Day Trip to Raleigh on the Carolinian
May 16, 2024
Tim Dwight and I had discussed doing a day trip to Raleigh on the train, and we came up with a reason to go ahead with it. The North Carolina History Museum will close in the fall, so we decided to visit it before hot weather set in. It turns out that the third floor exhibits will close on June 4, so it is good that we went ahead when we did.
I had ridden through the new station in Raleigh, but had not stopped there. I have done day trips there with several sets of friends over the years, but not any time recently. We arrived just after 10 am. On the way, when we were stopped at the station in Salisbury, Tim took a picture of a building with ghost signs for both Coke and Pepsi.
The Raleigh station
Somebody had recommended Clyde Cooper’s Barbecue, so after a ten minute walk, we had an early lunch there.
The Carolina Hurricanes were still in the Stanley Cup playoffs, so these banners were all over town.
As we walked down the street, we passed the state capitol building, which is under renovation, and headed on to the museums. The General Assembly building can be seen at a distance in the picture of the museum buildings.
The first stop in the NC History Museum was the NC Sports Hall of Fame which is housed there. Perhaps there will be some temporary presence somewhere during renovation. Bob McKillop was recently inducted, but they don't have anything about him except for a screen in the main lobby showing this year's additions. There are many famous names among those already honored.
The rest of the museum features the diversity, military contributions, and inventions of the state. There is a children’s room. Other exhibits include recreations of a drug store and “Carbine” Williams’s workshop.
A model of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s ship
We spent the rest of the day at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. I was disappointed to find out that the Living Conservatory wouldn't reopen until May 25. I tried taking some butterfly pictures from outside the glass, and got very little cooperation from them. Tim was able to see the sloth, which hides much of the time. He also saw the guy who makes videos of jumping insects that we see on TV. He was walking down the hall on that level. Then I went down to see the dinosaur skeletons.
This is a pterosaur. They were the first vertebrates to fly. They are reptiles, only distantly kin to dinosaurs and birds. The wing was formed from a greatly elongated fourth finger, unlike birds. They came in a variety of sizes.
Not a Rodent of Unusual Size, but a giant sloth
Years ago when I first visited this museum, I noticed the bones in a whale’s flipper and how similar they are to the bones in our arms and hand, just in very different proportions.
There are exhibits on the different regions and climates in North Carolina, This diagram shows some of the geologic history.
