"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things." -- Henry Ward Beecher
Those common things that Beecher was referring to can definitely be found in Southern Pines. I extracted much happiness in my three visits there and look forward to future visits.
Southern Pines is a small town in south-central North Carolina, about 75 miles from Greensboro. The population is around 14,500. The old train depot is in the center of town, and Southern Pines is a stop on Amtrak's Savannah to NYC route. It is surrounded by lovely and famous horse farms and horse-show locations.
Nearby is Pinehurst, a community well known for its historic golf resort. Several U.S. Open and Amateur Championships have been held here. (Another interesting fact is that the central village of Pinehurst was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted of Central Park/Biltmore fame.)
Enough about the background and demographics. Southern Pines is my ideal place of peace and old-fashioned small town southern charm. There is a park, aptly called Downtown Park, where children play, families picnic, young people gather to talk and play basketball, and everyone feels safe. I love to just sit on a bench here and soak in the normal-ness of it, to forget the anger, fear, and confusion of our country right now. It's like it doesn't exist in this park in this pleasant idyllic community.
Moving from the park towards the central shopping area, there are sidewalks and crossings where pedestrians usually have the right-of-way. The old depot is definitely an attention-getter, sitting as it does alongside the tracks right in the center of town. On either side of the tracks and depot, the town spreads down Broad Street in both directions.
On my last visit, with Kathryn, Natalie, and Celestine, we wandered in to several shops. My favorite (for all three visits) is the book store, called The Country Bookshop. This store has an awesome selection of classics, non-fiction, children's, and history books along with the usual fiction fare. It also has a small card collection and some neat collectible books. Not surprising confession: I have spent money there on all three visits!!
We also visited a nice gift shop, Mockingbird on Broad which was full of a variety of items. Against the Grain was a shop with mostly wooden objects but also some other items.There was a really nice outdoors store called River Jack Outdoor Trading. It was deceptively small from the outside but seemed to go on and on inside. They had an amazing supply of tennis shoes, t-shirts, and camping supplies. Some of the other stores were a toy store, a Christian bookstore (closed the day we were there), a restyle store, and several clothing stores.
A trip is not complete without food, and Southern Pines did not disappoint there either. We ate a sandwich cafe called Sweet Basil. Kathryn got a quesadilla, Natalie got the hot vegetarian, and I ordered roast beef and brie. You can see my side salad in the pic below. It was huge, and the homemade dressing was delicious. The sandwich had a hard time living up to the salad. I would definitely recommend this spot. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays.
Later in the day we sampled ice-cream from The Ice Cream Parlor Restaurant and kombucha from Southern Salt Room. (If you know me, you know that the kombucha sampling was not done by me but the ice cream was.) Natalie does say the kombucha is excellent; this was her second visit to this shop, and she got her "growler" refilled while we were there. We also bought cupcakes to take home from Cups to take home. Everyone was happy with the day's food selections!
Wrapping it up, Southern Pines is a place I would DEFINITELY recommend making a visit to. It would be a perfect day-trip destination or even a worthy detour when heading to or returning from the beach. You might even see me there, as I plan on making several return trips. After all, there are more books in the bookstore and several restaurants I haven't sampled...
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