Hello, hello! I am trash at posting consistently, but I am back to tell you about my summer. As always, it was hot as hell in North Carolina for the duration of summer, but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. My Instagram page has grown quite a bit in the past few months, so I received a lot of invitations from local restaurants and food spots — It’s safe to say that I ate GOOD all summer. I’m not going to bore you all with the details of all the places that I ate, but I will share some of my favorite experiences in NC this summer:
In June, I had one of the best dates ever at the American Tobacco Campus with my boyfriend. First, we went to Boricua Soul and ate delicious food while listening to jazz music on their patio. In the summer, they have a live band play outside of their restaurant on Sundays — it’s a whole vibe. After we ate, we went to a Durham Bulls game and enjoyed watching the local baseball team win at home. I know this sounds like a super simple day date, but we both had a great time spending time with each other while being entertained.
My family did a short beach week at Carolina Beach for my son’s birthday in July and had a blast! We chose Carolina Beach because we wanted to close to delicious food options like Island Burger Grill, Britt’s Donuts, and Kate’s Pancake House. When we first arrived, we visited Fort Fisher Aquarium to get an activity in while waiting for our check in time. While we enjoyed our experience at the beach and the condo that we rented, I will say that Carolina Beach’s little theme park on the board walk was super underwhelming. The rides were expensive and half of them were ran by angry employees that didn’t seem to know what they were doing.
One of my favorite parts of August was participating in CaribMask, Raleigh’s Caribbean carnival, with Unity Mas Band. This was my second time being a masquerader in carnival, but it’s been three years since the last time the event happened (due to the pandemic). CaribMask is a celebration of various Caribbean culture, where people of all ages, sizes, and nationalities come together to honor their countries’ rich history. There is lots of soca music, dancing, food and incredible vibes all around.
Last but not least, I discovered some amazing restaurants that were new to me over the summer and a few of them have made my list of favorite places to eat including, Jujube Restaurant in Chapel Hill and Juju Durham (its sister restaurant), Mezcalito in Clayton but coming to Durham and Apex soon, Funnel Me Crazy in Durham, and Little Blue Bakehouse in Raleigh.