Charlotte Homes for Sale
Nina Hollander
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Discovery Place KIDS-Huntersville opens to the public today, October 23, 2010. The 23,000 square foot Museum — the only children’s museum in the greater Charlotte region — will offer interactive, learning-based play opportunities for children younger than 8. The Museum officially opens to the public on  at 9:00 a.m., preceded by a ribbon cutting ceremony at 8:45 a.m. This weekend, the museum will be open from 9am till 5pm and is offering a special, half-price admission fee of $4.00 during the opening weekend. Discovery Place KIDS is located at 105 Gilead Road in Huntersville.

Discovery Place, Inc. is a private 501©(3) not-for-profit education organization dedicated to inspiring exploration of the natural and social world through extraordinary exhibits and educational programs that inform, challenge and engage audiences of all ages.

Some of the current featured shows at Discovery Place include:

• Sub Zero: Join our resident physicist at the “The Stage” to chill out and explore a world below freezing. With materials so cold they can only be touched with cryogenic gloves.
• A World Apart: Learn about the tropical rainforest ecosystem and the species that call it home during “A World Apart”.
• What’s Glowing On?  Discover the science behind luminescent and incandescent light. By the time the show is over, you’ll be an expert on all that shines.
• Under the Sea: Splash into the sea and explore marvelous marine life in IMAX Under the Sea.
• The Ultimate Wave Tahiti: Join nine-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater as he mixes surfing and science off the shores of Tahiti.

Discovery Place is located in Charlotte’s Uptown at: 301 N Tryon Street.

Want more information on things to do in Charlotte, North Carolina? Contact Carolinas Realty Partners!

It’s only 10 days until Halloween! Have you done your Halloween shopping yet? Halloween spending is expected to go up this year. The National Retail Foundation’s annual suvey on Halloween spending for costumes, candy, decorations projects that the average American will spend $66.28 per person this year as compared with $56.31 last year.

Halloween On-Line Magazine has identified 101 tips and ideas for celebrating Halloween as well as Halloween safety tips for parents, kids, pets, homeowners. Check them out!

If Halloween crafts are your thing or you need a refresher course on pumpkin carving, Halloween On-line Magazine is a great resource for these as well. Check out the great options for Halloween recipes, as well. Download great, free Halloween screen savers for your computer.

Read up on the history of Halloween. Bet you’ll find out all sorts of facts you didn’t know! HalloweenMagazine.com is a fabulous resource on all things Halloween!

Charlotte, North Carolina boasts what is considered one of America’s best and scariest haunted houses–Woods of Terror on Church Street. Need more information about how/where Charlotte celebrates Halloween? Contact Carolinas Realty Partners.

Lots of things happening in and around Charlotte to celebrate during the upcoming 4th of July weekend. Here’s just a small sample of things to do:

• Charlotte Symphony Pops Presents Celebrate America starts off the weekend celebrations with its Summer Concert Series on Saturday, July 3rd. Albert-George Schram will be conducting the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra with a patriotic musical concert and sing-along, which will be followed by a fireworks display. Pack a picnic and enjoy the Symphony under the stars at Charlotte’s Symphony Park in SouthPark! Preludes at 7 p.m.; orchestra concert at 8:15 p.m.
• Town of Waxhaw Celebration: takes place on Saturday, July 3rd and runs from 10am till 10pm. Cost is free. The historic town’s parade will beging at 10:00am in downtown Waxhaw. Evening events will include the Red, White, and Blues Music Festival featuring several bands. Lots of activities for kids. Lots of food. The famous Waxhaw fireworks display starts at 9:30pm. For more information, click here.
• Nights of Fire at Carowinds Park: Sunday, July 4th a one-of-a-kind fireworks display launched from the top of the Carolina Skytower. Carowinds guests can spend a day of fun in the 108-acre theme and water park, topped off with the state-of-the-art, computer designed and controlled pyro-musical fireworks show. The computer produces a brilliant and thrilling show, firing shells in precise time to music with an accuracy of 1/100th of a second. Show begins at 10:00pm and is free with park admission. Free admission to the park for military personnel.
• Red Rock, Whitewater & Bluegrass Celebration: begins at 2:00pm on Sunday, July 4th at the U.S. National Whitewater Center. Lots of food, music, and fireworks.
• Charlotte Knights Skyshow: one of the largest fireworks displays in the southeast takes place at the Charlotte Knights Stadium in Fort Mill, SC right after the baseball game.
• Red, White, and Boom: on Sunday, July 4th is Uptown Charlotte’s celebration at Memorial Stadium starting at 6:00pm and with fireworks starting at 9:30pm. For kids (young and old), there’ll be balloon artists, tug of war, sac races, watermelon eating competition and more. For more information click here.
• Fireworks At Lake Wylie:  There is nothing quite like fireworks over water. Enjoy the scene over Lake Wylie which straddles North and South Carolina just south of Charlotte. Buster Boyd Boat Landing S.C. Hwy. 49 at Lake Wylie, on Sunday, July 4th at 9:30 p.m.  Best of all, it’s free!

