Fall break--Day 4--Adventures in Durham

There wasn't as much time in Day 4 simply because Arianna and Tim headed out at 2:30 p.m. Since they had missed their flight coming here, they felt it was important to get there plenty early (even though we assured them an hour was sufficient). Since we had to take them to the airport around 12:30 and everyone here likes to sleep in, we only had a small window of time in which to explore.

We decided to check out that other university: Duke. (I know, I am supposed to be completely against them, but after viewing their campus, I don't think I can be!).

The campus itself is beautiful and looks almost like it is taken from the pages of a fairytale with quaint buildings that look like they come straight from Snow White to historic, traditional houses with pillars and brick used as academic offices that offer a lot of charm. One major feature of the Duke campus is the Chapel. We knew this going in and were fortunate enough to find it. We didn't go inside, but that is something Shawn and I will do in the future.

We then decided to check out the Sarah P. Duke gardens. I thought I had heard something about them, but I did not remember anyone mentioning that it was completely amazing! We decided to park and take a short walk though, and in our short (30 minute walk) we didn't even cover half of the garden. It is absolutely beautiful and had a number of places to take great pictures. I also couldn't get over what a great wedding venue it would be. Below are a few pictures from the trip.

(Some of these pics may even make it up as art! The scenery was just beautiful!)

After the garden, it was time to head to the airport. Shawn and I dropped Arianna and Tim off with plenty of time to catch their return flight, and we then went to do the mundane tasks that need to get completed (even over fall break). After the shopping and such we did however get a nice treat. We got to go and carve pumpkins with our neighbors and their friends. Our realtor, being the amazing person she is, had given us a carving pumpkin, so Shawn created a Mario pumpkin from that. I created a dragon in mine.

Then it was time to head home, grab some dinner, and head to puppy class. Bella was very excited to be back with her friends and performed quite well even though her training had been delayed a bit by her surgery.

Sunday was certainly a busy day for us, but it was also a great one!

Fall break--Day 3--Adventures in Wilmington

Wilmington was an adventure we expected to take because of Arianna's love of the television show One Tree Hill. I don't actually watch the show, but it is filmed in Wilmington, NC, and we knew from the start that a visit there was on her to-do list. We headed out early for Wilmington--with Bella.

We decided to bring Bella because we knew the trip would be all day and we couldn't leave her at home the whole time. I was a bit concerned because it was her first trip longer than 15 minutes, and I wasn't sure how she would react to being around so many new people and places.

Turns out my fears were unfounded. She did great. She sat for the number of people who told us she was adorable and asked if they could pet her. She walked on her leash without getting completely underfoot. And she sat chewing on a  bone while Shawn and I ate a nice lunch in the park.

Let's backtrack though. We started off by walking down to the riverfront. Arianna immediately spotted the basketball court featured in the show and was incredibly excited. She and Tim then went and purchased tickets for a tour that featured the locations of various movie sets and television filming locations. Before their tour, we all walked around and checked out the various historic houses, some of which dated back to the late 1700s.

We then headed back so Arianna and Tim could take their 90 minute walking tour. Shawn and I decided to sit that one out and watch Bella together, so we grabbed a sandwich and found a nice small patch of grass down by the riverfront to enjoy a picnic lunch. The weather was beautiful--high 70s with a slight breeze--and we enjoyed sitting there then walking along the water before heading back to meet them.

Once we met up with Arianna and Tim, the four of us then decided to get some ice cream and sat in a shady spot to eat it. Bella was awfully tired from all the walking that we did earlier at this point and didn't even really try to steal a lick.

We then went back to the car so Arianna could visit some additional filming spots of One Tree Hill that were not covered on the tour, and after that it was back to Durham. At this point we were all tired, so Bella and I took a nap.

The car ride home wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for state fair and sporting event traffic. We sat on the freeway for about a half hour. Luckily, we made it home and were able to enjoy an evening of dinner and board games before heading to bed.

Fall break--Day 2--Adventures in Raleigh

Day two started off with a trip to the state Capitol. We decided to check out Raleigh after perusing the AAA guide of North Carolina my dad got Shawn and me before the move. We decided that there were a number of things that looked interesting, and so we headed out in the morning.

Luckily the drive to Raleigh isn't very long. Along the way we decided to explore a bit though, and we had Shawn drive us by the office that had hoped to work at (Update to this: ...the office he is going to work at! He got offered the job today and accepted!). After viewing the building, we drove around to some great houses that were right in the area. Here are a few pics.

