Raleigh, NC - one of the final three!
Hello everyone!
Getting close to the end here - only two episodes to go! This post, episode 5, will cover my time and thoughts on Raleigh, NC as well as the elimination of the 3rd place finisher.
Episode 6 will contain the summary of Wilmington, NC and my final decision.
Quick recap of recent important information:
Started the year with a visit to Richmond, VA (episode 4) - left Richmond hoping I would like Raleigh or Wilmington better.
Took a quick break from the new home searching with a trip back to Asheville to see friends and turn 30!
Determined that Charleston, SC isn't going to work because I'm prioritizing having my own apartment (and staying within budget for rent). Not interested in the suburbs surrounding Charleston which would realistically limit the amount of time at the beach and therefore the purpose of being in Charleston in the first place. Therefore, the final three going into this episode are Richmond, Raleigh, and Wilmington.
Here is a breakdown of what I considered/explored while in Raleigh, in somewhat chronological order. Note: when I say "Raleigh" I'm referring to the entire greater Raleigh area, which includes Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, and even the town I grew up in for eight years of my childhood: Fuquay-Varina.
Church - Part 1
During my first full day in Raleigh (Sunday 1/28/2024) I visited Peak City Church, and even met up with one of my brother's friends, Marilee, from childhood while I was there! It was alright, I enjoyed the service, but wasn't completely sold, mainly due to the pastor giving me Mark Driscoll "lite" vibes. To be fair, I didn't get that impression while listening to the sermons in the podcast feed (you can find my review of those in episode 3), but in general I think it is best practice to be wary of religious leaders where aggression is seemingly interchangeable with passion.
Since the topic of that day's sermon was about the dangers of social media, I want to take this space to recommend a great book I read last year: Stolen Focus by Johann Hari.
I can't really remember what else I did that day, did anything else memorable happen on 1/28/2024?
Proximity to Friends
One of the great things about Raleigh is the proximity to friends from all three stages of my social life:
Childhood - Raleigh Area
High School / College - New York
Post-College / 20s - Asheville
While I was in Raleigh for these couple of weeks, I saw Jeremy+Christy, Evan+Olivia, Eva, Jessica, Alex, and would've seen Serena but she was in Japan at the time. I had friends to run with, get dinner, see a movie, visit a brewery, play board games, and almost go to hockey games.
It is also notable that when I was in Raleigh, it became clear that I would still have the opportunity to travel back to Asheville, which would help with my FOMO with my friends there.
Gym/Run Club
Raleigh, like everywhere else I've considered, has the Orange Theory gyms that I like going to a few times a week (shoutout to Chris/Isla for getting me into that a year ago this March). Also, I was impressed by the amount of greenways in Raleigh, especially in Cary. As I drove around I was constantly seeing the blue and green signs indicating an entrance to another part of the trail system. Having many places to explore on runs is definitely a plus, and similar to Richmond, I met up with a run club to get a free tour of parts of Raleigh. Shout out to the park in Downtown Cary which might be the most impressive small town park I've ever been to in my life.
Apartments
When I was in Raleigh, I toured twelve apartment complexes (before the in-person tours, I gathered data on over thirty!) and this was when I knew that Richmond, VA was officially eliminated from contention. I was much more impressed with the options at the prices I'm looking for, and while the city of Richmond itself was great, I know Raleigh would provide a higher quality of living in regards to my actual "home". Which is important as someone who works fully remotely from home. Out of those twelve apartments, there were seven floor plans from six apartments that I was pleased with, and I've been tracking their daily price changes since to identify trends so I can time the signing of a lease accordingly if I decide to move to Raleigh.
Church - Part 2
For my second Sunday I visited Bright City Church and really enjoyed it. I had the opportunity to meet with the young adult ministry director and get the invite for upcoming events - it is notable that I still qualify for young adult ministry at Bright City at my ripe old age of 30, which isn't the case for all churches (tune in to episode 6 to hear about the church in Wilmington). I ended up extending my stay in Raleigh an extra day and a half so I could stay for two events on 2/11/2024 - the monthly lunch with the pastors for new visitors to get to know them and ask questions about church culture, beliefs, HR policies, etc. and the young adult Super Bowl watch party later that night.
I want to give a special thanks to Mark and Mary (friends from my church in Asheville who I dog sit for often) for reading this blog series and connecting me with their daughter Jenna, who is the most extroverted person I've ever met and attends Bright City. Jenna made sure I felt welcome by introducing me to everyone in sight and making sure I got connected. Because of her, I already even have people inquiring about my dog sitting in the Raleigh area!
Wegmans
Worth noting that Raleigh has multiple Wegmans locations. I went one of those huge new ones that truly is the equivalent of Disney but in grocery store form.
Summary of Cons
Here is a list of the negative things I noticed about Raleigh, and the steps I would take to counteract those if I were to move to the area:
Hockey - I wasn't actually able to convince my friends to go with me to a Hurricanes game while I was in Raleigh. I hope that's not indicative of what would happen if I live there full time, but the point of these "dress rehearsals" is to simulate what life would actually look like. If I struggle to find someone to go to the game with me now, that might be the same in the future? But, getting connected and expanding my social network would theoretically give me more opportunities to get to games, so I'm not too worried about this?
It is also notable that on the night where I would've gone to a hockey game I instead was able to hang out with Alex and have a beer flight that was specifically brewed to be served with girl scout cookies:
Fullsteam Brewery in Durham - Notice that they don't include that trash toothpaste-flavored girl scout cookie which is objectively the worst girl scout cookie and that is a fact.
Spikeball - It was still technically winter, so I'm not surprised that the Spikeball app wasn't lively, but our group in Asheville was out regularly in the winter months, just sayin'...
Water Activities - Being around the water definitely requires intention in Raleigh. In comparison to my previous visit to Richmond, and my visit to Wilmington (which is where I am while I'm writing this), Raleigh doesn't have the water access where one would spontaneously find themselves around water in a typical evening after work. I would have to be very intentional about giving myself a time-around-water quota and sticking to it by getting out to Jordan Lake or paddleboarding with Jeremy on Harris Lake again like I did last summer.
Restaurants - Raleigh is in a lot of ways a cookie-cutter city, so the mediocre chain restaurants (and some good chains) are everywhere. I'd have to be extra intentional about seeking out the lesser known higher-quality places. I'm already thinking that wherever I land I want to make a spreadsheet to track all the restaurants in the area with my ratings so I become a food expert of the city and avoid mediocre meals. During my two weeks, I had two meals that were significantly disappointing.
That's the summary of pretty much everything! As of 3/5/2024, I'm still in Wilmington because I found a good deal on a short term lease to bridge the time to a dog sitting opportunity back in Asheville before the April trip to New York to see that solar eclipse. By the end of my time in Wilmington I will make my final decision, and sometime after I will write episode 6 to officially announce that decision!
Special thanks to Richmond for making it to the final 3 - whether I end up in Raleigh or Wilmington, the drive back to see family in the DMV area will take me through Richmond, and I'm looking forward to stopping by again.
As always, I am incredibly appreciative for anyone who takes the time to read through these. I certainly try to make them somewhat entertaining in addition to the main purpose of simply being a snapshot of my life/decisions that I can look back on in the future.
For those of you who like Thin Mints: I look forward to ignoring your comments.
God bless!
Jeremy