We’re moving HuthPhoto south over the next year, and have honed in on the ‘Triangle’ region of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC as the place to go. NY clients, don’t worry, we’ll still be flying back for our big events together!
In January, my daughter Lydia & I had a wonderful visit to the Durham area. It was also a great chance to test out the new Fuji X series cameras. (Lydia started it all, getting the X20, My son Colin of PhotoC4 owns the Fuji X100s and XE-1, and we just bought my wife Lisa the X10 for Christmas). Yes, you read that right, I don’t have a Fuji X yet. But my wife was kind enough to let me use her’s on the trip and we had a blast.
So anyway, enough photo-geek talk—back to our trip to Durham. We thoroughly loved it, rarely got lost and were glad to see how thriving the whole area is. We also toured the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh (wonderful collection and free). One surprise was the amazing Egyptian art & artifacts there too. Check out a few of my snaps below, and our short list of favorite spots.
[wowslider id="18"]
Some of our best times on the trip were just wandering around the streets, seeing the cool businesses and meeting people. So many business folks were really nice about saying they needed photography. Durham is such a visual city, and I can’t wait to be there in the spring, to have more people out and activity going on.
Short list of what we loved while visiting Durham:
- The city is so walkable. We just parked and off we went
- Bull City Connector: Free bus (clean, on time!) along the main route, making extending our roaming so easy. They even have an app with real-time tracking.
- All the book shops: I’ve forgotten how good it is to be in real, non-chain bookstores. Lydia bought a late 1800’s book, and I bought Durham Tales by Jim Wise, which has a heap of local history and anecdotes. I know where the name Bull City comes from now!
- The American Tobacco Campus: Yes, I took the normal touristy photos of the tower and Lucky Strike smokestack (hey, pun!). They had just finished the outdoor skating, and we failed to find a geocache near the benches there.
- Duke Gardens, even in January were so lovely and peaceful. I can’t believe how many trees are on campus. And the Duke Chapel was wonderful. We took the time for a quick prayer once inside… so inspiring.
- For the first time, we tried AirBnB, and were so happy with our accommodations & host… and they had kitties too!
- The Triangle’s business sense. I don’t know how to put it, but things are happening and growing in ways they just aren’t in Upstate NY. With the Sustain A Bull (shop locally) program, a million coffee shops like Cocoa Cinnamon, and amazingly no Starbucks… it’s a unique place. A very ‘anti-chain store’, follow your passions kinda place. And it’s a place I can see doing business.
- Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC): We saw Once there and it’s such a great venue.
- The Food… and the People again: The eve before the show we were at Mellow Mushroom Pizza and my daughter heard the young ladies in the booth behind us talking about the show, and she (totally unlike her) turned around and started a great conversation with them. People are just so approachable here! We also ate at James Joyce… loved the Bangers & Mash
- Summer, the owner of LocoPops (gourmet popsicles, of course! Yelp them HERE) gave us great insight into what neighbors to look for houses, as well as how to let local business know we’re available
So that’s a peek at our first tip to Durham, NC. Any chance you know of a business or organization that needs fast, flexible and friendly PR photography?? Please send them to our site, or contact us and we’ll take great care of them.