Artist Pablo Picasso is most famous for co-founding Cubism, a new style of modern painting, in the early 1900s. Inspired by African art, Picasso’s cubist pieces utilized geometric components to create figures and forms. While his most famous works, such as Guernica and Girl Before a Mirror, are examples from his cubist period, he was also a prolific landscape artist throughout his career and its various stages. The Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds exhibit celebrates his lesser recognized works from this genre. From his beginnings in art school right up until his death, Picasso explored the intersection of man and …

The Museum of Illusions in uptown Charlotte opened last month and we’ve been anxious to visit ever since we saw the first mind-bending preview ads on my FaceBook feed. The museum is an international chain but this is only the 7th location in the United States. Located in a small ground floor space in the Ally Center, the building has its own parking garage, making for an easy, stress-free visit. At $20 for kids tickets (ages 5-12) and $24 for adult tickets, this is not a cheap outing. It seems especially pricey given the small size of the museum and …

Up until a few years ago, Carowinds shut down for the season after SCarowinds ended on Halloween. But in 2017, the theme park introduced a new holiday event, WinterFest. Open on weekends and select evenings between Thanksgiving and New Years, WinterFest offers holiday decorations, entertainment, activities, rides, and more. When my kids were younger, the SCarowinds decorations terrified them, even during the day. But even as I was ushering them quickly through the scary sections to get to the Peanuts’ Great Pumpkin Fest, I recognized that Carowinds did an amazing (albeit scary) job with their decorations. I was excited to …

Earlier in the summer, my FaceBook feed started filling up with people posing next to larger than life metal sunflowers and gigantic paint cans and brushes. Everyone I knew seemed to be visiting the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit, a traveling show that has visited such cities as Paris, Chicago and Los Angeles. In Charlotte, it is located in trendy Camp North End. Running through early 2022, ticket prices vary based on demand and start at $39.99 for adults ($24.99 for kids), although the “cheap” tickets were very hard to come by and typically only available in the middle of the …

We are frequent visitors to the Whitewater Center but had never seen their winter lights display before. Our normal holiday lights tradition is to go to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. We had read that the Holidays at the Garden was going to be smaller this year and many of their usual displays and activities were not going to be offered so we decided to forgo the drive to Belmont and try something new this year. The Whitewater Center charges a parking fee ($6) and activity fees if you want to go rafting, zip lining, etc. But the trails and grounds …

We’ve spent a lot of 2020 in the great outdoors and visiting more Charlotte area parks. When my youngest son and I found ourselves flying solo on a recent Saturday, we decided to check out another of Mecklenburg County’s parks. About 5 years ago, we had visited McDowell Nature Preserve for their Nature at Night program, which is a cool nighttime festival where you get to learn all about the critters that lurk about after the sun goes down, but we had yet to explore there during the day. With its beautiful lakeside location, we thought it would be a …

Going apple picking in the NC mountains is one of my favorite fall traditions. We’ve been to several of the big ones at least once – Apple Hill Orchard in Morganton, Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville. And while I love driving to the mountains to pick apples, not everyone I know is as enthusiastic about a 2.5 hour drive to perform manual labor in a field. Especially because to get our favorite variety (honeycrisp!) you actually have to go in early August when it can still be quite hot, even in the mountains. So …

The Carolina Raptor Center is one of our favorite Charlotte-area outings.  We’ve probably been close to a dozen times since the boys were born.  And of all the activities that were cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19, Young Vet’s Camp at the Raptor Center was the most disappointing for JB. He had been waiting years to be old enough to attend and then the camp was cancelled due to the pandemic. So when he and I were looking for a quick outing while his dad and brother were off doing their own things, the Raptor Center quickly came to mind. …

Long term quarantine is a depressing concept for those of us with wanderlust. Our streak of taking our kids to a new country every year will be broken this year thanks to Covid-19. But we’re trying to look on the bright side and explore more locally and take some day trips. And we’re not the only ones. My FaceBook feed has been flooded with people taking “socially distant” adventures in the Charlotte area. One place that popped up quite a bit is Big Rock Nature Preserve. I had never heard of it before and then saw 4 or 5 different …