University of North Carolina, Go Tar Heels

Since we hadn't heard from our refrigerator man, we decided to take a visit to the University of North Carolina's campus.  The University of North Carolina is the oldest state university. 

Old East Hall was the oldest state university building in the nation cornerstone laid in 1793.

Building still in use today.

Graham Memorial Hall, the building was completed in 1931.

Can you believe a Water Fountain?

The Library

Bynum Hall was built in 1904 as a gymnasium with swimming pool, indoor track and showers.  In 1939, it was remodeled for offices, after construction of Woollen Gymnasium made it obsolete.

Fountain in front of Bynum Hall.

The Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower rises 172 feet. It is surrounded by a hedge and lawn designed by William C. Coker, botany professor and creator of the campus Arboretum, which we visited earlier in our stay.

In the early years Playmaker Theater was a library, Smith Hall built in 1892.

Walking around campus, we walked over our daily mile, next stop lunch.  Largely unchanged since it opened in 1923, Sutton's operates one of the last remaining traditional soda fountains in North Carolina.

Photos on the walls feature patrons from over the last three decades.

While we were in Chapel Hill, we gave a call from Dave, our refrigerator repairman.  Our new control board was in and he was on his way to our motor home to put it in today.  Yea.

P.S. Later in the afternoon, the control panel on the refrigerator was switching gas to electric and electric to gas.  No problem.  We would now say goodbye to the Chapel Hill, Durham, Hillsborough area.  We have grown to love you, but after 3 weeks we are ready to go to Washington, NC, the Inner Banks.

Sarah Duke Gardens Day Two

We returned to Sarah Duke Gardens, with hats and water.  This garden is recognized as one of the premier public garden in the United States, renowned both for landscape design and the quality of horticulture, each year attracting more than 300,000 visitors from all over the world.

When we hit the round about this time, we headed straight to the Terrace Gardens.  We had a map and got additional information from a docent.

There were beautiful flowers,

on each terrace.

And flowering trees.

One more bridge for Addie.

Then to the lily pond.

Bob and I at the pond.

The flowers in the pond.

We then took a rest and Bob watched birds.

We sat in a beautiful gazebo, check out the roof.

As we took the trail to the parking lot there was more flowers.

An open area.

One more round about and we hit the parking lot.

I know, I know you are on overload with the Gilmore's blog.  I am sorry there was so many, but we had a very bad thunder storm and Internet was out for also a week.  I will slow up now.  Only a few more to catch up but they will wait till tomorrow. I also decided the good thing about a blog.  It forces your family and friends to watch your vacation pictures.

Sarah Duke Gardens Day One

The Sarah Duke Garden at Duke University is often spoken of as "the crown jewel of Duke University," Duke Gardens occupies 55 acres in the heart of west campus.

Never having been here before we didn't know what to expect.  We took a short trail to start out.

We came to a round about with a fountain.  We didn't pick up a map and it was well over 100 degrees, so we choose a direction and started out.

This is a hydrangea on the left and on the right crape myrtle.

Addie was at science camp this week and she was learning about bridges, so we took lots of pictures of bridges.

There was a Japanese bridge.

Bob checked out the time on the sun dial.

There were colorful bushes.

There were birds, Blue Heron, ducks

and places to watch birds in the shade.

We walked about a mile then headed to the Gift Shop and air conditioning.

There were pots of flowers 

and a beautiful fountain.

There was so much  more to see but we needed to bring water and wear our hats, so the rest would have to wait for another day.

University Lake

We got a call from our refrigerator repairman, Dave.  We are on a first name bases. He told us told us that the control board was not available locally and he would let us know when it came.  We decided we needed a walk, so we headed to University Lake, a place we had passed but not visited yet.

University Lake is drinking water for the city of Chapel Hill.  

You could rent canoes or rowboats.  We didn't.

There were lots of rules here.  Maybe because it is drinking water?????

The Crew Team from the University of North Carolina row here. We wondered if any Olympic rower had trained here.