A Raleigh Weekend

Last weekend we decided to get out of the house again.  This time we headed up to Raleigh for the day.  Our plan was to grab lunch, explore the children's museum, run to the scuba store and hit up a local brewery for a few pints.

After a quick lunch at a local restaurant we headed over to Marbles, the children's museum.  I was shocked at the size of the place after being in Fayetteville's a week ago.  This was two levels of fun for the kids including a water area, arts and crafts center, a toddler room and the general exhibits.  They even had a fun career fair geared toward the kids set up for that weekend.

Relaxing on the pirate ship

We started off in toddler room and let Mara run around.  The room was forest themed and she enjoyed looking through the logs and climbing on the bridges.  With her love of stuffed animals, it wasn't long before she was carrying around one in each hand!

Shhhh Mama

From there we headed out into the larger area.  Similar to the Fayetteville museum it was pretty busy and dominated by older kids.  Despite this Mara was still able to sit in both the ambulance and sports car.  She played veterinarian at the local pet hospital and met some real service dogs!  We then made our way to the farm exhibit which is always a hit with her.  She fed the pigs and gathered the eggs from the chickens.  They also had a wall that played animal sounds and we probably stood a good five minutes there listening to the different animals on the farm.

Cruisin in her sports car

Petting the service dogs

After the farm Josh and Mara climbed into a pirate ship and made their way to the mast.  Mara also convinced Daddy to climb up with her into the play ground at the money exhibit where they came flying down the large slide together.

Feeding the pig

Almost three hours later we headed out and made our way to the scuba shop.  Josh and I wanted to get some basic gear for our upcoming Caribbean trip.  We both ended up purchasing fins.  I also got a mask to go with my new snorkel Josh gave me for Christmas.  Mara did great at the shop quickly making friends with a group of younger girls who were in shopping for an upcoming spring break trip.  Mommy and Daddy will do just about anything to have a few minutes of time to focus rather than chasing after her.

Climbing the pirate ship with Daddy

At the bottom of the slide

Then it was on to the brewery.  We've been to Raleigh Brewing Company twice before but never when it was this busy.  Mara loved pointing out all the dogs in the building (you can bring your dog inside) and it was a great distraction for her.  We ended up mainly in their home brewing supply store as Josh wandered the aisles salivating. ;)  He ended up getting some grains for his next brew as motivation to finish his system.

up high in the playground

Waving to mommy from the pirate's ship

After a quick detour to Trader Joe's for some of our favorites it was time to go home.  Overall we had a great day in Raleigh.  It's so nice to have a bigger city close by (it's under an hour) that we can escape to for the day.