Family Friendly Things To Do In Charlotte, NC.

If you think Charlotte might be your new home, it helps to know what and where the fun is. The top 5 family fun attractions in the Charlotte area are: Carowinds, the U.S. National Whitewater Center, Discovery Place, NASCAR Hall of Fame and Great Wolf Lodge. Carowinds, which is right on the edge of Charlotte but actually in South Carolina, is a 398-acre amusement park with more than 50 rides. There are 13 roller coasters and a water park with two wave pools and several slides and tube rides. This year, Dinosaurs Alive! Opened at Carowinds. This new interactive attraction features 32 life-sized roaring and moving dinosaurs. If you love the outdoors, its not far from Charlotte. In fact, the U.S. National Whitewater Center is still inside Charlotte’s city limits. Go kayaking, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, take a canopy tour, climb the climbing wall or paddleboard the Catawba River at this beautiful whitewater center which is located not far from the urban areas of Charlotte. Considered one of the best hands-on science museums in the nation, Discovery Place, which is in uptown Charlotte, also has an IMAX Dome Theatre. Families can have fun in this newly-renovated museums with not only the fun interactive exhibits but they can also take part in summer camps and educational programs. On the other end of uptown Charlotte, sits the NASCAR Hall of Fame. See what it’s like for race car drivers in the iRacing Simulator Refuel or challenge yourself y jacking up a car to change a tire with the Kobolt Pit Challenge. Watch a film about NASCAR in the High Octane Theater and grab a bite at the Pit Stop Cafe before exploring more of Charlotte. Towards Concord and not too far from Charlotte is the Great Wolf Lodge. This family resort has 400 guest suites, kid-friendly spa, games, dining and even an ice cream parlor. But the real fun is the 80,000 square-foot indoor waterpark with its 11 water slides, 1,000 gallon tipping bucket and four pools. Looking for something else fun for family in Charlotte and the surrounding area? Here’s a list of a few other venues, museums and attractions to check out: Billy Graham Library Bost Grist Mill (Concord) C. Grier Beam Truck Museum (Cherryville) Carl J. McEwen Historic Village (Mint Hill) Carolinas Aviation Museum Charlotte Trolley Powerhouse Museum N.C. Transportation Museum (Spencer) President James K. Polk Historic Site (Pineville) Reed Gold Mine State Historic Site (Midland) Schiele Museum of Natural History (Gastonia) Wells Fargo History Museum Energy Explorium (Huntersville) Fort Dobbs (Statesville) Heritage Farmstead (Statesville) Historic Brattonsville (McConnells, SC) Historic Rosedale Carolina Raptor Center Hugh Torrance House and Store (Huntersville) Iredell Museum kids@play (Statesville) Latta Plantation Levine Museum of the New South Lincoln County Museum of History (Lincolnton) Main Street Children's Museum (Rock Hill, SC) Mint Museum Mint Museum of Craft and Design Museum of the Waxhaws (Waxhaw) Museum of York County (Rock Hill, SC) N.C. Auto Racing Hall of Fame (Mooresville) Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden (Belmont) As you can see Charlotte offers a lot of fun and different activities for families from museums, galleries to sport venues. Charlotte is also home to the NFL Carolina Panthers, NBA Charlotte Bobcats, Minor league Hockey team the Charlotte Checkers and Triple A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox the Charlotte Knights. In addition to the speedway which hosts the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the Bank of America 500 in October. Dave diCecco Realtor/Broker Helen Adams Realty Cell: 704-519-7895 ddicecco@helenadamsrealty.com www.davedicecco.com

