Spring Break 2021

 Thursday, March 18, 2021

Today was another long but fun day.  We left our cabin at 8am and first drove down to the University of Virginia.  We drove all through the campus and it was pretty.  From there we headed towards Duke, stopping in Scottsville, VA for a cup of coffee (Barb & Nick), apple cider (Ryan) and an iced caramel macchiato (Grant) at a cool coffee/bookstore – Baine’s Books & Coffee. 

We pulled onto the Duke campus at 1:30ish and that campus was stunning.  (Noteworthy that they had just announced a full-campus lockdown due to 240 or more positive COVID cases.) But as Ryan described it – it was a little bit too bubbly – too perfect.  After Duke, it was on to UNC Chapel Hill and dang, it was my, Grant and Ryan’s favorite of all the campuses we’d seen.  It was now like 2:30pm and we were starving.  Most places near campus were closed for dine-in but we finally found a place called Al’s Burger Shack and we were allowed to eat outside.  There was no bathroom so we went next door to the Beer Study -a cool beer bar.  The burgers were delicious and the French fries were seasoned with dried rosemary.  I don’t know if it was really one of the best burgers ever or if we were all just starving but regardless, it was good.  

When we walked back to the minivan, it initially wouldn’t start and I felt panicked.  Ryan googled something quickly and we got around it but dang, I can’t say I didn’t start mentally catastrophizing!

After UNC, we drove to Asheville and that drive was little bit scary.  It was pouring rain and as I was passing an 18-wheeler on the left, with a retaining wall on my left, I had a panic feeling/premonition that the truck was going to crush us against the wall.  As soon as I had that feeling, one of the tires of our car hydroplaned.  And dang, it was scary.  I had to pull over into a gas station and cry for a minute because I had so much adrenaline in my system that my arms and legs were shaking.  After that, the weather cleared up and we stayed at a beautiful Hampton Inn, literally across the street from the Baymont Inn we stayed at SIX years ago.  I quickly walked on the treadmill in the fitness center (which was opened) then we drove downtown and intended to eat at Mellow Mushroom.   The wait was long and it started to get cold so we walked a but up the street and ate at Wasabi, a Japanese restaurant.  Ryan had chicken fried rice, I had veggie hibachi and the boys ate sushi.  It was actually very good but it was also close to 9pm.  The rest of the country operates on a different time construct than Texas!

It was raining as we were leaving the restaurant so we all ran back to the car and that was literally the only time we got “caught” in the rain.  This trip had a gloomy forecast, so much so that the kids’ packing lists said RAIN COATS in all caps.  We weren’t bugged by the rain on any hikes.

Back at the room, we called it a night!