Tyler's Visit and a UNC Campus Tour

I love when Tyler comes to Chapel Hill. We turn his weekend visits into adventures--making spontaneous trips to Wilmington, museums in Raleigh, stand up comedy shows, the art gallery on Franklin Street, or in this case, the Eno River State Park Rock Quarry. I had been to the rock quarry once with a few friends and knew the boy scout in Tyler would love hiking through the trails and diving off small cliffs into the deep waters below, so after a quick trip to Target for inflatable tubes, we got in the car and made our way to Durham.

Here's the thing about traveling with Tyler. I can't live without my GPS, he likes to write directions from Mapquest on arbitrary scraps of paper. (He and the GPS don't exactly get along) I decided to humor him and look up the directions on Mapquest and, as suspected, we got lost. Thankfully, we have this habit of getting lost and then somehow stumbling on the right road, as we did with the rock quarry trail.

We parked and hiked the 15-minute trail to the quarry with floats in hand, though we were warned by a few fellow hikers that the water was freezing cold. The quarry has a trail that circles it, and as we looked into the water while walking around we could see huge fish swimming near the edge. (I immediately became less enthusiastic about swimming) We found a spot to set out our towels and climbed down to the edge to test the water. The friendly hikers were right--it was cold! We decided to read and lay out in the sun instead while we watched a few daring teenagers plunge into the water, all of them shouting obscenities as soon as they hit the surface.

As the sun began to set, we hiked back and spent the rest of the evening experiencing Chapel Hill at its fullest--eating (or more importantly, people watching) on Franklin, watching Black Swan in the Varsity Theatre (at $4 a ticket, it's hard not to pay this historical landmark a visit) and walking from bar to bar until closing.

This week while babysitting, I was informed that Aadit's spring break started on Friday. Although I love spending time with him each afternoon, we both get a little disappointed that we have to spend the entire time doing homework or running back and forth from taekwando practice. On Thursday afternoon, however, he finally didn't have work to do and I decided to show him around UNC's campus. I gave him the tour of my dorm, explaining how the flex pass worked to get into the building and he was amazed at the fact that we all share the same kitchen. I took him through the Pit, the center of campus, and to Wilson Library so he could see the amazing Rare Books room. Lastly, I showed him my brother's favorite place on campus--The Forest Theater. It's an outdoor theater made of stone and Christopher used to love to run down the stairs and stand on the stage at the bottom. Aadit had a blast exploring the theater too. We went back to his house and spent the rest of the afternoon talking about his favorite subject--the US Presidents.

Angela's prom is next weekend and this is the first time I've been able to come home to see her leave! Be sure to look for a post of her day! (And keep cheering on the Heels in the Elite Eight!)

Go Tarheels,
Nicole