Calm before the storm ...

So Saturday the 16th turned out to be a wild day in North Carolina with the horrific tornadoes that came tearing thru my portion of the state. Fortunately, my house and property were not damaged, except for some tree limbs and small debris. A mile or so from my house however, many of my friends had a lot of destruction at their homes. It was all too close for comfort.

The craziest part for me was that I was on the way back home from Wilmington with my friend, Beth. We were listening on the radio as they called out streets in Wake County - street names where some of my adopted family and close friends live. I started to panic. Even when you're an hour or so away from home and all the news is breaking on the radio, it makes you feel you're in a different state. We got back to Beth's house and nothing was going on, and we were probably five miles or so away from all the devastation. It was surreal. But thankfully, even though lots of my friends suffered damage to their properties, it all can be replaced, and thankfully they were not harmed.

As a calm before the storm, so to speak, Beth and I took a mini road trip to Wilmington. Before a yummy lunch at P.T.'s Grille, we went to the Airlie Gardens. I really enjoyed the visit at Airlie as it was much bigger than I anticipated. There are a lot of walking trails - some paved and some not (you almost better "x" your spot so you don't get lost, ha!) But with the beautiful azaleas and other spring flowers in bloom, it really made the garden all the more colorful and exquisite.

The historic Airlie Oak is the centerpiece for the unique garden. It is one of North Carolina's largest oak trees of this type. Another of my favorite spots was in the sculpture garden, which features a "chapel" that is made completely out of different types of glass bottles. What a beautiful sight that must be at night with the lights turned on.

There are quite a lot of areas to visit in the immense garden complex. A word to the adventurers, the tour guide map that you receive at the office is very pretty BUT the garden itself can be very confusing. If you get off the paved trail, the map isn't going to help you -- well it doesn't quite help you on the paved trail either at times, ha! But still make a visit to Airlie in beautiful Wilmington, North Carolina.