We then got back on track and headed for the Capitol. We found it with a bit of help from the GPS and parked at a typical day lot. We had read about a historic house walking tour and wanted to take that, but when we went to the location that offered the maps, they didn't seem to know what we were talking about. Luckily, we had seen a number of historic houses on the drive in AND the place that was supposed to have the maps was a museum. This was beneficial because it meant we could spend time checking out the exhibits.

One exhibit in particular caught our eye. Thomas Day was a free Black furniture-maker who created some of the furniture that was in the plantation at Stagville, and a lot of his work was on exhibit at the museum. It was absolutely beautiful. I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't, so you will just have to imagine the intricate trim work that went onto the various headboards, chairs, tables and shelves he created. He also created some of the most beautiful stairways I have ever seen with intricate, hand carved posts and scroll work along the bottom of the stairs.

After that we left the museum, but Shawn and I will be going back because they had a number of other interesting exhibits. We then headed over to the Capitol and looked at that. Here is a picture of Arianna and Tim in front of it.

Then we went on a hunt for authentic North Carolina BBQ. A neighbor and friend recommended a place, so we walked a number of blocks to The Pit. We did have a hard time initally figuring out where to go.

But then we were heading in the right direction.

And we found the restaurant.

Although the outside doesn't look like much, the inside is actually very nice and the food was great as well. Shawn was in heaven with his plate of BBQ chicken, chopped BBQ, mac and cheese, potato salad, hush puppies and biscuits. I am sure we will be heading back there as well.

After that, it was off to another museum, the Museum of Natural History. We had read that they had a fossilized dinosaur heart, but that may be a marketing ploy because we could find no such thing (or we could have just missed it). This does not mean the museum was a disappointment though. We did find a large cougar. Go Cougs!

And then we found whale skeletons that were incredibly impressive.

In addition, there were dinosaur exhibits to enjoy.

 Those dinosaurs sure had some big feet!

The museum also had a  live butterfly exhibit, but we are saving that for next time.

After all of this, we visited the gift shop so Arianna and Tim could get some souvenirs and then headed back to Durham. We then played board games and waited until it was dark to go to a haunted house. The haunted house was good, but not quite as good as the Haunted Palouse back in Washington, so Shawn and I may be on a quest next weekend to find a good haunted house. We then grabbed some food at Ruby Tuesdays and  called it a night. We had big plans for Day 3---check out the next blog to find out more!

Fall break meant lots of activities--Day 1

Fall break started Wednesday evening last week and lasted until Sunday. What is Fall Break? It is a brief time off from classes (but this does not mean the work stops!). With my Fall Break though I did take some time off, and it was wonderful and much needed. Now I am just struggling to get out of that break-mode and into serious work-mode.

For Fall Break, Arianna and Tim came over for a visit. We picked them up Wednesday night at the airport (they were a few hours behind schedule after missing their a.m. flight out of Seattle. Check our her blog for more info). Although they were a few hours behind, we still managed to squeeze a lot of fun adventures into the trip.

Here is a brief overview of Day 1--Thursday (Tune in for more in a later post!)
We started off with a bit of history. We went to Historic Stagville, which we had found the previous weekend with Cassie. It was still just as interesting, and while there we learned about some other historic sites we will likely be visiting in the future. Shawn and I plan to go check them out, so look forward to posts for trips to Duke Homestead and Bennett Place.

After Historic Stagville, it was off to campus to show off my building, office, and UNC in general. Before we could walk through campus though we needed some sustenance. We stopped at the oldest restaurant in Chapel Hill, the Carolina Coffee Shop. After enjoying lunch there (I had a delicious turkey club sandwich!) we headed up to campus. We took a brief break in my office for some sugar...

and then headed to the bookstore. Arianna and Tim came away with some great UNC gear.

Then it was time for a pic in front of the Old Well.

Although this tour and shopping spree took us a few hours, we managed to come home and make our own dough and pizza and then watch some television. It was TV night. Arianna and I used to watch television together on Thursdays so that we could enjoy Grey's Anatomy and Project Runway (It started though when we used to watch ER together--so that gives you an idea of when it really started). When Arianna moved back to Western Washington in 2008, we would text during our shows so we were still "watching" them together. However, with the three hour time difference, it hasn't been possible for us to watch together in any capacity, so it was a really nice treat to have a good old fashioned TV night. 

Look for Day 2 of our adventures in an upcoming post!

Our rebel puppy

Bella went in for surgery about two weeks ago. She had to get spayed. Bella was a lot more calm about the process than I was. Shawn and I drove her back to the shelter that we got her from early in the morning on Wednesday. We were able to pick her up that afternoon, but I was still incredibly worried about leaving her there.

