Spring Break '08

It is Saturday, the end of my last spring break and 64 days until graduation. For around 21 straight years I have been able to count on this week long break every spring... but this one will be it (for a while at least). This last spring break was a great one, my parents came up and spent the week with Laura and I. We made the most of our time together and had a great week. Laura's spring break is in April, so she was not able to spend the days with us, but joined us for evenings and afternoons (once to our surprise!).


My parents arrived Sunday night and spent Monday morning resting and adjusting to the two hour time change (they traveled from the Central to Eastern time zone on the weekend of the Daylight savings time switch). After spending a couple of hours in Burlington Coat Factory shopping on Monday afternoon, Mom, Dad and I went for a walk to Bethabara Village. I have consistently ran or biked by the village for the past 8 months, but haven't really taken the time to check out the history there. The village dates back to 1774 and offers some great insight into life in an 18th century settlement. This picture is of mom and dad standing in what remains of the 1763 apothecary shop (pharmacy). On Monday night we had dinner at our apartment and watched Invincible (which is a great movie that I would highly recommend).


On Tuesday Mom, Dad and I headed east to the Triangle. They had never been to Durham, Chapel Hill or Raleigh, so we decided to spend a day checking out those three cities. Bill Lahti (Laura's dad) works in Durham and was nice enough to meet us Tuesday morning and show us around the city. We walked around downtown, through his office building (which is a renovated tobacco warehouse and a very
neat office setup) and then headed to Duke. It was also my first time on Duke's campus and I was very impressed with Duke Chapel. Our next stop was Chapel Hill, I wanted to let my mom check out A Southern Season, so we ate lunch at their restaurant and then let her do a little shopping there while dad and I walked around the mall. The next stop on our tour was the UNC campus, we parked by The Old Well and then walked around campus. With the first two cities down, we headed to Raleigh to meet the Lahti's for dinner. My mom, dad and I drove to their house where we were meeting Bill, Diane and Will. The three of them greeted us at the door and then told us there was something we should see in the kitchen, I lead the way...to my great surprise, Laura was in the kitchen, she had decided to drive to Raleigh after school and meet us all for dinner. After enjoying dinner at a great Italian restaurant, we had to complete our campus tour with a drive through NC State. Dad, Will and I got out to check out the infamous Free Expression Tunnel. We arrived back in Winston 15 hours after we had departed for our tour of the Triangle, it was a great day!


Wednesday brought another opportunity for the three of us to be tourist. Mom and Dad had not been to Childress Vineyards, and I am always looking for an excuse to visit my favorite local vineyard. We took a tour of the winery and ate lunch at their bistro. Wednesday night the four of us played Can't Stop, I would mention who one, but I hate to gloat.


By Thursday we had done enough touring, so we spent a good part of the day watching basketball while Laura was at school. Once she got home we went to play put-put. This has turned into an annual activity for the four of us, we always have a great time and my dad always seems to win, I am going to practice more for next years round! Brad Loftis (a family friend from the mountains who lives in Greensboro) came over Thursday night for dinner and basketball. We watched some of the tournament games and then played the domino game Mexican Train (once again, I would mention who one, but I don't want to gloat!).

My parents left on Friday morning...it was an incredibly quite day at the apartment for me. The week went by quickly, but we had a great time together!