(for those out-of-staters, chapel hill is the town where i went to college.)
chapel hill is such a magical place for me. i've written before that going back always challenges me to think about who i am and who i used to be. and honestly, i just love the sensation of nostalgia. i love how it feels to be in a place and remember something special that happened there. i also love getting to share chapel hill with jamie because we get to make new memories there, which is exactly what we did yesterday.
we had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, elmo's diner, with my friend (and old college housemate), april, and her new boyfriend. every time i go to elmo's, i order the same thing: a greek grilled cheese -- chicken, a slice of american cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and feta cheese on a pita with that delicious greek sauce (that starts with a t) for dipping. after that, we met back up with the littletons and walked around carrboro (which is chapel hill's sister town and literally the hippiest place on earth). i was pumped to get a cs lewis biography, a book of poetry by shel silverstein, and 2 other kids book at the used book store. i used to have this weird objection to used books, but now i'm a used bookstore fiend.
unfortunately, we chose a game day to make our chapel hill trip. so we spent the next hour searching for a parking space. if you know nothing about chapel hill, i should tell you that parking there is one of the most hellish experiences because the campus was never designed with traffic in mind. when it's a game day, they reserve every.single.lot.on.campus. and shut down every.single.meter. so that it is basically impossible to park. luckily, one of the pay lots on franklin street opened up, and we got a spot in there.
at that point, we decided we'd better go ahead and eat so we could beat the football crowd. so we headed to the carolina brewery for pizza and brats. when we finished eating, we had lost most of our daylight, so even though we couldn't take pictures on campus like we had planned, we still decided to walk up on campus to see the sights. honestly, one of my favorite parts of the day was just sitting in the pit (for those non-unc people, the pit is a large sunken area in the heart of campus where students gather. it's bordered by the dining hall, student union, library, and student store) and watching the kids play.
i was pretty bummed that we couldn't buy our kids any unc clothes, but i'm hopeful that they'll be home when we take this trip again next year. seriously, can't you picture 2 more kids with this crowd of goobs?
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