Fall Weekend: Explore Charlotte

Friday: Park Yourself Around Phillips Place

Make your first stop Phillips Place, an outdoor mall featuring known upscale retailers such as Smith & Hawken, Dean & Deluca, and Restoration Hardware.

After shopping, you'll be ready to set yourself and your bags down nearby at the Marriott SouthPark Hotel. If you want to get in the middle of Charlotte's Center City, reserve your room at the Westin Charlotte. Be prepared because the rates fluctuate greatly depending on availability.

For a fine dining experience this evening, make reservations at Bonterra Dining & Wine Room. Located in the former Dilworth Methodist Episcopal Church, the restaurant retains the reverent, classic feel of the sanctuary with the tall windows and balcony in the dining area. The wine list impresses with 200 by the glass and another 300 in the cellar. Ask your server to help you pair something nice with the Roasted Sonoma County Duck Breast.

Saturday: Neighborhood Strolls And Bobcat Sightings

In nearby Myers Park, you'll find a few shops you'll want to browse, particularly Tennille & Co, which specializes in gifts, home accessories, antiques, reproductions, and children's clothes. This month, the shop will be decked out for the holidays with several Christmas trees full of unique ornaments for sale.

For lunch, try Lupie's Café on Monroe Road (also the eastern end of Seventh Street). With funky R & B music playing over the speakers and the dark dining area, Lupie's betrays a smidgen of a bar scene, but believe us, this joint takes its food seriously. Lupie (short for Guadalupe) Duran flips some of the best burgers  in all of Charlotte and ladles a mean bowl of Texas Chili. Wanna feel really local? Order the G-Whiz beer, Busch longnecks with a long story Lupie will be happy to share if you ask her nicely.

The neighborhoods off Queens Road make a great place for a weekend stroll. Get out and enjoy the crisp Carolina air with walks through some of SouthPark's wonderful neighborhoods. Simply pick a street branching from Queens Road or Selwyn Avenue, and stroll the sidewalks. For more of a home base, park at Queens University of Charlotte (off Selwyn; for information visit www.queens.edu). If you're visiting in the early part of the month, you may be lucky enough to still see some color in the trees.

For dinner, try a hip and upscale Mexican dining experience at Cantina 1511 on East Boulevard. Studying the 35 tequilas on the menu, you may decide to sip a little before indulging in the Top Shelf Guacamole, made freshly at your table.

Make dinner reservations early enough in the evening so you'll be able to get downtown for the Bobcats game at the new Charlotte Bobcats Arena (704-262-2287). The team's mascot, Rufus Lynx, prowls the arena keeping the games lively and family friendly.

Sunday: Fresh Muffins and Art At the Mint

Duck into Nova's Bakery on Central Avenue for a cranberry scone or an extra-large banana-nut muffin and a cup of coffee. This Eastern European-style bakery, owned by Vlado and Sladjana Novakovic, has served Charlotte for more than 10 years.

Before heading home, visit the Mint Museum of Art, the state's first art museum. Housed in the building that was once the first branch of the U.S. Mint, the museum features a diverse collection of American, pre-Columbian, European, and African art. If you have time before you leave town, visit the Mint Museum of Craft + Design located on North Tryon, which focuses more on contemporary crafts. Admission is valid for both museums on the same day.

After a weekend shopping and enjoying some of the best SouthPark has to offer, you should feel pretty comfortable navigating the stylish end of Charlotte. Return often enough, and someone may mistake you for a local.