TRACK

TOP LEFT: Camp North End brings 46 acres of shopping, art, dining, and unique office space to downtown Charlotte.

MIDDLE LEFT: GSC is home to a colony of African penguins, also known as black-footed penguins or jackass penguins (for their braying vocalizations).

MIDDLE RIGHT: The NASCAR Hall of Fame allows fans to get in on the action with more than 50 interactive experiences.

LOWER LEFT: Charlotte is bursting with color! Art Walks CLT connects you to local public art and artists.

LOWER RIGHT: The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art presents works by the most important and influential artists of the mid 20th century.

When our editor, Lauren Morris, first suggested that we ride Amtrak from Cary to Charlotte as a team and document our experience, I was equal parts excited and skeptical. Up until that point, my only experience riding trains had been in Europe, and I was unsure how the trip would compare. Would we be waiting for hours on the train platform? How many stops would there be, and how long would they take? Would our 7-foot-tall photographer comfortably fit in his seat? I wasn’t entirely sure (especially about the latter), but I was willing to find out for the sake of travel journalism — and an all-expense-paid night in downtown Charlotte couldn’t hurt!

Once the trip officially made the run sheet for March (fancy magazine talk), we still had to decide where we would go off the rails. North Carolina currently has 16 Amtrak stations going in just about every direction, so it seemed the state was our oyster. Given we were leaving from Cary, we had the option to travel the Piedmont Regional, which journeys from Raleigh to Charlotte; the Silver Star, which heads toward Florida; or the Carolinian, which could take us all the way to New York — with plenty of stops along the way.

As much as sunny Florida beckoned in the dead of winter, we thought it would be best to show our readers some fun and easy day trip/weekend options from the Triangle that could be enjoyed year-round.