be bringing more books home from Circle City Books.