First Day of Summer! Here's How to Enjoy it Outside!

Koka Booth is awesome, movie or no movie.

It's the longest day of the year!  Sixteen whole hours of daylight are in our forecast for today and it's a beautiful, humidity free 85 degree day.  I know I blogged earlier this week about how awesome it is to see a movie outdoors, but it really, truly is!  There are three different places for you to catch a movie outdoors tonight--even if you don't go to the drive-in.  Here they are!


You know I love the drive-in.  Raleigh Road Drive In in Henderson is a short drive away and tonight they're hosting Macy's Great American Drive In Event.  There's LOTS of stuff to do with the kiddies before hand, and they are showing TWO movies for free tonight:  The Smurfs (2011) and Ghostbusters (1984).  Get the info at the link--and get there early because once the drive-in is full, it's full.  Keep in mind concessions are super cheap and they have real food, too, so you don't even need to worry about grabbing dinner first. 

Raleigh Road Drive In's Website


If you don't feel like driving to Henderson and want to stay close to Raleigh, you can see two outdoor flicks tonight.  The North Carolina Museum of Art shows films as part of their Summer Movies series.  Tonight's movie is The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which came out last year.  Emma Watson from the Harry Potter franchise tries to get away from being typecast as Hermione by acting in this movie.  It's supposed to be great.  NC MOA does the movies on their lawn next to the actual museum building.   Click the link for prices and show time. 

NC Museum of Art's Summer Movies

And finally, last but certainly not least, is the movie playing tonight at Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary. For your tweens and pre-tweens, and even adults too, the Hunger Games is showing tonight as part of their WakeMed Movies By Moonlight series.  It's not expensive, and Koka Booth does tons of fun movies every year, they even do a Grease sing along in the summer.  Check out prices and info at the link for Koka Booth below.

Koka Booth Movies By Moonlight


Whatever it is that you choose to do with your extra daylight hours today, I hope it's something awesome.  And, something outdoors.  After all, it's not often that we start summer not dying of heat and humidity.  See you at the movies!


Alli


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Spending the Night with the Durham Bulls

My son and I went to the Durham Bulls game this past Saturday night - a perfect outing for Fathers Day Weekend, made even more awesome by the fact that we spent the night on the field!  During the game, I tweeted that picture of Teddy and I to @durhambulls and the Bulls showed it on the Jumbotron.

Yeah, that was some kind of awesome.  It's part of Scouting Night, so our Cub Scout Pack 390 pitched our tents starting around 50 minutes after the conclusion of the game.  "The Sandlot" was shown on the screen, dads and sons played catch and frisbee, kids played tag, and finally it was lights out around 12:30 a.m.

Wake-up call was an unpleasant 7 a.m. - which was really 6:15 since there were kids already running around by then.  The Bulls fed us cereal and we were on our way at 8:30 (and father & son clearly needed a nap later in the day).

Appropriately for such a great evening, the Bulls won the game on a home run - lighting up the bull on one tremendous Fathers Day Weekend.

Foster
Radio 96.1

Old School Lives on in the Triangle Via the Raleigh Road Drive-In

In the days of 3-D, IMAX, and everything being bigger!  Better!  Faster!  More!  It's nice to sit back and do it old-school sometimes. 

My fiance wanted to spend Saturday night taking his kids to their first-ever drive-in movie.  The Raleigh Road Drive-In, in Henderson, seems far away but really isn't.  It's CHEAP compared to today's movie prices.  And it gives you an experience you normally wouldn't have.  It harkens back to the days of Grease (yes, I thought about Danny and Sandy singing to each other, mentioned it to my 11 year old step daughter...and she told me she's never seen Grease.  But THAT is a blog for another day.)   But, truthfully, I know it sounds cliche--but there's nothing like seeing a movie at the drive-in. 

As you can see in the pic above, the drive-in was packed on Saturday night for their showing of Man of Steel and Fast and Furious 6.  Yes, you get TWO movies.  A double feature!  For the four of us, it was just $22.  For TWO MOVIES.  Old school movie theater, old school prices for sure.  Popcorn and two sodas?  Just $8 total.  Beforehand, kids ran around  and played on the swings or the playset they've installed to the left of the screen.  And, Raleigh Road Drive-In went all out for Saturday night: they brought Superman.

Yes, it's grainy.  It's better from far away, trust me.

Kids could meet Superman, get their picture with him, run around and play and just generally be kids.  When it got very dark, around 9:30, that's when the movie started.  So, it is a late start, but it's completely worth it.  There's no Dolby sound, not even really stereo (unless you count what's coming out of your radio) and there's certainly no 3-D or IMAX involved, but the Raleigh Road Drive-In in Henderson is an experience that no regular theater can match--it's great family time, a great date if you want to try to impress someone with your old-school-ness, and it's not at all far away.  So, why are you seeing a movie indoors?  Get a lawn chair, make a comfy bed in the back of your hatchback.  The definition of an awesome movie experience is right here in the Triangle, and you can't beat it.


Alli


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Triangle Restaurant Week? Why Not?

The exterior of one of my favorite places to eat in Raleigh, Sitti.   Probably helps their cause that on their website, in the pics that flash thru, there's a pic of my birthday with all my friends 3 years ago.

One of my favorite weeks in the Triangle is upon us.  Why?  Because 85 different Triangle restaurants are participating in Triangle Restaurant Week, which kicked off yesterday (6/3.)

I love to try new restaurants and check out all the great local flavors that we have.  Restaurant week is something that was started in large cities, but seems to have caught on here.  Raleigh in particular has embraced the little city with a big city attitude thing, and I love it.  There's always something new going on, or opening, or a quirkly little shop popping up here or there.  And that's why I love Restaurant Week--it gives me a chance to try a new place, or one that was previously out of my price range, and you can try it, too!

With Restaurant Week, there are what they call Prix Fixe menus:  they offer you something from each course for a fixed price.  It's great, because you can get a literal soup to nuts experience at whatever restaurant you choose, and you can get it at a reduced rate.  Click here to see a list of restaurants that are participating this week.  You will be shocked at how cheap it is.  For example, just to make sure that the restaurant I featured above, Sitti, was in fact part of this week's festivities, I clicked on their Restaurant Week menu.  Does that say you get all that for $20?  TWENTY DOLLARS?!?  That can't be right...can it?


Go try something new!

Alli


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