Duke Or UNC, That Is The Question!

Good Evening gentlemen!

I want to start off today by recommending you a cozy, quiet little place (it's a small Best Western) in Durham, NC called the "Skyland Inn". It is very clean, spotless I would say, this is probably the first thing I look at when deciding if I want to stay in a hotel room, and trust me, the owner of this place really did an outstanding job. The rooms are also nicely decorated, basically as nicely as you would have your own bedroom, with nice soft, clean linen, and a very "expensive looking" bedspread, not to mention that the price is REALLY right ($60 if you have a coupon from the local visitor information center).

The restaurant we went to is called "AnotherThyme", very nice place, dim light, great atmosphere, and delicious food! We started off with some tasty pork dumplings with a rich soy sauce, then I had Gazpacho and a Caesar Salad with grilled chicken, and Hap got a true NC fried chicken with steamed vegetables and smashed potatoes on the side. Everything was cooked to perfection, and had a great flavour, and our waiter (Jeremy) other than being very knowledgeable, was also very pleasant. We would definitely go back, and recommend this restaurant to family and friends.

All right, let's go back to our business, let me see, what did we do today?!?!

Oh God, I'm starting to get old, I forgot what we did! LOL

No, I'm just kidding, I know exactly what we did.

Today we had our first (and hopefully last) stop to fix a problem with the car. No big deal really, the head light on the driver's side went out last night, and we wanted to replace it ASAP. We called the VW dealer in Charlotte to get it serviced (Carolina Volkswagen 7800 E Independence Blvd, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28227), and they told us to bring the car in. Our service guy (his last name was Wilson just like Hap) was very nice, especially at the end, when we got the car back and he told us we didn't owe anything...! I was nicely surprised.

By the time we got the car back it was basically lunch time. We stopped on E Trade St. at a pub that served OK burgers (Only because I like it medium-rare and they would only serve it well done!), but awesome (and when I say awesome, that's exactly what I mean) fries, it doesn't get better than that! again, the lady at the bar (who was also the one who took our order and delivered our food was also very pleasant, she engaged in a conversation with us and she was thrilled at the idea of our trip!

E Trade St. is where Johnson & Wales University - Charlotte Campus is, so we stopped for a few pictures, but decided it was time to head out east towards the triangle (Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh).

On the way to "the triangle" we stopped in:

Thomasville, NC to see the biggest chair in the US (How do you like this Suzanne?!?! LOL):

High Point, NC to see the largest bureau in the US:

And Jamestown's FurnitureLand, to see an even bigger bureau (these are apparently the guys who built the one in High Point, so they can say whatever they want to say! LOL):

Our first stop after these three "must see" attraction has been Chapel Hill, NC home of the University Of North Carolina - Chapel Hill". The Campus is huge (and so is Duke that is in neighbouring town Durham, NC), with a fine architecture.

Too bad we arrived in downtown Chapel Hill a little bit after 5PM as that is exactly the time when everything starts closing.

We then proceeded on going to the Visitor Information Center, where we got some brochures on what to do in the Triangle are, and a list of accomodations for the night. We decided to make a reservation with Best Western as it offered the highest quality at the most affordable rate.

I left Hap at the hotel and went to meet with a friend, Luca, whom I only knew through the Internet because of my involvement with the Italian group of WOP98, an Internet community where Italias exchange informations on a variety of topics such as the Diversity Lottery (Green Card), studying in the US, living in the US, etc...Thanks Luca for the nice chat, have a safe trip to China tomorrow, and enjoy Italy in June.

Luca gave me some advice on what to see at Duke (he's getting his PhD there), we drove around the campus for a little while, and then I went back to the hotel room.

Finally we got some sun today, it really made it for a nice day, and besides that, I really missed it!

On tomorrow's to do list is:

Chapel Hill and UNC Campus; Downtown self guided tour through Franklin St., Duke University Campus, a visit to Raleigh and maybe some other things we can still plan, like a tour of some (all right, maybe only one! LOL) wineries around this area.

Next stop will probably be east of Durham, in Plymouth, NC some 150 miles away, where we will most certainly spend the night, using it as a starting point for our trip through the Outer Banks.

That's all folks, hope I haven't bored you too much!

Nico