50+ Field Trips Around Raleigh, NC

updated:  8/23/18

Here is a list of fifty over sixty field trips that are close to Raleigh, NC. A couple of them are up to 3 hours away, but they are ones we have actually done in a day - get up really early and get home late - and are worth the drive. There are lots more that would require an overnight stay, but I'll put those in a different post.

1. Airborne and Special Ops Museum (Fayetteville)
2. ArtSpace (Raleigh) 
3.  Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education (Raleigh)
4. Blue Jay Point County Park nature classes (Raleigh)
5. Camp Flintlock (Four Oaks) 
6. Carolina Ballet - Nutcracker Student Matinee (Raleigh) - Dec. 
7. Carolina Theater - Arts Discovery Educational Series (Durham) 
8. Carolina Tiger Rescue (Pittsboro)
9. Clemmons Educational State Forest (Clayton)
10.  Country Doctor Museum (Bailey)
11. Duke Homestead State Historic Site (Durham)
12.  Duke Lemur Center (Durham) 
13. Durant Nature Preserve (N.Raleigh)  
14. Durham Bulls Education Days - baseball (Durham) 
15. Fort Macon State Park (Atlantic Beach) 
16. Guilford Courthouse National Military Park (Greensboro) 
17.  Harris Energy and Environmental Center (nuclear power) (New Hill)
18.  Hill Ridge Farms (Youngsville)
19.  Historic Oak View County Park (Raleigh)
20. Historic Oakwood Cemetery history tours ( Raleigh )
21. Historic Stagville Plantation (Durham)
22. Homeland Creamery dairy farm (Julian )
23. Imagination Station Science and History Museum (Wilson) 
24. Interfaith Food Shuttle Teaching Farm (Raleigh)
25. International Civil Rights Center and Museum (Greensboro) 
26. Joel Lane House (Raleigh) 
27.  Marbles Kids Museum / IMAX Theater (Raleigh)
28. Millstone Creek Apple Orchard (Ramseur)
29. Morehead Planetarium and Science Center (Chapel Hill) 
30.  Museum of Life and Science (Durham)
31.  New Hope Valley Railway (New Hill) 
32.  NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher (Kure Beach)
33.  NC Museum of Art (Raleigh)
34.  NC Museum of History (Raleigh)
35. NC Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh)
36. NC State Capitol (Raleigh) 
37. NC Symphony concerts  (Raleigh)
38.  NC Transportation Museum (Spencer) 
39. NC Zoo (Asheboro) 
40. North Carolina State Parks (statewide)
41.  Old Salem (Winston-Salem)
42.  Raleigh Little Theater: Beyond the Stage Door (Raleigh)
43.  Red Hill Farm - horses (Franklinton)
44.  RDU Airport Observation Park (Raleigh) 
45. Imperial Centre for the Arts and Sciences (Rocky Mount)
46.  Scrap Exchange (Durham) 
47. Snow Camp Outdoor Theater: Pathway to Freedom (Snow Camp - summer) 
48. Tryon Palace (New Bern) 
49. USS North Carolina (Wilmington)
50. Videri Chocolate Factory (Raleigh)
51.  Vollmer Farms : Pumpkin Patch and Back 40 (Bunn) Oct.
52.  Wake Weekly newspaper (Wake Forest) 
53.  WCPE Classical Radio Station (Wake Forest)
54.  WRAL TV Station and Weather Center (Raleigh) 
55.  US Post Office   ( local)  
56. Wake Forest Fire Department (Wake Forest)
57. Wake Forest Police Dept. K9 unit (Wake Forest)

We haven't been on ALL of these field trips, but definitely a lot of them over the years -  Blue Jay Point, NC Museums of History and Natural Science, Historic Oak View,  Harris Nuclear Energy Center, USS North Carolina, WCPE Radio Station, Wake Weekly newspaper office, Morehead Planetarium, International Civil Rights Center, Duke Lemur Center.    Alamance Battleground "Colonial Week"is one of my all-time faves.  WRAL TV Station  and Weather Center was great, as well as performances at Carolina Theater, NC Symphony, and Carolina Ballet. I'm a fan of art museums, and the NC Museum of Art has a great children's program.  Airborne and Special Ops Museum in Fayetteville is fascinating for military buffs and the NC Zoo in Asheboro and Museum of Life and Science in Durham are both top notch.

 

 

Wrapping up August

Well, August has been interesting.