Traveling Around Charlotte Not For The Faint of Heart

One thing newbies in Charlotte find exceptionally confusing about this city is just driving around it. There are lots of ways to get from one place to another but it seems like Charlotte just loops around. Take a drive on any of Charlotte’s major thoroughfares and you will find that you’ve driving on three, four and maybe even five different streets without ever once taken a turn. You could start on Idlewild Road then Rama Road find out you are on Sardis Road and before you know it Fairview which changes to Tyvola. There are other roads that abruptly change names without any rhyme or reason like Alexander Road and Rea Road. A lot of streets in Charlotte have similar names, which is also confusing. There are Providence Road, Providence Lane, Sardis Road and Sardis Lane. New drivers in Charlotte will find that these road cross each other just to make things more crazy. Looking for a specific address? Make sure you know whether its north, south, east or west or you will find yourself on the other side of Charlotte. There are actually same number addresses on North Tryon Street and South Tryon Street so you’d better know which direction you’re going in before you head out. Take a quick trip around Myers Park and you find yourself at an intersection in which Queens Road East, Queens Road West and Queens Road all intersect. And there isn’t just one street in Mecklenburg County that has these problems. Even Queens Road and Providence Road cross each other but if you want to continue on one road and not the other, you will have to make a turn to stay on the road you want, otherwise you’ll be on an entirely different one. Some streets are named for the town and the direction you’re going in. For example, Matthews Township Parkway is inside Matthews city limits but travel one way the road becomes Pineville-Matthews Road and Matthews-Mint Hill Road in the other. Not sure if you are still in Charlotte or that maybe you’ve crossed into one Mecklenburg County’s neighboring towns? Check the street signs. If you see a white crown on them, you are still in the Queen City. I-485 is a wonderful way to loop around Charlotte but take the inner loop when you need the outer loop and you’ll find yourself circling nearly the entire city. Most of the time if you are inner loop, you are closer to Charlotte, while the outer loop tends to bring you closer to the other cities in the area, like Matthews, Mint Hill, Huntersville, Concord and Pineville. However, this isn’t always the case either. Instead of driving Charlotte, you could ride the LYNX Blue Line, the 9.6 mile light rail. Park for free at any park and ride stations starting at I-485 and South Boulevard and ride to the end of the rail line, which is ImaginOn. Round trip tickets are inexpensive and children under 5 ride free. The Gold Rush, a trolley replica, is a fun and free way to tour Charlotte’s Center City weekdays from 7 am to 6 pm. Someday a streetcar may ride the tracks on Elizabeth Avenue but this project has yet to get the green light. Charlotte has also recently started the largest urban bike sharing program in the Southeast. There are 200 bikes located at 20 stations located near uptown Charlotte. Other unusual ways to motor around Charlotte is the pedicab, which is available Wednesdays to Saturdays after 7 pm or even horse drawn carriage rides in Center City. Tour Charlotte on a segway if you’re feeling a little more adventurous. One of the busiest airports in the world is the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, which is located in southwest Charlotte, close to I-485 and I-77. Want to take a train instead? Ride Amtrak’s Piedmont to Raleigh or take the Carolinian to Washington D.C. or New York. Still want to brave the mean streets of Charlotte and drive around the city but are still confused about which direction to go? Then the best traveling companion you’ll have is a GPS. Dave diCecco Realtor/Broker Helen Adams Realty Cell: 704-519-7895 ddicecco@helenadamsrealty.com www.davedicecco.com

Board Of Education In Union County NC. Places Enrollment Cap On 3 Schools

I know a lot of families move because of school assignments. Last week the Union County Public School Board of Education voted on something I have never heard done before. In a 7-2 vote they voted to place an enrollment cap on three schools in Union County. What this means is that if your child is slated for one of these three schools and you move into that school district after November 13, 2013 your child will not be attending the school that is assigned to them because these schools have reached their enrollment cap. The schools affected by this and the new schools children will be bussed to are: Kensington Elementary School will now be reassigned to Waxhaw Elementary School. Students new to Marvin Ridge Middle School will now be reassigned to Parkwood Middle School and students new to Porter Ridge Middle School will now be reassigned to Piedmont Middle School. According to the Union County Public School website this enrollment cap will exist until such time as the Board of Education approves a student reassignment plan to alleviate the overcrowding in these schools. There is no timetable set for this to take place. In fact this decision caught parents and educators completely by surprise. Apparently the enrollment figures were higher than anticipated causing this issue to be addressed now versus in the summer months. Another twist to this which can have an effect on families moving into one of those school boundaries is if your child attend an elementary school and would be going to one of the middle schools the following year you are NOT grandfathered in. So if you move into the school boundaries for one of those schools after November 13, 2013 there is no guarantee your child will attend those schools the following year or year after until the Board of Education decides what to do with overcrowding at those schools.... Dave diCecco Realtor/Broker Helen Adams Realty Cell: 704-519-7895 ddicecco@helenadamsrealty.com www.davedicecco.com