This might seem a trivial, lame or even silly reason or premise to compose a blog post. But I decided to proceed anyway because it struck me as a little odd.
While reading the e-edition of the local newspaper this morning, I came across articles within a few pages of each other about places I had photographed since I arrived in North Carolina in 2017. I use the word "odd" because while I've been here now for 4 1/2 years, various safety admonitions -- avoidance, social distancing and mask-wearing -- that are tied to the Covid pandemic have precluded me from venturing out to indulge my photography itch a whole lot the past two years.
True ... I've squeezed in a few exceptions, the most notable of which was a weeklong exploration of amusement theme parts in the Orlando area of Florida last May and early June. But those involved extended family, and we all observed CDC and park health-safety protocols for the duration. Ditto two trips to Myrtle trip after that, one in mid-June, the other in December.
Because of that, my personal photo archive has not been growing nearly to the degree to which I had been accustomed while living in Indianapolis pre-pandemic.
The first article (above) I came across of the two I mentioned above was about the circular Holiday Inn hotel on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, a story I first saw on the local TV news last night. Last night's report extolled the hotel's unique place in the Raleigh skyline, something to which I can attest because I was just a block away from it in December 2018 as Lee Ann, her daughter Lea and I headed to the Morgan Street Food Hall for lunch to mark Lea's birthday.
At the time, I had just learned about the emergence of food halls in the Triangle, so it seemed like a good place for us to check out considering we were looking for something new and/or different. After we parked on a surface lot that Sunday around the noon hour, the Holiday Inn was just a block and a half away. I was struck by the hotel's circular architecture immediately, so I grabbed my camera, walked a block or so closer and made the picture you see leading off the post.
Personally, I think it's unfortunate that Raleigh's skyline will lose this novel structure. Construction on the high-rise that will replace it isn't supposed to begin until the end of 2023. Presuming the Holiday Inn isn't razed a whole lot earlier than that, I have plenty of time to return and capture more photos of it for posterity.
A couple pages later in today's newspaper, I came across the article above about the poll to identify the local eatery serving the best chicken wings in the Triangle. Coming in second place (you have to go to the bottom of the article's penultimate leg to read about it) was The My Way Tavern, whose home establishment is in the rear of a modest strip shopping center off Center Street in the nearby town of Holly Springs.
I haven't dined at the tavern, but I did photograph its exterior (below) while I did my first walk-through in the community in April 2019. If the photo comes off a bit sterile (it does to me), I elected to crop it this way because the tavern has outdoor seating, and there were identifiable people sitting at a couple of the outdoor tables at the time I made this picture, and I did not want to make them part of the composition without their permission.
After the above article informed me about the tavern's great reputation for wings, I put the newspaper down and looked up the tavern online and checked out its menu. I was impressed. I've made a mental note to add it to my places I want to visit in the future.
