Artsy In Hillsborough • Kath Eats

October 8, 2025

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Here’s a recap of our weekend in Hillsborough!

Hey hey!! We took a spontaneous trip to my hometown of Hillsborough last weekend because 1) the boys had a teacher workday on Friday 2) Thomas was playing in a golf tournament and 3) my mom was in an art show! The boys had a wonderful time, and we balanced art + hiking with lots of relaxing.

Paint It Orange

We drove down on Friday in time for the opening reception of the 9th annual Paint It Orange Plein Air Paint-Out. Artists from all over North Carolina have a three day window to paint an outdoor scene in Hillsborough, and they were all on display in the Tom Stevens Gallery.

Here is mom with “Pig Grins at the Visitors Center” whose real life model can be found at the Hillsborough welcome center. The hearts on the pig are from papers Mom decorated on her gel plate. The heart map is made from an atlas that mom and dad used when they first moved to town in the 90s. See it here!

My parents bought this piece by their friend Ann Hobgood, who won honorable mention. And they bought a watercolor of Churton Street for me!

Dinner at Serratore’s

Prior to going to the art show, we had dinner at the new Serratore’s restaurant.

We walked home afterwards and always go by the house I grew up in!

Ice cream sundaes for dessert!

Coffee Routine

I love my routine of walking up hill both ways to go to the best coffee shop: Cup A Joe! Dad came with me and we talked about his recent trip to the Dolomites.

After breakfast we hit up the farmer’s market!

I found the cheese!

Light Lunch Salad

I was so happy that Birch wanted to play with my old doll!

Occoneechee Speedway

Mid afternoon we took the boys to the Occoneechee Speedway, which was one of the first NASCAR tracks to open and is the only track remaining from the inaugural 1949 season.

While there weren’t trees there when the track was for racing, it’s now the most beautiful walking loop through the woods!

You’ll even get to see an original race car!

Cozy Dinner

For dinner I made a glammed up version of spaghetti eggplant, peppers, and kale from the farmer’s market. I roasted the eggplant and peppers first, and it turned out great!