It’s kind of hard to believe I’ve only been here for one full week because I feel like I’ve already done so many things! So here’s a quick recap of everything that happened during my first week in Raleigh.

Unpacking + Decorating

Slowly but surely, I’m almost unpacked. At this point, I only have about 2.5 boxes left. Which honestly is impressive because when I moved to downtown Richmond last August, I never fully unpacked and had a huge box sitting in our extra room for the entire year. So, progress is happening here.

Also, decorating! The best part… once you get everything unpacked and you actually can find things! This is happening at a much slower rate, but that’s okay!

Raleigh Bucket List

So I was actually able to cross a few things off my Raleigh bucket list in the past week!

Downtown Farmer’s Market

Last Wednesday I ventured into downtown Raleigh to see the downtown farmer’s market and was completely blown away at how big downtown Raleigh actually is. I know it’s a bigger city than Richmond, but I wasn’t expecting it to remind me so much of Washington D.C. or almost Philadelphia. I was slightly overwhelmed because I had no idea where I was going and kept getting turned around, but managed to snag street parking a block away from the farmer’s market (thanks for that skill, RVA!). Overall, the downtown farmer’s market wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought there might be more flower stands or homemade goods, but it was mostly just food and produce for sale. Which makes sense, especially since I went right around lunch time and it seemed like it would be an awesome place to go if you worked downtown and wanted to get some fresh food.

Yoga at Blue Lotus

After the farmer’s market, I headed over to Blue Lotus for a free community yoga class. Also located downtown, Blue Lotus has a beautiful open space for yoga. The teacher was incredibly welcoming and I was able to pick up The Heart of Yoga in their little boutique. From my apartment, it’s about a 20 minute drive and since I like getting to classes at least 10 minutes early to get settled, I would definitely need to devote at least 30 minutes to just getting to the studio. But I’m probably going to keep popping in to check out the environment and take some other classes!

BREW Coffee Bar

I stopped in BREW at Cary Theater Friday afternoon to get some work done after running a few errands. I had already had coffee that morning and it was so hot out… I opted for Hibiscus Berry Iced Tea. It was definitely more refreshing than coffee would have been, especially since I’m not a fan of iced coffee. I wasn’t a huge fan of the shop itself, it’s located on the first floor and had a small sitting area and was fairly full when I stopped in. I’m definitely keeping this one on the list to try again to get actual coffee.

State Farmer’s Market

On Sunday, I checked out the State Farmer’s Market with my boyfriend’s mom. We had brunch (technically, since we both ordered breakfast) at the State Farmer’s Market Restaurant and then checked out the actual market. It’s pretty cool that this farmer’s market is open all year, seven days a week! I’m used to the farmer’s markets in Richmond only being open on specific weekends during the month with limited hours, so it’s nice to know this one is always available! I was looking for flowers to put in my apartment, but the floral arrangements were much bigger than I was expecting. But we came away with peaches, corn and tomatoes so it was still a successful trip in my book!

Miscellaneous Wanderings

Saturday night I had a craving for cupcakes so after doing a little research, I drove to Cameron Village to get gluten free cupcakes from Sugarland! I was surprised, and excited, to see they were open until 11 pm and decided to give them a try. I got two “Thrilla in Vanilla” cupcakes and they were delicious. A lot of bakeries in Richmond put a ton of super heavy frosting on their cupcakes which is great and all, but a girl can only handle so much sugar. Sugarland’s gluten free cupcakes did not have this problem. They were the perfect ratio of cupcake to frosting. I’ll definitely be back.

 

I also dropped in to Bliss Body Yoga for a restorative class on Sunday afternoon to relax and center myself for the week ahead. As a JMU alumna and lover of all things purple, I was a little too excited to see that all of their props were purple. I’m talking bolsters, blocks, straps (were actually mostly grey, but with only purple accents), blankets, eye pillows and studio yoga mats were all purple! Going to a new yoga studio for the first time is always a little nerve wracking, because a website can only tell you so much. But seeing all the purple made me feel at home and more at ease since I associate purple with the happiest place on earth. I can’t wait to go back and try out their other classes!

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All in all, I’ve had a pretty amazing first week in the City of Oaks. I hope you all had a wonderful and productive, but also relaxing, weekend! If you’re a Raleigh native, have any places you think I should check out and add to my bucket list? Let me know in the comments below!