Day 7 - One Less College Application to Worry About

Monday was quite a busy day.  After checking out of the hotel we headed to Duke for our first official college tour.  We arrived at the admissions office at around 9:45 for our 10:00 tour, and the first stop was a large room with a ton of other people that were also going on the tour.  In the office they had a ton of pamphlets on all things Duke, so I picked up a few that seemed relevant.  One of them was titled "Jewish Life at Duke" and it detailed all of the reasons a Jewish student would want to attend Duke.  While a nice piece of info, Debbie and I found it a little odd that they would make such an overt point to try and convince Jewish people to come to Duke.  There were no info sheets on any other religion.  However, it became much clearer shortly after the tour started when one of the first things our tour guide pointed out was the main landmark on campus - the Chapel.  That, plus the fact that the liberal arts school is called Trinity, made it all clear. 

So as to not influence Ethan's impressions of the school, early on Debbie whispered to me that she really didn't think this would be a great school for Ethan.  But at one point during the tour, when it appeared Ethan wasn't really paying attention to anything the tour guide was saying, Debbie asked Ethan if he was listening.  He said he was paying attention, but then said to her "but there's no way I'm going to school here."  When Debbie asked why he said "because the main building is called the Chapel and the school is called Trinity."  Guess all of those years of Hebrew school and going to temple rubbed off.  It's not like Ethan is expecting to go Yeshiva or anything, but I guess he actually wants a place with a little more Jewish life.

The school itself is quite pretty, but also seems massive.  You have to take a bus from East Campus, where all of the freshmen live, to West Campus.  After the walking tour they sequestered us in a room for what we thought was a brief presentation by some admissions officers.  Six hours later (OK, it wasn't 6 hours, but felt like it), we escaped at the first opportunity and headed to the book store for some Duke stuff.  Ethan already has Duke shirts, so he passed, but Brian got one and Amanda got a keychain (her trip collection item) and we were off (once we trekked through the jungle that is the Duke campus and found our car).

We drove to Cameron Indoor to see if we could get in, but we could not get to the court, so we took pictures by the sign and left. 

Cameron Indoor Stadium (in case you can't read the sign)

From Duke we headed 15 minutes away to the UNC area for lunch and to hit their book store.  Debbie checked out the Road Food book and there was a typical southern restaurant in the book located in Chapel Hill called Mama Dip's.  They specialize in all things southern, and most of us took full advantage.  Ethan had some sort of beef stew thing (that kind of looked more Jewish, which I guess he was in the mood for after the tour), Brian had smothered pork chops, I went for the house specialty of fried chicken, Debbie veered way off the gluten free wagon and also went for the fried chicken and Amanda went for the chicken tenders.  After all plates were clean, and heartburn coming for me, we shared a pound cake dessert and I headed to the front to pay.  While paying I asked if Mama Dip was in the restaurant, and if she was would she take a picture with us.  Turns out she was in the kitchen and the cashier went in to see if Mama Dip would pose with us.  Instead of coming out, the cashier told us we should all follow her into the kitchen, which we did.  Inside we found Mama Dip sitting down (she uses a walker now so it was obviously easier for us to go to her) and making apple cobbler.  We thanked her for a delicious meal and took our picture and headed out.

With Mama Dip (you guess which one she is)

After a few UNC purchases we headed to the Dean Dome to see if we would have any luck there.  Bingo.  The doors were open and we just walked in and went into the arena.  We took some pictures and watched someone (no clue who) nailing 3-pointer after 3-pointer and then left the building. 

Dean E. Smith Center (a.k.a. The Dean Dome)

Now it was time to head to Richmond, VA.  The only reason to stop in Richmond was because a person I went to high school with (Ken Joyce, 2 years older) that I played some baseball with (if you call sitting on the bench while Ken played, playing with) is now the batting coach for the AA Richmond Squirrels.  I had contacted him via Facebook a while back to see if the team was in town during our trip and they were, and Ken was so nice and said he would leave tickets for us, which he did.  We went directly to the stadium from UNC and arrived at the ballpark at around 6:15 for a 7:00 game.  I picked up our tickets at the will call booth and headed in.  We found our seats and I went down to the Squirrels dugout to see if I could find Ken and thank him.  He came out right at the time I got down there, so I got his attention and thanked him and chatted for a few minutes.  He said if he could he would find a time for all of us to come down before the game.  Sure enough, right when I got back with food, he signaled that we should all come down.  So we put the food down and headed down towards the dugout.

Ken then opened the gate and we went onto the field for a minute then he gave us a quick tour of the stadium.  We went into the dugout then behind the scenes to his "office" - the batting cages.  In the batting cages I asked him for the one tip he would give the boys, and his coaching instincts took over and he gave the boys a 5 minute hitting lesson.  The key - separation.  As soon as the pitcher separates the ball from his glove, the hitter should load up and get ready to swing.  For the baseball fans reading this, Ken had Mike Trout in the Arizona Fall League recently, and Trout was having trouble with his timing.  Ken gave him the separation clue, and now Trout is an MVP and Rookie of the Year candidate.

"Separation"

The game was a typical minor league game, with fun events every half inning, which keeps Amanda interested.  Unfortunately, Ethan wasn't feeling well, so he really didn't enjoy the evening too much.  The game was moving along pretty well, so we were going to try and stay the whole game so we could thank Ken on the way out.  But in the top of the 8th a storm rolled in pretty fast and everyone headed for cover.  We tried to retrace our steps from Ken's tour to see if we could get ourselves back down underneath to find him, when all of sudden he appeared where we were.  He gave the kids baseballs and we posed for some pictures with him, thanked him yet again and headed out.

Thanks to Ken Joyce for a great evening.  Go Squirrels!

We got to the hotel, our first Embassy Suites of the trip (only Embassys the rest of the way), set up both air beds so all of the kids could have their own beds and started to catch up on what was clearly a VERY busy day at More Than Paper.  That's why the blog is being written Tuesday morning instead of last night.  Just too late and too tired last night.

Today's plan, once we get motivated, is to head to the DC area.  First stop, the annual pilgrimage to an American Girl store.  This one is in the Tyson's Corner part of VA, not far from DC.  Then we will check in with Debbie's Uncle Eddie to see if he has a few minutes for us to stop by his office.  After that, depending on the time and the mood in the car, we may try and stop at Arlington National Cemetery, then head into DC for what will be a busy few days.