Charlotte: I saw a bit of it.

All summer, I was excited to tell people I would be going to North Carolina at the end of July. "Hm, yes, that's lovely that you will be going to Silverwood for the 4th time. Oh, Holmberg Park pool, you say? Should be moderately fun. Oh, me? I'm going to Charlotte. North Carolina. End of July. Well, it's for a work conference, but that's just during the day. Oh yes, I know, it is going to be HUMID (can a dry washingtonian like me handle it? oh, the misery, I will absolutely love it!)."

So now, having bragged and gone on and on to people about how I was going to Charlotte, a recap of my experience: I went to my conference, I learned a lot, but I could not find a single person at this conference even remotely interested in the sights of Charlotte, other than the outlet mall, which was 5 minutes away from the hotel.

There were people from Alberta, Canada. San Diego, California. Boston, Massachusetts. Their goal while in Charlotte: a good deal at Banana Republic.

My non-retail oriented goal led me to hop on a bus by myself, endure a (very simple and painless) 45 minute ride to Uptown Charlotte, and walk around with very little guidance other than the well-placed signs around the area. I kind of felt like this woman:

 

I had a mildly enjoyable time with myself, making mental notes of cool things, and taking pictures of some of them, too. This was a children's bench outside the First Presbyterian Church.

 

This is the Settlers' Cemetery, where graves as old as 250 years are barely holding up against our modern times.

 

And I found a train car that reminded me of the area of the United States I happened to be for four days...mostly in a hotel.