Share

Raleigh is one the greatest cities in the country, surrounded by other great cities like Durham, Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem. It's state home, North Carolina, is one of the most beautiful locations in America spanning from the Atlantic to the Smoky Mountains.



The music scene, the Krispy Kremes, the Cheerwine and the BBQ are enough to satisfy most of its constituents. But there is plenty more that makes this city awesome.

Click to Tweet This Now1. AV Geeks
If you've ever seen the amazing television show Wonder Showzen then you've seen a taste of the collection of Skip Eisheimer. Someone has to archive old films and videos and Eisheimer has taken the job of collecting old educational films and other gems. He has over 22,000 films! Where does he get them? Many of the treasure chests are dumpsters.

Here's one of the gems of the collection:


2. Michael Pilmer
Like Skip, this guy is one of the facilitators of the amazing in Raleigh. He runs the Devo fan site as well as organizing Mark Mothersbaugh's art tours. He is also a fan and Website creator of Thor, the Legendary Rock Warrior.

Why is this awesome? If you're asking then you are not awesome. In addition to his other fantastic qualities, he is fascinated by the power of implied regurgitation, explored through his site, ithrewup.com and he sees the brilliance of Renelvis, running his Website.

3. Renelvis
Every city may have an Elvis impersonator, but there may be only one city where the impersonator not only sings Elvis in the style of Elvis but also writes and performs songs about Elvis.

Gems like "Elvis on Terrorism", "Elvis Still Number One", "Dreams Do Come True" and "The Power of Positive Thinking" are songs that will inspire and maybe even make you whinge a little. His performance is truly earnest and he has a heart of gold. Renelvis is awesome.

4. Smartest City
Raleigh-Durham made the Daily Beast's list of America's smartest city. Raleigh is home to three universities: Duke, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. These universities gave birth to the Research Triangle – a section of Raleigh that hosts some of the most innovative minds in research.


5. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
It's the largest museum of natural science in the Southeast. It houses Willo, the only dinosaur in the world with a fossilized heart, and a living conservatory.

6. Art Scene
Lump Gallery has been producing shows for over ten years that includes local talent, Skip Eisheimer. Over the years, they've helped facilitate dozens of galleries in the area. There's also the Art Space that has ongoing art classes.

7. Great Music Scene
This is the area where Superchunk, Ben Folds Five, The Mountain Goats and Whiskeytown began. Great venues like Cats Cradle (Caroboro) and The Lincoln Theater bring not only huge out-of-town acts but pack out for local talent. This past weekend, the Troika Festival was held, showcasing a lot of the newer local talent.

8. Excellent Farmers Market
The Raleigh Farmers Market is owned by the State of North Carolina. It's open seven days a week and is full of local produce, meats and cheeses.

9. Good Parks
The parks here are free and provide respite to the locals. Surrounding three lakes, Umstead Park has 16 miles of hiking trails and 17 miles of horse trails. Shelley Lake Park has a 53 acre lake that offers a free tackle loaner program for those new to fishing. Pullen Park has an old carousel and pedal boats. There is also the JC Raulston Arboretum which is also free.

10. Inspired City Planner Dan Douglas
City planning is to conducting an orchestra what architecture is to playing the violin. American city planning sometimes lets the chips fall where they may compared to other countries. It can be a good thing, like New York City. It can be a terrible thing when a developer comes in and makes crappy houses and then forces the city to pony up taxpayer money to provide utilities.

But Dan Douglas seems to have his chips in order. Right now he's creating a huge plan that is similar to the Research Triangle, part of which is using 120 acres of unused land and transforming it into something viable.

11. It's not far from the Smoky Mountains nor the Atlantic Ocean.
Raleigh is in the middle of the state and is about equidistant from the coast and the Smoky Mountains. This city's location allows you to travel in a comfortable radius, making the road trip pleasantly easy around what may be one of the most beautiful states.