Pinehurst NC and a hike at Raven Rock State Park…

With Katie still in school here in North Carolina we decided to take a road trip to one of our of our favorite destinations, Pinehurst. We love this little village and all that it has to offer. Our first stop was to play a round of disc golf at Reservoir Park. Reservoir Park is a really great little county park that has a great disc golf course along with a wonderful hike and bike trail around a very scenic lake.

We played the 18 hole disc golf course and really enjoyed this somewhat easier course. Easier only in that the holes are a bit shorter but there are still plenty of trees that tend to get in the way of our discs. There are lots of nice views of the lake through the woods while playing this cool course. After we finished our round we walked around the lake a bit.  Despite the fact it was a mostly overcast day we had a great round of golf as well as a great walk to boot.

When we left Reservoir Park we headed to town and walked around the quaint little village of Pinehurst. We haven’t visited in over two years but virtually nothing seemed any different. We walked from the center of the village over to our favorite historic hotel, the Carolina Hotel. This is such a neat old hotel with lots of southern charm and history. We feel it always is worth a stop to admire the landscaping, the beautiful lobby and of course to sit in one of the rocking chairs on the wrap-around porch. After leaving the hotel we ended the day with a cold beer at a newer brewery in the town of Southern Pines. We found Southern Pine Brewing Companies beers to be average but still enjoyed the ambiance. Next time we will likely head south over to Aberdeen to revisit the Railyard Brewery and have their Mastiff Oatmeal Stout.

The next day was still overcast but we took a chance and drove over to a cool state park called Raven Rock State Park. There is a really nice 2.5 mile loop hike winds down a lot of steps to the edge of Cape Fear River and all the nice eroded cliffs along the river’s edge. It is starting to look more and more like fall with the winds pushing the trees around and the leaves showing signs of color. We were fortunate to be able to get the hike in before any rain The scenery was great and we also had a nice chat with some locals alongside the cliffs and rocks of Raven Rock.

Well it looks like the weather wants to get nasty here so we are not sure what we will get to do our remaining days here but hopefully we will still find some fun on the road of retirement…