Have you heard? Teachers look forward to Spring Break more than students. You probably have. It's true... or at least just as much as students. Matt and I were especially excited this year, because not only was I going to have a week off, but we had a trip planned! Whenever we get on a plane to travel somewhere, I feel like it is to go to the West Coast. California is a go-to. However, we had our first trip planned to the East Coast.
One thing I just have to note is how early Matt schedules flights. It is a little bit outrageous for vacation. No human should have to be awake and moving at 3:00 AM. It is just a little cruel. But, nonetheless, we were excited--whether it looked as if we were or not.
There was, however, one member of the family who was less than enthused that we were leaving...
Lucky for her, my parents are awesome dog-sitters, and they took great care of her.
We flew into Charlottesville, Virginia, and the first thing I noticed was all of the snow on the ground. I'm sure the locals were sick of seeing snow, but we were pumped. I kept asking Matt if I could run and play in the snow, but we both agreed that I needed to be mature around all of the people who would be watching and wondering how old I was. I borrowed snow boots from my mom last minute, and boy was I glad! I wore them the whole time we were in Charlottesville.
The University of Virginia (UVA) is located in Charlottesville, so we got to see the campus, which is gorgeous, especially surrounded by blankets of white snow. And of course, I had to see the Pi Phi house while there, and it was also beautiful. All of the buildings and houses seemed to match--old red brick.
If you did not know, UVA was founded by Thomas Jefferson, and Charlottesville was home to Jefferson and his family. Actually 5,000 acres of it was his home. Monticello. He began construction on Monticello in 1768. He continued to add on to and remodel Monticello throughout his time there, including during his presidency from 1801-1809. Because we were in the area, we wanted to go and take a tour, and we were so glad we did. It was amazing to be standing inside of the house and to think of all of the ideas that were thought of, all of the conversations that were had, and all of the influential people that walked in that home. Not to mention, the grounds were incredible, even on a dreary day.
And.. I finally got to play in the snow. We figured that technically it was someone's backyard, so it was meant to be played in. Only... it was a former president's backyard. And it made it that much better!
Here we are with TJ, himself...
After seeing Monticello, we left Charlottesville, Virginia, and we drove south to Durham, North Carolina. Home of the Blue-Devils. But more important, home to the Durham Bulls, which is the minor league baseball team that Matt's dad played for after playing for Texas A&M University. The Durham Bulls are one of the most famous minor league teams, partly because of the movie "Bull Durham" that was made based on their team. Matt has always heard stories of his dad playing in Durham, but had never seen the park and had always wanted to. Before checking into our hotel, we drove to the stadium. It is currently undergoing a major renovation but is promised to be complete before opening day in April.
On the back side of the bull, which faces the inside of the stadium, the same image of the bull appears, but with huge lettering that says, "Hit bull, win steak. Hit grass, win salad." We thought that was pretty hilarious.
We were sad to be there at a time when the Bulls were not playing (they are at Spring Training), but we are hoping to go back to see them play, and hopefully taking Matt's dad with us! That night, we explored Downtown Durham, and we found the coolest little local restaurant that was [almost] world famous for its chicken and waffles, called
Dame's Chicken and Waffles. You choose your type of waffle, chicken, smear, drizzle, and then a side. It was as southern as you can get. And delicious. Note: We are obviously not cleansing right now :)
Located close to Durham, you have Chapel Hill and Raleigh. The three cities are known as "The Research Triangle" or more commonly just "The Triangle." Each of the three cities is home to the following universities, consecutively: Duke, UNC, and NC State. We absolutely loved this part of the country. Being from Texas, where it takes hours to get to another city, it was fun to be able to explore different ones all within about 20 minutes (or less) of each other.
Favorite architecture: Durham's Duke University.
The gothic look of the buildings are unbelievable. There is truly no other way to describe it. The pictures I took were at night, and do not do the Duke chapel justice in the least. Still beautiful, though.
Favorite town: Chapel Hill
This place was precious (for lack of a better, more fitting word). It was a cute little college town with young people all over the place. Right across from campus was a street lined with different shops and restaurants. And behind that, the sorority houses. UNC had my favorite house I've seen so far, other than ours, of course. On the night before leaving, we ate pizza in Chapel Hill, and then stopped for some
Gigi's Cupcakes. The diet starts tomorrow, am-I-right?
This, unfortunately, ended our trip.
Back to reality starting tomorrow.
Until our next trip!
The Bormanns take Boston... in April!
Did you do anything fun for Spring Break?
