North Carolina I--Art, Hummus, and Baseball

Jonny prides himself on planning fun, varied, busy but not exhausting trips.  Dave and I visited Jonny, Jenny, and Sam at their home in Cary, North Carolina, from May 1 through May 5, 2014.  The trip was great.  We weren't exhausted by the end of the first day, but Sam had had it, and crashed during the first inning of the ball game.

We started the morning with a stroll by the lake near J&J's apartment complex.  J&J frequently go jogging there, and Sam has a fancy jogging stroller so he can go, too.

J&J's apartment complex is in the background.  It has many luxurious touches, such as hardwood floors, granite countertops, an exercise room, and a view out to the lake.

Cary is between Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, and is filled with office parks and housing developments.  The John Deere North Carolina offices are there, filled with displays of John Deere equipment and a statue of the Deere logo--a deer.

 We lingered a couple of hours at the amazing North Carolina Museum of Art.  Its collection spanned from Rodin statues to Vandyke portraits to modern art.  The museum wasn't Chicago's Art Institute, Jonny's standard for artistic excellence, but it was outstanding for a state art museum.

 

 We rested in the museum garden, next to lily ponds.

 We drove past the University of North Carolina, the oldest state university in the U.S., with beautiful brick Federal style buildings.  We paused for lunch at the Mediterranean Deli, with huge glass cases filled with Middle Eastern salads, entrees, and desserts.  Hummus and baklava were delicious, but they were the least exotic of the spread.

 We drove into the countryside for homemade ice cream at a quaint shop.  We weren't swerved from our ice cream choices by the "awesome possum brownie sundaes" advertisement.

We sat on the porch in old-fashioned rockers and watched John Deere tractors at work.

 Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is one of the great private U.S. universities.  J&J love botanical gardens, and Duke has a beautiful one, filled with blooming azaleas and other spring flowers.  It was graduation weekend, and the garden and campus were filled with students and their parents from around the world, as well as a few weddings.  We chatted with a young Duke graduate, dressed in jeans, and her mother, in a head scarf, both from Lahore, Pakistan.

 Duke has neo-Gothic architecture, like the University of Chicago.  Duke looks like it was built during the Middle Ages, but it was actually funded by tobacco fortunes earned during the 1900s, including one by a man named (what else?) Duke. 

 We finished the day at a baseball game between the Durham Bulls and a team from Columbus, Ohio.  We hardly knew which team to root for--since Camille recently lived in Columbus, we have some loyalty to that city, as well!   "I knew there would be good people-watching," Jonny said, as he explained a baseball game as a sightseeing choice.  "I also thought this would be a good break for Dad from all the museums and architecture."