Celebrate Mother’s Day, plus 13 Best Bets while you’re isolating during the coronavirus
Oh, moms. We love you more than pandemic kids love toilet paper. Check out a slew of ways to show mom you love her while staying home and/or practicing social distancing — and while supporting local! That, plus plenty of other fun opportunities and a chance to run for the lemurs. Yes, lemurs. #StayStrongTriangle
Mother’s Day Local
Spoiler alert. Mother’s Day is Sunday. If you’re a last-minute shopper, it’s not too late to shower mom with gifts while supporting local. Check out Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide Stay-at-Home Edition for a compilation of go-to gifts, brunch pickup/delivery opps, flowers and more. It promises to give you the edge on that fave child status — and showing her she puts the “her” in your “hero.” downtownraleigh.org/post/mothersday2020
Mother’s Day Meals
Level up mother’s day and support local with a bevy of thoughtful meal ops around town. Sitti is offering a brunch menu for mom with Mother’s Day Rose and Sitti Sip options (919-239-4070 to order; pick up Saturday or Sunday). Morning Times wants you to treat mom to breakfast in bed with its Mother’s Day Brunch spread of bagels, fruit salad and coffee (Call 919-836-1204 to order by Thursday May 7; Pick up on Mother’s Day morning). Both spots offer you the opp to double down on fave child status by adding a bouquet from Petale.
We’ve got more ideas at newsobserver.com for take-out brunches to go.
Self-Guided Mural Tour
75-plus. That’s the number of murals you can peep in downtown Raleigh. Anyone up for a game of eye-spy (socially distanced, of course) or artful exercising? Take a walk or grab the bike and roll through the artistic wonder that’s revealed on buildings across our city. Enjoy a self-guided district mural tour, thanks to Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s new interactive map — so you can explore downtown’s public art on your own. Happy hunting. downtownraleigh.org/publicart
Cook With Us Live
Mark your calendars. It’s time to eat. Familiar with Oprah private chef Kenny Gilbert and his famed skillet cornbread? Learn how to make it at home, as chef personally schools you. Yes, for real. Gilbert has plans to open the North Raleigh restaurant, Cut & Gather, this year. He’ll host Instagram Live on @raleighmagazine’s new “Cook with Us” segment Friday (May 8, 4 p.m.) and walk you through the recipe as you cook along with him. Future Friday special guests will include Driftwood Kitchen & Bar’s Nunzio Scordo (May 15), ko.an’s Drew Smith (May 22) and Vidrio’s Andrew Williams (May 29).
Workout from home
Workout from home (#WOFM) is still trending — and inspired, thanks to a host of local fitness centers and experts offering hundreds of rotating options for you to get your fit on with your fave instructors from the comfort of your home. Meet us at the barre (get it?) with offerings from Barre3, Barre-Up, Pure Barre and Carolina Barre & Core; or feel the burn with Burn Boot Camp. Get to the core of your fitness needs via CORE Fitness Studio and CorePower Yoga or get shredded with Shred415 or North Raleigh Fit Body Boot Camp. Feeling MADabolic? Like you need a punching bag (Title Boxing Club)? Or wanna Tread Happy? Also all great ops. Even mental health, check (Current Wellness). #StayStrong, Triangle… soon, we’ll see you at the club.
NC Museum of History wants COVID-19 artifacts
Remember the time? Someday today will be a long time ago (hallelujah?), and, believe it or not, we will want to collect artifacts and relics of today to help us tell the story. Enter the NC Museum of History, which is seeking artifacts that will allow it to document numerous aspects of the pandemic for its COVID-19 Stories/Objects Campaign. “We know that future visitors will want to learn about the many ways this life-altering, worldwide coronavirus outbreak affected North Carolinians,” the museum says. To enter, use the web form, which asks visitors to describe their object and what/who it is associated with, with an option of including a video or image file, showing the object. ncmuseumofhistory.org/recording-the-great-pause
Longleaf Film Festival Virtual Viewing Event
Stop the presses. If you finished Netflix and you’re looking for new (fab film) content to stream, Longleaf Film Festival will be projecting the festival to your personal screens. With the cooperation of involved filmmakers, Longleaf Film Festival will livestream some of its Official Selection films on the festival’s original dates, Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9. Watch the special event at longleaffilmfestival.com
Corona-Busters Virtual19K Run Walk
Was that 5K, half or marathon canceled? Been pounding the pavement alone? Join the community for one of the largest social distancing virtual runs. Double down on doing good and register your @virtualrunchallenge for a cause with a local charity partner so that every step matters. Registration is now open, and participants will receive race packets with glow-in-the-dark CoronaBusters Finisher Medal, official CoronaBusters Patch and a Tyvek race bib. Racers can walk or run the #virtualrunchallenge indoors or out, and in stages or all at once. thevirtualrunchallenge.com
Stay Away 5K
Love lemurs? Who doesn’t? Register now for the Duke Lemur Center #StayAway5K on May 30 or 31 wherever you are, with all proceeds to benefit lemur care and conservation. The $30 registration gets you savvy swag to boot (think commemorative tee). Let’s run! lemur.duke.edu/5K
Raleigh Park’s Laugh Line
Remember when you were a kid and you called the movie theater because you were bored? This is like that, except there’s jokes. Laugh it up daily with Raleigh Parks on its Laugh Line at 919-996-2759, presenting a new joke each day of the week. Nothing cures like comedy.
Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar Class
On Wednesdays, we play guitar. At least this Wednesday, as PineCone hosts a free beginner-level workshop, “Banks of the Ohio” - Key of G (May 6, 7 p.m.) with musician Jef Walter as he leads budding guitarists through such basics as boom-chick rhythm and some variation, using hammer-ons and pull-offs, adding short single-note runs when changing chords and using longer single-note runs. Suggested donation of $10. Happy plucking. Register here at pinecone.org.
Local Ice Cream
I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream. It’s gettin’ hotter out there, so if you’re craving some cool creamy treats, check out these local spots for your ice cream dreams delivered or picked up: La Vita Dolce Espresso & Gelato Cafe, Fresh Local Ice Cream, Andia’s Homemade Ice Cream, Mama Birds Ice Cream, Two Roosters Ice Cream, Locopops, Pincho Loco Ice Cream and Wake Forest Dairy Depot.
Parks Update
With Gov. Roy Cooper’s new executive order, statewide parks and trails will reopen, but people are encouarged to maintain social distancing and wear face coverings. Public playgrounds will remain closed. In Wake County, consider heading to the NCMA outdoor park and trails and Dix Park (excluding dog park). raleighnc.gov; ncparks.gov/newsroom/alerts; ncartmuseum.org/visit/the_park; dorotheadixpark.org
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Celebrate Mother’s Day, plus 13 Best Bets while you’re isolating during the coronavirus."