The Cotton Festival
Last weekend, we made the short drive to Dunn, NC to visit with Nannie and attend the annual Cotton Festival. The North Carolina State Fair - which is kind of a big deal around these parts - had just wrapped up in Raleigh, but we missed out on those festivities thanks to our combination of crowd, roller coaster, and suspicious food aversions. Still, what's fall without a good outdoor fair, so we were all for driving south for the Dunn-sized version. We left on Saturday morning after running a few errands and met Nannie and Frankie (who also drove south for the day) downtown at the Festival.
There was, of course, plenty of Carolina barbecue to be had, but we spared ourselves the mystery food in lieu of the lunch Nannie had waiting for us at home (always, always the right choice).
Towards the back of the festival, we wandered for a while through the antique cars, trying hard to admire without touching.
After we had made the rounds, we headed back to our cars and on to Nannie's for lunch - soups and breads and cheese spread and cake and pie, oh my. Beats street vendor food any day.
Drew and I were ahead of Nannie and Frankie on the way out, so we stopped at the cotton field next to Nannie's neighborhood to snap a few pictures. All of the fields we passed between Raleigh and Dunn were snowy white and ready for harvest, hence the timely Cotton Festival.
In a side parking lot, we discovered what was easily my favorite part of the festival - the petting zoo. The 10-year-old naturalist-in-training was incredibly informative, the monkey was hilarious, and the tarantula was surprisingly soft and cuddly.
There was, of course, plenty of Carolina barbecue to be had, but we spared ourselves the mystery food in lieu of the lunch Nannie had waiting for us at home (always, always the right choice).
Towards the back of the festival, we wandered for a while through the antique cars, trying hard to admire without touching.
After we had made the rounds, we headed back to our cars and on to Nannie's for lunch - soups and breads and cheese spread and cake and pie, oh my. Beats street vendor food any day.
Drew and I were ahead of Nannie and Frankie on the way out, so we stopped at the cotton field next to Nannie's neighborhood to snap a few pictures. All of the fields we passed between Raleigh and Dunn were snowy white and ready for harvest, hence the timely Cotton Festival.
We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging about, just chatting, (for Drew, napping), and enjoying each other's company. Weekends like this one, with perfect weather, grandma's cooking, and downtime with family, are exactly why we had our hearts set on moving back to this corner of the world.
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