Carolinas Realty Partners wish you a happy and safe 4th of July holiday!

The 2010 Taste of Charlotte Festival begins this Friday and runs through Sunday. This is the 12th year that this popular event is taking place in Uptown Charlotte.  Admission is free. You can purchase coins for food tasting at the festival or on-line.

Some of this year’s participating restaurants include some of Charlotte’s perennial favorites: Amelie’s French Bakery; RIRA Irish Pub; Village Bistro; Cafe Sienna; Dilworth Neighborhood Grill; Wild Wing Cafe; and more!

Entertainment will include live music, dancing, magic acts, as well as all sorts of special activities for kids. Click here for more information about each day’s events.

For the shopper, The MarketPlace by CircleK will provide eclectic, boutique style open-air shopping experience.

Festival times and location are:

Friday, June 11th from 11:00am – 11:00pm
Saturday, June 12th from 11:00am – 11:00pm
Sunday, June 13th from 11:00am – 6:00pm

Tryon Street from Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. to 6th Street

Festival Map

If you are coming down the south side of Charlotte, the Blue Lynx train is a perfect way to travel to the festival and there’s no parking worries.!

For those of you who didn’t know, Charlotte, North Carolina is NASCAR’s hometown!  You can’t think of NASCAR without thinking of Charlotte! And you can’t really think of Charlotte without thinking of NASCAR!

Today, NASCAR’s Hall of Fame officially opens in uptown Charlotte.  This opening has been eagerly awaited by NASCAR fans for four years, since Charlotte was selected as the “host” city for the Hall of Fame. With the opening ceremony scheduled for 9:00 am today and public admission at 10:00am, people have already been lining up this morning since 6:00am!

All expectations are that the new Hall of Fame will razzle-dazzle and attract lots of new tourism to Charlotte!  And if you’re not already a NASCAR fan, there couldn’t be a better place to learn more about it. Also eagerly awaited are the first five members, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame later this month (May 23rd): Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Bill France Sr. and Bill France Jr.

The goal for this $195 million, 150,000 square foot facility was to make it the most interactive, technologically advanced hall of fame in sports–a 21st Century facility.  As you enter the building, you” be immediately whisked into a theater with a 64-foot wraparound high-definition screen showing a 12-minute history of the sport. You’ll be directed to use your “hard card” to enter information on touchscreens that will identify you later when you jack a car or try to stay off the wall at Darlington in a race simulator. After you’ve attempted to stay on your feet standing on a replica of the steep 33-degree banking at Talladega, you can walk through a race hauler, sit in a car and pick an on-demand video of your favorite close finish.

Admission is $19.95, with discounts for children 12 and younger, seniors 60 and older and military members. Yearly memberships are also available. For more information click here.

Ads for the Hall of Fame have been running continuously around the country for months now. If you’d like to see one, click here.

In anticipation of Mother’s Day this Sunday, South Park Mall in south Charlotte is hosting Charlotte’s “National Mom’s Night Out” for the second year in a row this evening.  The event takes place from 6:00-8:00pm in the Mall’s center court.

“Mom’s Night Out” is the first nationally organized celebration of motherhood and is intended to bring together today’s moms, both physically and virtually. The National Mom’s Nite Out will unite over 150 social media groups, companies, local playgroups, mommy bloggers and mother social networks in giving moms a well-deserved night off.

Mom’s Night Out” at SouthPark will feature live demonstrations, fun interactive activities, free prize giveaways, discounted shopping from participating retailers, live entertainment, food and wine tastings and more. Retailers including The Body Shop, Carmen Carmen and Aveda will be on hand to supply product sampling and mini-makeovers. In addition, Moms can visit stations to learn more about beauty products including StriVectin and Beadlush as well as how they can join the fight against breast cancer by joining the Avon Walk for Breast

 The national event is orchestrated by Maria Bailey, Host of Mom Talk Radio and author of “The Ultimate Mom Book.”