The surgery supposedly went by without a hitch, but the shelter did make me a bit upset.

They tattooed Bella.

No, you did not read that wrong. They put a tattoo on my puppy--without asking our permission or even notifying us until after it had been done. The tattoo is of a small smiley face, so it isn't even something great.

I was furious. I waited until the next day and called them to ask what this was about and if it was a joke. The girl who took my call did laugh, but only because she found it entertaining I think. She said it was a common practice here to tattoo the puppies so that if, "heaven forbid," they end up back at the shelter, they know they have been spayed and don't cut them open unnecessarily. This is a valid goal. However, Bella has a microchip. I would assume they could somehow put that on there, and I asked about it. They agreed that they could, but said that "not all shelters check for chips."

Overall,  I am not very happy. However, in the past two weeks I have moved on and am pretty much over it.  Because she has a tattoo, I guess I can say my puppy is a rebel.

Campus, Gardens and History--all in a weekend's work!

Our wonderful friend Cassie came to visit us for the weekend of October 16 (I know, I am a bit behind in posting), but I wanted to share some of the wonderful adventures we took with her.

The first stop Saturday morning was campus. We showed Cassie around the UNC campus and showed her my office. We also visited the Old Well, the main landmark on the UNC campus. We had to wait awhile to get a picture in front of it because everyone wants a picture in front of the Old Well.

We then moved on to lunch at Panera Bread. Yum. After that, we were off to the Botanical Garden that Shawn and I always drive by and say we should visit. We only walked though a portion of the garden, but it was pretty interesting. They had sculptures out in the various displays, one of which Cassie posed in front of.

We also spent some time there in the herb garden. They had the typical herbs, but they also had sections for poisonous herbs and medicinal herbs, too. One of the best parts though would have to be the awesome chess set. Cassie and Shawn took a stab at playing (or playing with the pieces anyway).

After checking out some more areas in the Botanical Garden we choose to head out back to Durham. We wanted to visit Historic Stagville. Historic Stagville is an old plantation that still has the slave quarters standing. It was so interesting to hear about the various people who lived there.

The plantation was one of the largest in the area and was almost like a self sustaining city, creating most everything the residents needed. The plantation had about 900 enslaved people who lived there at one time. It was ridiculous to see how nice the main house was compared to the slave quarters, and we only got to see the "nice" versions that were created after plantation owners realized the sub-par conditions were leading to sickness and therefore less productive workers.

The main house had wainscoting, paint, and imported fabrics and glass. It also had four poster beds. The houses for the enslaved people had one bed and pallets to sleep on and each room housed around 5-10 people. It was also really interesting because although there was a marked difference between the two settings, this plantation would be considered very modest compared to some that existed in the South. It was certainly an interesting tour.

Below are some pictures from a barn that was built in just under 5 months by some of the enslaved people. The barn didn't even use nails in the construction. It is believed that the barn was engineered by boat-makers who were brought in from the coast because of the various techniques they used. Also, the beams used in building the barn were hand-carved (see pic below). One of the beams extends all the way from one side to the other, and it is a solid beam of wood that would have been hand carved out of one large tree. It was very impressive.

After our day of adventures we spent the evening making and eating pizza and watching old movies and television shows. All in all it was a great weekend!

Dodgeball winners

So I agreed earlier this week to play in a dodgeball competition. It was a one day event sponsored by UNC recreation, and a group of the grad students in the J-School thought it would be a good idea. 

Now, I am an experienced dodgeball player. I know, it is hard to believe, but I played on an intramural team in college. Unfortunately, the team I played on at WSU didn't win. We certainly had heart though, and we walked away from the season without a win but with the sportsmanship award, which I think was pretty awesome. However, although I have dodgeball experience, I am not very good (Arianna and Tim could vouch for this from my undergrad days). I wasn't good then, and time and a lack of practice certainly haven't helped me improve.

However, that being said, OUR TEAM WON! We won our first match and will be playing again tomorrow evening. Hopefully we will win that game and have another, eventually making it to the championship round and being dodgeball champions. I know. It is a lofty goal. But it is one we are willing to work toward. :-)

Shawn came out to support the team, but he didn't feel comfortable taking pictures...maybe tomorrow. As for the game, I was actually the first one to catch a ball and get a member of the other team out, so although my dodgeball skills aren't the sharpest, I didn't completely embarrass myself tonight.

Life in Carroll Hall

I have been spending a lot of time at the office lately. The middle of October means the middle of the semester, which, as usual, means I have a number of projects that need to get finished. This week is one of many deadlines including half of my law paper on disclosure in advertising (I have never written a law paper before so this is a new experience), a presentation in my health com class on how text messaging can be a useful health tool (very cool stuff), and a proposal for a book chapter so that maybe (fingers crossed!) I can get a publication going.

