Apex In Full Color

APEX ~ In 2013, Money Magazine voted this small turn-of-the-century railroad town #9 in the nation, and #1 in the state, as one of its "Best Places to Live". Its historic district is home to restaurants and pubs, antique shops, gift stores, a bakery, a bookstore, a cultural center, a local fire house and other small businesses. 

You won't find any major box stores in the four-block stretch of downtown.

For a directory of what you WILL find here on North Salem Street, click here. 

Color. There's a lot of it going on here. Each building touts it's own shade of cool. It's not overdone, and clearly adds charm to what could be pretty ho-hum architecture.

Be sure to stop in at Buttercream's Bakery for a sweet, scratch-made treat before you wrap up your visit downtown.

Snapshots Around Greensboro

Despite being one of the largest cities in North Carolina, Greensboro is pretty small. It doesn't take long to walk from end-to-end. However, when you include all the outlying neighborhoods that border downtown, it IS quite vast. Here are some of the snapshots from my tour around the city.

Back in 1960, at the Woolworth's lunch counter, four black students staged a sit-in after being denied service. Woolworth changed its desegregation policy after hundreds participated in the sit-ins that followed. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum (above) opened on the 50th anniversary of those sit-ins on February 1, 2010. For more information on the center, click here.

Center City Park hosts outdoor events in the heart of downtown. Sitting by a fountain, having dinner with some friends after work under the night sky, and listening to a live band (on a stage not pictured here)... sounds like a good night to me. (The Greensboro Cultural Center can be seen in the background).

One of several approaches to Historic Greensboro.

I would not have spotted this fountain squeezed between two buildings, had I not run into a child fixated on something inside this alleyway.

The buildings above are reminiscent of the style of architecture found in almost every city I've visited in North Carolina so far.

Catch a movie, or a performance, at the 1100-seat Carolina Theatre (downtown) and when the show's over grab a drink or late-night bite within walking distance of any number of cafes and restaurants...

...and if the weather's warm enough, sit outside.

The Lincoln Financial Group Building is the hallmark of Greensboro's skyline.