Wake County Wanderings

I'm enjoying life here in Cary, North Carolina, thus far. It is a confusing place filled almost exclusively with malls, interstates and neighborhoods with names that sound extremely impressive whether they actually are or not.
Today, we went to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh to see the traveling exhibition Monet in Normandy, which included 50 paintings by Claude along the French coast. For anyone who can't remember his work or never knew it, this scene from the groundbreaking 1995 film Clueless may help:

TAI : Do you think she's pretty?
CHER : No, she's a full on Monet.
TAI: What's a monet?
CHER: It's like a painting, see? From far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big old mess. Let's ask a guy. Christian, what do you think of Amber?
CHRISTIAN: Hagsville.
CHER See?

Obviously, the exhibition was very impressive. I really enjoyed the pieces on Rouen Cathedral and those at Manneport, which include arches over the water. The rest of the museum was good, too, especially the contemporary art. One such piece was made entirely of handmade butterflies hung from the ceiling to make a three-dimensional plane with smoke trailing from the back that was actually made of flowers. It's confusing to explain without a photo, which I forgot to take. Apparently, the piece can be read as a commentary on war and how it rarely if ever achieves anything of consequence. However, Kat's dad, being an old Air Force pilot, first loudly exclaimed "Oh, it's an F-18 Hornet, you can tell by the tail." I realized that my dad and likely both of my brothers may have said something similar had they been there.

We also went on a nature walk and saw some of the sights of Raleigh, including its newly-opened main drag, Fayetteville Street. New subdivisions and malls are constantly being built. Kat's dad says every neighborhood has a name (some of my favorites Lochmere Lake, Lochmere Northside, Lochmere, Lochmere Lakeside, MacGregor Downs, de Vintage and many others) and if you ask a young child where he or she lives, sometimes they won't say Cary or Raleigh, instead choosing to say Amberwood Estates with a Scottish accent while puffing on a pipe. Unlike Nebraska or even Arizona (outside of Phoenix) there is no real delineation between one city d another. Cary blends into Raleigh, which seems as though it sort of blends into Durham which blends into Chapel Hill.

On Friday, the plan is to head east to the ocean to see Elizabeth City, where Kat used to live, Kitty Hawk, the Outer Banks and take a ferry or two. It looks like it should be fun. The long strip of land we are going to drive south on is east of Pamlico Sound. It appeas that the ocean is on both sides of you while you're out there. I realize my travel writing leaves much to be desired, but I'm doing the best I can. We'll be making the trip in a Mercedes-Benz sedan that is quite a machine. I get to play with the navigation system, which appears to be pretty fun. The omnipresent woman's voice pronounces mile more like "mall," which is always worth a laugh.

That's all from here so far. Stay tuned for more updates as events progress.