I thought that since I have been spending so much time at the office, I should show you what it looks like.

I sit on the side by the window while my office mate, Laura, sits on the other side. Yes, I do have two computers out in that picture. It is amazing how much one person can do with two computers. :-)

Since I sit next to the window, I might as well show you my view.

Ok, so it doesn't look like much. Our window looks out on the rooftop that connects both parts of Carroll Hall (my building). I think the view is pretty good though, especially with the nice blue sky peeking out in October. It was a lovely 75+ today. I also like that I have an escape route if I ever need one. Always be prepared!

Lastly, I thought I would show you a picture from the street I walk up and down every day where Shawn drops me off and picks me up. This picture was taken in the evening when Shawn was heading to Chapel Hill to take me home for the day.

I think it's a pretty nice campus. I will have to post some more pictures soon so that you can decide for yourself. I walk down this pathway in the morning to head toward my building. One thing that is problematic is that I don't think the walkway has been updated since it was created. This means that there are dips and cracks and slopes of all kinds, which is especially problematic when it rains here. Especially since when it rains here, it pours! I might be investing in a pair of rain boots soon. Maybe you'll see a post on that. :-)

Happy Monday!

Puppy class

Last night was Bella and our first puppy socialization class. I swear, this blog is not just supposed to be about our pets, but with Bella being so new, a lot of the exciting stuff we do relates to her.

Puppy class was in another part of Durham, so that meant another car ride. Bella did a  bit better this time in the car and didn't seem quite so nervous. Again she was not as sure about getting out though...

At puppy class we worked on "sit," and Bella was one of the most progressed there (Yay for our smart little puppy!). We worked on name recognition, which she does really well with Shawn (She just ignores me). We also got to have her do some puppy socialization. At first, Bella was REALLY unsure. She stayed by my legs until Shawn led her out to one other puppy, then she stayed by his legs until the trainer bribed her with treats. She is our second pet highly motivated by food.

After that, she came out of her shell pretty quickly. She was chasing and playing with the best of them, even the larger poodles!

She did really well, and our next class will be next week. Before then we are supposed to teach her a trick as part of her homework-- it should be based on something that she already does. Some examples would be standing on her legs, shaking paws or crawling on her belly. Her belly crawl is one of the cutest things so we are going to aim for that.  Hopefully we'll do well helping her with her homework (since we have to display what she's learned next Sunday!)

PS: Here is a picture of what Jack did while we were at puppy class--nothing out of the ordinary.

A Saturday hike

I wanted to find something fun to do this weekend (even though the work has been piling up lately) so Shawn and I decided to take another hiking adventure. There are a lot of trails at Eno River, so we chose to trek down one that we did not attempt while my mom was here. This trail goes right by the water and is only a 1.2 mile loop. We thought that since it would a nice day and we had some free time, we might give Bella a taste of the great outdoors too.

We left mid-morning and drove out there. Bella has been in the car twice--once coming home from the shelter and then heading to the vet's office. Needless to say, she was not comfortable in the car.

After a few minutes, she finally relaxed enough to eat the treat we left out for her, but when we arrived at the parking lot, she still wasn't sure about the adventure. She sat timidly in my lap until we had her leashed up and set her outside the car.

The hike actually went really well. For the most part, Bella enjoyed meeting other dogs. We came across about a half dozen along the hike, and even the big full grown labs didn't really scare her. The yappy dogs that came running were another story, so in those instances we would just pick her up and walk on by.

This hike was a bit different from the one we took with my mom. It was right along the water, as I mentioned, and we saw some really cool turtles. They were on every few rocks or so. I know I have never seen turtles before on my hikes.

It was really nice being so close to the water. We even let Bella walk down to it and sniff around a bit (this inevitably led to her need for a bath). She really enjoyed it, so next time we might bring a towel and actually let her play in the water for a bit.

As for the hike itself, we didn't do the whole loop because about mid-way through I told Shawn I thought Bella had experienced enough (and was hyped up enough) that we should head back. If I had payed attention and realized it was a LOOP, we could have just kept going. Oh well. Next time I guess.

The drive home was a lot better. Bella was pretty tired out from all the hiking, and once we got home she got a  bath and a nap so that Shawn and I could do the mundane Saturday chores that needed to get done (like grocery shopping and cleaning).

Tonight is our first puppy class, so hopefully Bella will learn some skills and make some friends. :-) Shawn's already taught her sit, lay down, shake and, under certain circumstances, she understands stay.