The eyes of the golf world are on the Quail Hollow Country Club in south Charlotte this week! Since 2003,  Charlotte’s Quail Hollow County Club has been home to one of the best non-major golf events on the PGA Tour and is considered one of the largest and most prestigious sporting events in the Charlotte metro area. In 2009, the tournament earned “Best in Class” as the top event of the PGA Tour schedule.

The Championship and its $6.5 million purse attract some of the world’s top players and this year is no exception! You can expect to see Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods (who won in 2007), Fred Couples, Phil Michelson, Sean O’Hair (who won in 2009). The tournament started Monday, April 26th and continues through Sunday, May 2nd.

Fred Couples and Michael Jordan (owner of  the Charlotte Bobcats and now a Charlotte celebrity) are scheduled to play together in the Pro-Am on Wednesday, April 28th. This is Michael Jordan’s second year playing in the Pro-Am portion of the tournament.

There’s no question about the popularity of this tournament–it sold out seven out of the eight years it’s been a part of the PGA Tour–and this year is no exception. So now’s the time to plan to buy tickets for the 2011 Championship, which will go on sale to the public in mid-November 2010! But you can follow all the action live on the Golf Channel (Thursday and Friday) and on CBS Sports (Saturday and Sunday).

As last year,  the majority of the proceeds from the Quail Hollow Championship will benefit Teach For America Charlotte, the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. Currently in Charlotte, 230 Corp Members are going above and beyond traditional expectations to lead 14,000 students to significant academic achivement each day.

Today is National Pretzel Day! Pretzels date back to the 7th century in southern France,  where monks would bake thin strips of dough into the shape of a child’s arms folded in prayer… add a little salt, and voila! …the pretzel industry was born. It was called “Pretiola,” Latin for “little reward.” Over time, the word “Pretiola” evolved to become “Pretzel.” ( Although, there are some who believe that pretzels were first baked in Italy. I guess we’ll never know for sure; afterall, it has been 1400 years!)

One of my favorite childhood memories growing up in New York City was soft, salted pretzels sold on what seemed to be every street corner and subway station. And back in the 1950′s they were only a nickel!!! I still love buying a street corner pretzel whenever I’m in New York–it’s my dessert after I’ve had a street corner hot dog!  And I try to get over the sticker shock as these pretzels certainly are not a nickel anymore!

National Pretzel Day started 27 years ago in 1983 when a Pennsylvania congressman wanted a special day named for his favorite food.  Today, the average American consumes approximately 1.5 pounds of pretzels each year and in the US it’s a $560+ million a year business. There are all sorts of little known facts about pretzels. To read about them, click here.

If you are in the Charlotte metro area, today at Carolina Place Mall in Concord you can get a free pretzel from Pretzelmaker.

To “borrow a phrase” from Charlotte’s official visitor guide, Charlotte’s Got A Lot! And this weekend, Charlotte is getting ready to enjoy it’s annual Queen’s Cup Steeplechase held on the grounds of Brooklandwood Racecourse in Union County. The racecourse prides itself on providing first-class racing in a unique setting.

The Queen’s Cup is like no other sporting/social event in the Charlotte area and is eagerly anticipated every last Saturday of April. It’s considered the most stylish social and sporting event in our area with thousands in attendance. Food and drink are in abudance and everyone gets dressed up in their most stylish spring outfits. You can even put on your most creative and fanciful hat and try to win the Morrison Smith Hat Contest.

Some of the most athletic thoroughbreds compete at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour for the $100,000 purse. Jockeys dressed in bright silks push their horses to clear four and a half foot jumps over an up to three mile rolling turf course.

For more information about the event and purchasing tickets click on QueensCup.

RelocateAmerica.com has just released its 13th annual list of “America’s Top 100 Places to Live for 2010.”   Two North Carolina cities made the list this year!

The Queen City–Charlotte–was #7 on the list of the top 10 cities. Raleigh was right behind Charlotte as #8 of the top 10 cities to live in.

Those of us who’ve moved to Charlotte from elsewhere and have made this city our “hometown,” truly do understand why Charlotte keeps making the lists of top places to live!

If you’re looking for more information about Charlotte and why it’s a key destination city, year after year after year, click on these links to find out: Charlotte’s Got A Lot and Discover Charlotte.