Day Trip: Belmont and McAdenville (aka Christmas Town)

We get Whitney home for THREE WEEKS!

Yippee!

She came home before B, so it was the perfect

chance to take a girls trip and visit not one, but TWO

cute little downtowns with fun shops.

First up; Belmont, NC

Stopped at the Cotton Candy Factory.

So good.

And isn't it adorable inside?

And they have a really cool mission, too.

They are run by a non-profit that is 
"dedicated to caring for children and adults with 

intellectual developmental disabilities 

and delicate medical conditions."

They had a festival of trees going on in one of the parks.

Cookie Monster

The police

Still happy to play on a merry-go-round.

Love that.

Social media?

Look at the cute Christmas peeps

the girls found at the candy store.

Fun mural.

Not-great-lighting for my selfie. Ha ha ha!

We found a thrift/antique store

that we loved looking around.

The paint on this staircase was WILD.

Why would you do that?

Some of the things I grew up with 

are now considered antiques.

Pretty plate display

And fun glasses!

Feeling festive!

Belmont is only about 3 miles from McAdenville.

McAdenville is also known as Christmas Town here in NC.

I'd never been there, but had heard of it.

As the sun started to set, we headed that way.

The houses are CUTE.

Most of them are themed.

This Christmas Story one was fun.

It's a major award!

Leg lamp in the window.

I loved this candy one

Not a sign you see every day

Cute Santa tree

As it got dark, the traffic got crazy.

We parked at a school and walked through the lighted houses.

It wasn't far, very do-able.

My girls!

We thought we could stop at the cute little downtown shops there, too.

But they were TOO crowded. Most of them had lines to even get in.

We decided to skip them.

A little glimpse of the traffic

This little fairy was door was SO CUTE

and totally made me think of Grandma Sweat.

I'm so glad we went.

I don't know that it will become a tradition,

but it was definitely a fun experience.

All the restaurants in McAdenville were too busy.

So we went back to Belmont and ate at 

Sammy's Neighborhood Pub.

It was a cute little local spot and we enjoyed it.

My Tetris-shaped tater tots were AMAZING!