Brief first-time visit to Charlotte for a family wedding on Saturday at the Mint Museum uptown. We arrived Friday mid-afternoon, chilled out by the pool, then met up with B’s brother and SIL at Fin and Fino (uptown location) for an early dinner. We got seated in a weird banquet-like space in the back part of the restaurant—we all joked that it felt like we were already at the wedding (horrible fluorescent-like lighting, which is evident in the photos). This was the kind of place where the menu sounded more enticing than the items actually were. There was some unnecessarily complicated-sounding cocktail theme going on which we passed on and stuck with wine. Plates are meant for sharing. My BIL and SIL shared the burrata salad with roasted beets (we did not try it). They said it was good. The green salad I ordered was a large portion and in need of acid. Calamari was ordered (B said it was just ok). Three of us got the crab pasta special, which was nothing special (the pasta was described as casarecce but seemed more like lumache or conchiglie). So forgettable that I forgot to take a photo. Spring Onion probably ordered the best thing—Norwegian salmon which he can never pass up when he sees it on a menu (his favorite restaurant in Oslo is called “The Salmon”). Got a photo outside the Bechtler in front of the Firebird sculpture by de Saint Phalle before walking to 204 North where the wedding party was finishing up their rehearsal dinner and where everyone else was gathering for welcome drinks. Definitely would like to check out the Bechtler if we’re ever in Charlotte again (my BIL is an architect and he pointed out some neat features of the Mario Botta-designed building).
Saturday, we spent most of the day at the wonderful Discovery Place science museum. We’ve been to A LOT of science museums, both stateside and internationally and there were many unique and delightful exhibits. We scurried out for a late lunch at Rooster’s on the way back to our hotel for the 5 pm wedding. Mushroom pizza for B, margherita for me. SO went with chicken. The fries were surprisingly very good—they tasted like real potatoes, which sadly is rarely the case anymore. Pizzas were larger than we expected so we took home the leftovers. B liked the local hazy New England IPA, Juicy J. Great service.
Wedding was a lot of fun. It was the first time in some time that B and 3 of his sibs were together (the youngest couldn’t make it). Due to our late lunch, the 3 of us didn’t touch any of the passed appetizers (crostini of some sort, carrot/squash soup shooters, empanadas, and more). Dinner was steak (B and SO said it was delicious), some kind of chicken, and then a very weird vegetarian dish. It consisted of 3 stalks of charred broccoli with a cloyingly rich sauce, on a bed of quinoa, which was encircled by a pomegranate-tinged puree. I finished it because I don’t like wasting food but blah. No photos because it feels gauche to take food photos at a wedding.
We spent Sunday before our 4 pm flight at a place we never thought we would ever visit, the NASCAR Hall of Fame museum. And you know what?..It was pretty fun, especially the pit crew challenge (we had the high score for the day up to that point!). Lunch was our pizza leftovers.
We found Charlotte to be a very chill city, which our Lyft driver to the airport (who is from NYC) confirmed. He was like, it’ll drive you nuts sometimes, how slow everyone moves, but after 12 years, he’d gotten used to it. Sort of. 