Amanda traveled to Africa and back this month, where she helped conduct a basketball camp for kids in Kampala.

view of Lake Victoria from Father's House

My baby turned 13 years old.

We started back to homeschool this year with only ONE student.

Eric went back to Appalachian State University for his SENIOR year!  woo hoo!

We had both an earthquake and hurricane here last week.

My hubs and I celebrated 29 years of marriage on my 51st birthday. Mark celebrated his 51st birthday today!   We also  helped surprise my friend, Shelley, for her 50th birthday, and I baked CUPCAKES.

I had an MRI done on my left knee, which has been getting more and more painful over the past several months, and found out that the meniscus is torn. So I have surgery scheduled in 2 weeks.   In the meantime, my right knee is starting to "catch" and give me some trouble. 

Today we went on a field trip to Fort Bragg, NC, visiting the Golden Knights Army parachute team headquarters and also the Airborne and Special Operations Museum.

 

On to September. 

Field Trip to the TV Station

Today I went with J on a field trip to the WRAL-TV Station.   Our guide was James, one of the news producers ( I think ) and he did a great job, showing us the Master Control room and engineering room, the production studio where they shoot local programming, the Lottery room, the news center and the weather center.   We got to chat with meteorologists Mike Maze and Greg Fishel, who were very friendly and very much "science geeks"!  It was a very interesting "behind-the-scenes" tour and I learned a few things, like if WRAL suddenly starts broadcasting "The Andy Griffith Show", something went very wrong and that is their "filler", meant to hold the audience until they can get things back up and running. Now you know.

 

A Day at Monticello

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Last Wednesday we spent the day at Monticello, home of the author of these famous words. Thomas Jefferson designed and built his home on the top of a mountain ~ Monticello is Italian for "little mountain". A shuttle bus carried us from the Visitors Center up to the house, where we enjoyed a House Tour highlighting the many fascinating and historic features of the home and furnishings, and a Plantation Community tour, focused on the grounds and the African American slaves that lived on the plantation. It is a beautiful site and all of us found the visit very educational and worthwhile!

Thomas Jefferson was 6'3" tall


Building on top of a mountain was unusual in that day - there was the major inconvenience of having to haul water uphill every day, as well as all other supplies and visitors! But T.J. loved the views and thought that the air was healthier up high. This was his "ocean view" ~ the Atlantic Ocean is actually 80 miles distant, but there is nothing higher than Monticello between here and there!

Mulberry Row - this 1000 ft. lane was lined with workshops like the Nailery, Weaving shop, Joinery, and Smokehouse, as well as slave cabins, and the stable.


Our guide, Marcia, was a wonderful storyteller.


Jefferson's grave

Day at the NC Zoo

Yesterday we went to the zoo with some friends. The NC Zoological Park is in Asheboro, about 2 hours from home. Well, it is 2 hours if you take the right road. When you and the driver are talking the whole way and don't notice that you are on the wrong road, it takes about 3 1/2 hours.

The forecast was for scattered showers and thunderstorms, but we risked it and were glad - there were a couple of brief showers, but mostly the day was partly sunny, warm, and rather muggy. There were 10 of us - Amanda, Jason, and me, and then my friend Eileen and her 6 kids - 15-y-o Ellie, 6 y-o twin boys, 4 y-o boy, and 2 y-o twin girls. We were quite a crew! The kids really enjoyed themselves - and did great with all the walking! The NC Zoo is HUGE, and we walked for miles, I'm sure. The animals are in natural habitats, but are easily viewed. There are also several "play spaces" scattered throughout the zoo, which made for a nice break for the kids from time to time.

Since we are homeschoolers, we got to visit for FREE. During the school year, you can call the zoo 2 weeks ahead and make a reservation as a homeschool, and one parent and all school-age children get free admission. Eileen did have to pay for her 3 pre-schoolers, but the other 4 of them got in for free, so it was a great deal!

There were a few school groups there on field trips. They were the wildest animals in the park, I think. The younger kids were fine - excited, but generally polite and friendly - and there were adults WITH them. But the middle school age kids were obnoxious! They were roaming the zoo in packs, without any adult supervision, which meant they were loud, silly, and sometimes downright rude. You know they wouldn't have behaved that way if their parents or teachers had been with them to hold them accountable. Grrr.

Snake Wrestling!
(don't worry ! it's not real )

Eco-camp



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