Inspiration from the Capital City

The more time I spend in Raleigh, the more I'm inspired by the stuff going on in the Capital city.

The recent influx of young entrepreneurs, artistic expression, and community-focused development in the past few years is sprouting a seemingly endless supply of Raleigh spots worth exploring.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to take an entire day perusing the city (accompanied by an extremely patient girlfriend), and got to check off a few things that had been on my Raleigh to-do list for quite a while.

Here's how the day unfolded:

Tom Shields's Forest of Chairs brings

wooden furniture back to their natural habitat

First stop was the North Carolina Art Museum's sprawling outdoor art walk: Art in the Park. 

NCMA commissions artists to create pieces that are interlaced with the natural surroundings, stretching across 30 acres of land between Blue Ridge Road, Wade Ave and 440. 

Varying in size, scale and subject matter, the Art Park exhibits sparked some great ideas and conversation, while we tried to decipher the artist's message about society and our current role interacting with nature. There were also some cool old chairs hanging out in trees.

We wandered through the Art Park trails, back up towards the NCMA main buildings, and came across the Rodin Sculpture Garden. 

Monday Boozin' on the Cheap: Lilly's Pizza in Raleigh

It was a happy accident that I found myself at Lilly's last Monday night (after checking out a new brewery in Five Points), but it lead to an amazing discovery:

Lilly's has $2 drafts on Monday's. 

Their pizza alone is good enough to cure even the worst case of the Monday's, but pair that with $2 beer and you might just forget how far away the weekend is.

Take note of the sensual pizza kiss

Big Star: Pesto, mozzarella, Parmesan, Gorgonzola,
fontina, roasted red peppers and pistachios 

"And it rules us all..."

Being a Durham resident, I'm veryyy familiar with the Lilly's Pizza in Brightleaf Square, but had never been to the Raleigh iteration before this visit. While the Glenwood Lilly's is significantly smaller than it's sister restaurant in the Bull City, it makes up for its lack of size in edgy character.

Free Yoga and (not free, but Tasty) Hot Dogs

Starting last night (08/27/14) and every Wednesday through September 24th, City Plaza in Raleigh is host to free Yoga held on the turf adjacent to Happy and Hale. 

It will feature instructors from different Yoga studios around the Triangle, and if the inaugural session is any indicator, is a great way to relax your body and mind while being outside to bask in the late summer/early fall evening weather. 

Free Yoga in the open air

Downtown Raleigh Food Truck Rodeo - May 4th

The first installment of the Raleigh Food Truck Rodeo series kicked off this past Sunday afternoon, and was the culmination of everything there is to love about the food truck scene in the Triangle.

Fayetteville Street was brimming with men, women, dogs, babies, strollers, a guy kicking fresh poetry freestyles in an all-white suit (food trucks are a powerful muse), all gathered together in order to bathe in the vast sea of food truck deliciousness.