7-3-10 Saturday (What’s In A Name?)

We decided to head over to the Atherton Market located at the Atherton Mill in Charlotte’s historic South End.  The Atherton Market is a farmer’s market selling local goods.  Atherton Cotton Mill is it’s original name.  Here’s what I dug up on it:

“Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Atherton Cotton Mills does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the Atherton Cotton Mills was one of only three spinning mills owned and operated by Daniel Augustus Tompkins (1851-1914), a New South industrialist of profound importance in the economic development of Charlotte and its environs, 2) the Atherton Cotton Mills documents the emergence of Charlotte as a major textile manufacturing center in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and 3) the Atherton Cotton Mills was the first industrial plant in the industrial district of Dilworth, Charlotte's initial streetcar suburb.”

The market was smaller than I had expected.  I kept wondering if I was missing something.  The vendors were jewelry makers, lots of fresh veggies, cafe type food stands, etc.  Jim spotted a chicken salad and was delighted to find out it was made with walnuts and grapes instead of celery.  He got that and I got a yummy salad from them.  We went outside the market, found a park bench and ate lunch.  A beautiful day here.  For the most part, the weather here is awesome.  Not too hot, not too cold.

We then took a walk up several blocks to “take in” the area.  Nice.  We checked out the light rail price and schedule but decided to do that a different day.  We think it might be “fun” to take the light rail from end to end while getting off at different stops. 

Here’s a few photos:

Above: The inside of the market appears to have been a trolley yard at one time as evident by one trolley, the tracks leading in/out and a large boom crane type thing over head.  

Above: The photo looked clear on my mini camera screen.  Here’s a view into the market from the entrance.

Above: An entrance to some other building that seemed empty.

Above: The light rail tracks run next to the mill and into uptown.

Above: I love the skyline.  I know it’s smaller than NY and other major cities but this city is just major enough for me.  I was born and raised in NY (Queens, 18 years), seen it, done it.

Above: Guess.

We managed to have a great time doing not much.  Continuing with the theme, we went home picked up my Target gift card (from my parents) and went food shopping.  I also bought a PlayStation 3 game I’ve been loving the demo of called inFAMOUS.  We stopped by a Game Stop and bought some Buzz!: Quiz World.  Buzz is such a fun trivia game for the PlayStation.  Jim and I love it.  It’s been a long time since friends Mike and Dave introduced that game to us.  Well, then again it took a long time for us to get a PlayStation of our own.  We played many a game later that night.  I would have liked to have won a game or something!

Jim chose Ryan’s Buffet for dinner.  Oy.  I dipped into my weekly points by about 6.  I’m not worried, I won’t fret.  I’m gonna kick this fat’s ass!  On the way to dinner we dropped off the Jeep at Monro’s (at BJ’s) for the 3rd time for squeaky brakes. 

 

 

The RV journey is nearing it’s end and I have mixed emotions about it.  We planned the final leg of the trip.  We enjoyed a spa day of sorts.  Read about it here.

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