Welcome to Travel Talk- the newest segment of the Kimberly Brooke blog! In these posts, I’ll share everything about my traveling journeys- from experiences to spots worthy of hitting up and lessons learned along the way. So, whether you’re traveling to these places soon, interested in my experiences, or looking for travel tips to use in the future, this is the spot for you!
In the first series on Travel Talk, I’ll share my experience in Charlotte, North Carolina with my mom, sister, and fiancé! This week, I’ll share all the journeys we went on during our first half of the trip. But there will be more! Stay tuned to hear about the finale of our trip next Wednesday 🙌🏻
Without further ado, let’s start where all good stories start…
The beginning! The Friday before Labor Day, we made our 11 hour trek (including stops) to Charlotte, NC, but not before an almost full day of work for my fiancé and I! Mr. Rocanelli & Ms. Morse stayed at work until 1:00 PM and were met with a chorus of “don’t go”s and a sea of hugs before detangling ourselves from our kids and heading out, which leads me to my first tip right off the bat…
Tip #1 Don’t work on a travel day unless you have to
Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and the whole reason I stayed was to ensure they learned what they needed to for the day. However, this made traveling that evening almost impossible. Christopher (my fiancé) and I were absolutely exhausted and super rushed to do what we needed to do before getting on the road.
Once we got on the road, it was a bit easier as we were able to get into travel mode thankfully. From there, we drove to Jacksonville (Christopher and I’s old stomping grounds) to get some dinner. Unfortunately, the experience wasn’t the best as we decided to be adventurous with the meal my mom, sister, and I ordered… Oh well, we won’t be ordering that pizza again 🤷🏻♀️
The rest of the ride was pretty smooth sailing, and somehow Christopher made it through the whole ride as the driver while I passed out around 10:30 PM on and off from pure exhaustion 😅
We arrived at our AirBnB (which was beautiful!- 10/10 recommend) around 1:00 AM and promptly went to bed after settling in.
Our first actual day yielded so many fun adventures! But before we adventured, we definitely recharged from the long drive, which is our next tip:
Tip #2 Give yourself time to recharge from your travels so you can enjoy your time to the max
(This can look like resting the morning after travel or getting in early enough to settle and get a full night’s rest before heading to your adventures)
After a delicious home-made breakfast of avocado toast (thanks Christopher!), we headed out to our first stop: District 57.
District 57 is every competitive person’s dream! The two main activities include tactical laser tag, which looked killer though we didn’t do it, and The Grid. The Grid includes 30 challenges that require a combination of mental and physical stamina. You can purchase 30, 60, or 90 minutes of time in The Grid for your team to get as much done as possible.
On Day One, the four of us had 60 minutes to get as much done as possible, and made it to ~80% of the rooms and earned ~150 points (with the average for 60 minutes being 100 points) and, more importantly, we had so much fun!
From there, we went to the Market at 7th Street for some good eats. All of the shops in the building were local and the food was absolutely incredible! Christopher and I split home-made pasta that was to die for and my sister and mother got home-made waffles loaded with tons of deliciousness.
From there, we headed back to the house for a quick rest before going back out to the outlet malls, which leads me to my third tip of the day…
Tip #3: Build breaks into your schedule
(This will allow you to keep actually having fun instead of running from activity to activity feeling overwhelmed and trying to fit it all in)
The outlet mall was successful as we all walked away with new shoes, but finding dinner afterwards was a bit of a mess with how late it got. We settled on Buca di Beppo, which is a Morse family staple in any city that has one. We rounded out our eating for the day with delicious Chicken Marsala and a perfect thin-crust pizza.
When we returned home, we were tired yet satisfied with what we accomplished for the day, so after a brief kiki with my sister and fiancé, I hit the hay.
And that was the end of Day One! Overall, the day was full of the perfect combination of rest and play. Stay tuned next week to find out what the reason we were in Charlotte was…