Fun in Charlotte

I love the Queen City.  (Charlotte, NC)  The kids love visiting GranMary.

This last visit "home" I decided to take the kids to Carowinds.  I grew up going to Carowinds as a kid.  Mom would drop us off for the day.  We'd call her when we were ready to come home.  Carowinds has changed a bit.  It has a lot more roller coasters than it did when I was a kid.

http://www.carowinds.com/

I'm always looking for a deal on things, so before going to Carowinds I checked on-line.  I was able to find a discounted admission that included a meal for $43.99 per person.  The meal was all-you-can-eat BBQ that included bbq pork, fried chicken, baked beans, chips, potato salad, cole slaw, cookies and fountain drinks.  (Regular admission at the gate is $52.99 or so.  A discounted online ticket is $41.99.)  Since we stayed for about 12 hours at the park, I feel like we really got our money's worth.  The park was not at all crowded the day after the 4th of July holiday...no lines or barely a wait for everything!  And the BBQ linner (lunch/dinner) was quite yummy and filling.

Although I was able to get a discount for Carowinds, it was still quite expensive for the 4 of us.  So I tried to find some other fun in Charlotte that wouldn't cost so much.  I was able to find a free family movie at a local theater.  We were able to see Gulliver's Travels with Jack Black for free.  Then, we signed up for Kids Bowl Free at a local AMF bowling alley. They emailed us our free coupons within 24 hours. We only had to rent one pair of bowling shoes, so 6 games (2 per child) of bowling cost less than $5. 

Of course, we played card games (Spite and Malice, President), Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit and Phase 10.  GranMary is the best for game playing.

We did make it down to the pool for a bit of swimming.  GranMary and I got in a game of Scrabble while the kids swam.