Weekend Review: Six Years in Two Days

I mentioned last Thursday that this weekend was my 15 year high school reunion. As nervous as I was to leave the boys, I was really excited to see my friends and high school again. We started off with doughnuts and coffee and headed straight to Durham. KC slept the whole time and was ready to socialize once we arrived.

My high school experience was a little different and it is always a blast to revisit. I attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (which was recently named the #1 public high school in NC, and #15 public high school in the nation). Students in North Carolina apply to NCSSM their sophomore year and then attend for their junior and senior years. I remember students coming to my elementary school and I had always dreamed of attending after meeting them.

The experience of attending Science and Math far exceeded my expectations. It was challenging academically but also completely accepting socially. There were no cliques and I learned a lot about other cultures and religions. Reunions are always special to me.

KC had a special name tag with her graduation year - 2032?!?! I am actually really bad with math so I had someone else figure it out.

Both years I lived on the this hall. Living here, there is a "on-hall" time from 8-8:30 for housekeeping and meetings and then an official curfew at 10pm. And up until the year after us, cell phones were not allowed (not that they were all that popular) so we all used the one pay phone on the hall. It is so funny to think about that now.

Each class has an official end of year slideshow that we all watch together each reunion. It's over thirty minutes long and recaps the two years we spent here. After our slideshow viewing we wanted to go on a tour, but there were a ton of people (all the reunions are here, so the 5 years, 10 years, us, 20 years, and 25 years) so instead we created our own tour. 

The physics floor is pretty special to me because I took my first astrophysics class here. I had aspirations of being an astrophysicist before I actually took advance physics classes in college (soo freakin' hard).

 Since the school is free, there is work service. Mine was sorting the mail. I loved it. And look how cute our mailboxes were.

We ended up just sitting around talking (Chris and I even missed lunch) before saying good bye to campus and heading to our hotel. 

Since we actually haven't been on vacation since March of 2012, we booked a nice room at the Washington Duke Inn. I was a little hesitant to stay on Duke's campus being a Carolina grad, but the hotel was amazing. We grabbed food in the bar and watched the end of the UNC game before heading to dinner with friends.

KC had plenty of attention. She was the perfect age to travel with as she pretty much just ate or slept and we carried her around the whole time. We stayed out until 11 and said goodbye to our friends who were heading to the rest of the reunion (roof top party).

Sunday we started off with breakfast at my favorite spot in both high school and college, Elmo's Diner. There's one in both Durham and Chapel Hill. Funny enough, two tables away was a friend from our church here in Charlotte. 

We made the 8 mile trek to Chapel Hill and stopped by A Southern Season to wait out some rain and grab a coffee (and sweets for the boys).

Once we arrived on campus, we took KC by the football stadium. KC's name is Kenan Caroline, so we joke that this is her stadium. We actually call her KC instead of Kenan since our initials are K and C. 

Of course after putting her in her Carolina blue for the pictures, she pooped all over every piece of this outfit. 

I had nothing with me, even though I'd brought at least five outfits for her (she poops a lot). Then I remember the day before I'd purchased a NCSSM onesie and shoved it in my bag. 

We made our way through campus, seeing all the sights on the way to Franklin Street.

Chris proposed at the bell tower.

 Chris requested lunch at Top of the Hill (it was a hard decision between this and Cosmic Cantina). They had a Kenan Lager on tap, which seemed like an appropriate beer order.

We made a stop at Student Stores and Johnny T-shirt for more goodies. I was excited to see the book Goodnight Carolina (written in a style similar to Goodnight Moon). 

We had parked near my old dorm, so we stop by for a quick picture.

We said goodbye to one of our favorite places, vowed to return soon and made the trek back home to our two boys who had been spoiled with sugar, Halloween costumes, legos, movies and way too much tablet time.