End of Trip - Pinehurst Area - Miscellaneous

We decided to check out a few of the local historical and educational attractions:
We visited the Pinehurst Horse Harness Track which is not open to horse training at this time of year. It is a large facility with a small breakfast/lunch restaurant on site. The Pinehurst Harness Track is a 111-acre equestrian facility that has been a winter training center for standard bred horses since 1915.

The Sandhill Horticultural Gardens was a nice surprise; it's upkeep is by the local landscape gardening college students. It was hilly with rocks, water features and lots of blooming flowers. We enjoyed the quiet and cool walk. The Sir Walter Raleigh garden was a maze with arbor, fountain and plenty of benches. A great way to stretch out our legs and not on a golf course!

 There are many different theme gardens including a vegetable patch!

We ate at many local restaurants including Brixx, Tavern, Ice Cream in Southern Pines, The Holly Inn, Dugan's Pub, Cookout (hamburger and shake chain) and Dickey's BBQ. Mostly all good, some just average food. We enjoyed exploring as learning about Pinehurst. A HUGE golfing community!
After visiting the Read's home, we stopped at the Silver Skillet in Atlanta, as we read about it being on the TV Food show: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Well, it was not worth going to. Really bad over-processed food, way too salty, dried - tough fried chicken and canned vegetables (Cracker Barrel would have been ten times a better choice). Not sure what it was famous for, but we didn't taste it!
After a quick stop at the Magnolia Plantation to gas up the car, buy some pecans and a treat, then we were home by late evening!