I’ll be in Charlotte for a weekend next month. I’ll be there for a workshop, so driving out from my home location Friday about noon and driving back Sunday afternoon. The workshop activity will be Saturday and Sunday mornings, so I will have Friday and Saturday afternoons/evenings free to do whatever else.
Even though I live in NC, I only make it out to Charlotte once every couple years or so, and never long enough to actually stay overnight, so this is my opportunity to actually see and do stuff there. What’s good that I can do in the time period I’ve got?
For reference: I’ll be staying in the Northlake Mall area, so not downtown. I’d prefer not to go downtown unless there’s something so cool to see/do there that driving/finding a parking spot/paying for parking is definitely worth the hassle. I’ll check to see if the hotel I am staying at offers any kind of transportation downtown as well.
I like arty, science-y, oddball stuff. Anything animal-related is a bonus (I know I will already be visiting the Raptor Center).
Anything that involves hiking or walking is fine, but other physical things are not doable for me - particularly anything that would involve stress on my head and neck, so Carowinds rollercoasters/whitewater rafting are right out.
I went to a convention in the convention center for two years. One party was in the science museum not far away, but aside from that I didn’t find a lot to do. (I didn’t have a car which limited me.) That was long enough ago that I won’t even try to remember the one good place we ate.
There’s a North Carolina artist named [Ben Long](http:/ http://www.benlongfrescotrail.org/aboutben.html), who is just about the only American artist working in the Renaissance medium of fresco - paint applied to fresh plaster. It’s how Michaelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.
Long has at least one, and I believe a couple, of works in buildings in downtown Charlotte. The one I’ve seen was beautiful. Well worth a look.
About all there is around Northlake Mall is shopping and chain restaurants. If you don’t feel like shopping or eating at TGI Friday’s, you really will want to head down to uptown.
CATS (the bus system) has a park and ride lot in the Northlake Mall area, and there are some express bus lines to uptown from there, but they are probably rush-hour service only. If you run into anything to do in Huntersville or Cornelius, some of the express lines continue north from the mall.
Your choices in the Northlake area are rather limited. If you want to venture into the Uptown area, there is the already mentioned Discovery Place, which is a lot of fun.
If you really want good food, and you want to venture out a little further, then I would recommend Zebra.