101 Reasons Why the Triangle Rocks

A while back, I compiled a list of 101 reasons why the Triangle is a great place to live for a friend trying to convince her husband to move here.  Below is a modified list to demonstrate why I love this place so much.  Feel free to forward this to anyone who is not convinced. 

1. I live here. 
2. Smart people live here.  It’s tied with San Fran for 2nd highest percentage of the population with a college degree or higher.
3. It’s regularly recognized as one of the best places to live
   1. Cary is tops in 2006
   2. Apex rocks in 2007
4. The cost of living is terrific. (cheap rent)
5. There are actually jobs here.
6. The real estate market is steady.
7. Politicians of both parties get elected here.
8. We have great hospitals – Duke, UNC, Wake Med, Rex.
9. We have a good public school system, including a couple of top-ranked high schools.
10. We have several amazing universities, including UNC, NC State, and Duke.
11. We have great weather!
    1. Not one of the hottest places
    2. Or one of the coldest places
12. We’re close to the mountains (less than four hours to Asheville).
13. We’re close to the beach (two hours to Wilmington).
14. It’s only a little over four hours to Washington, DC.
15. We’re 3.5 hours to Wintergreen, VA (good skiing spot).
16. We have a decent airport.
17. We have cheap airlines.
    1. Southwest
    2. Jet Blue
    3. Air Tran
18. We have lots of parks.
19. We also have a couple of decent lakes (Jordan and Wheeler).
20. NC Art Museum – Impressionist exhibit opening soon
21. Exploris Museum
22. NC Museum of History
23. NC Museum of Natural Sciences
24. Morehead Planetarium
25. NC Botanical Garden
26. JC Raulsten Arboretum at NCSU
27. We get some good Broadway shows.
28. The NC Theatre is good, too.
29. NC Symphony
30. NC Master Chorale
31. Carolina Ballet
32. Good bands tour here (Alltell & RBC).
33. There’s free live music during the summer.
34. Durham Bulls baseball
35. Carolina Hurricanes hockey
36. There are great malls (Southpoint, Crabtree, Triangle Town).
37. We have some cute boutiques too (Cameron Village, Franklin Street, etc.).
38. There are great places to see wild animals.
    1. Only 1.5 hours to the NC Zoo.
    2. The Carnivore Preservation
    3. Duke Lemur Center
    4. Conservators Center
    5. Butterfly House
39. The Farmers Market is a good place for produce and homemade bread.
40. A Southern Season is one of the largest gourmet markets in the country.
41. Bojangles are plentiful, so getting a BoBerry biscuit fix is easy.
42. Exploris has an Imax theatre.
43. The State Fair is terrific – fried candy bars, pb&j, coke, etc.
44. We have both good (e.g., Monterrey & Patio Loco) and cheap (e.g., Cosmic Cantina & El Dorado) Mexican restaurants.
45. There are some good Indian restaurants (e.g., Tamarind and Saffron).
46. Lots of good Asian places (e.g., Sushi Thai, Bamboo Garden)
47. We have delicious burger joints (e.g., Barry’s).
48. Although we don’t have Lou’s or Gino’s, we have some decent pizza places (e.g., Cinelli’s, Rudino’s, Mellow Mushroom).
49. We’ve found some nice American places (e.g., Irregardless Cafe, Twisted Fork, Big Ed’s (Southern))
50. Good Italian (e.g., Daniel’s, 411 West/518 West, Biaggi’s)
51. Fine dining (e.g., Second Empire, Fearrington House, Magnolia Grill)
52. There are plenty of good tapas restaurants (e.g., Zely & Ritz, Humble Pie).
53. You can get blue frosted cupcakes at Cafe Carolina.
54. Saturday brunch at Cary Cafe is not to be missed.
55. We have donuts for everyone (Krispy Kreme, Dunkin’ Donuts, Fractured Prune).
56. Don’t forget Cook Out milkshakes!  CharGrill‘s are good too, just not a wide variety of flavors. 
57. We have diners too (Gypsy’s Shiny Diner, Elmo’s, 501 Diner, Poole’s (will reopen soon)).
58. Don’t forget the barbecue (e.g., Danny’s, Smithfield’s).
59. We have most of the usual chains, from Ruth’s Chris, PF Chang’s, and Cheesecake Factory to Waffle House and ChickFilA.
60. There’s a great excuse to eat out once a year (for charity). 
61. Good bars abound (Flying Saucer and Pour House in Raleigh, Connolley’s and the Hibernian in Cary, way too many to name on Franklin Street).
62. There are even some nice wine bars (April & George, West End Wine Bar)
63. There are dance clubs for everyone – casual at Buckhead, collegiate at Players, or hip at Mosquito, Red’s for beach music, Legends for boys who like boys.
64. The Triangle is dog friendly.
65. There are several places to go for good, goofy fun.
    1. Frankie’s Fun Park (but don’t eat at the restaurant unless you can stand bad service)
    2. Silver Lake Water Park
    3. Adventure Landing
66. There are several paintball places (e.g., Gotcha, Black River).
67. You can play frisbee golf several places.
68. We have lots of nice regular golf courses, including the one at UNC that my dad says is the best he’s played (better than Grove Park!).
69. We have fun art gallery spaces (e.g., ArtSpace, Visual Art Exchange).
70. There’s a cool art festival – Cary Lazy Daze.
71. Artsplosure is a fun festival too.
72. There are several places to catch outdoor movies during the summer.
73. We have one winery here (Chatham Hill) and lots more close by.
74. We have nice grocery stores – Whole Foods, Lowes Foods, Harris Teeter.
75. We have a brand new Trader Joes.
76. It’s not far to High Point for furniture shopping!
77. We have a good comedy club.
78. Franklin Street on Halloween is great fun.
79. The NC Renaissance Fair is fun too.
80. We have some neat indie theatres (e.g., Galaxy Cinema, Chelsea, Varsity)
81. There’s a cool flying club.
82. We have all the big box stores you’d expect – Target, Best Buy, WalMart, Sam’s, BJ’s, etc.
83. You can build your own computer without waiting for the mail (2 Tiger Directs).
84. We have some great game stores (e.g., All Fun & Games)
85. There are plenty of running clubs (e.g., NC Roadrunners).
86. And cycling clubs (e.g., NCBC, Tarwheels).
87. Cary was named a bicycle-friendly community.
88. We have a great flea market.
89. Our Parade of Homes is pretty amazing.
90. We’re hosting the 2008 World Beer Festival.
91. We have a Great Grapes wine festival each year.
92. First Night Raleigh is fun – I love the dropping of the acorn.
93. I adore seeing the Victorian houses in Historic Oakwood.
94. There’s Theatre in the Park.
95. The American Dance Festival in Durham provides a great opportunity to see dance.
96. We have good corn mazes and pumpkin patches in the fall.
97. We have several ice skating rinks.
98. We have lots of amazing churches/places of worship (e.g., Vintage21, Colonial, Hindu Society, LDS Temple).
99. There are terrific places to study martial arts (e.g., White Tiger).
100. There are dance societies (e.g., Triangle Swing Dance Society, Carolina Dance Club, more).
101. You can study all kinds of things, including fun stuff like cooking and photography, at the local community colleges and tech schools too (e.g., Wake Tech, Durham Tech).