I used some of my remaining vacation time to road trip down to North Carolina to visit one of my best friends from college, Teresa. She and her husband Brian had their first baby a few months ago and I wanted to go down and meet her. It’s about a 6 and half hour drive from Baltimore to the small town in North Carolina where they live. I enjoy a good road trip, but don’t get the opportunity to take them very often. Adult life means that I usually opt for flying most places because it’s faster, and I guess because a lot of places I go would take a significant amount of time to drive to. Anyway, I enjoyed getting in my car and having some time to myself. I listened to the audio version of the Veronica Mars book, a review of which will eventually go up on my book review blog as soon as review the 24 (eep!) other books I read before it and have yet to review.

Road trips generally mean stopping for a fast food meal along the way. As I was driving into the South I realized that I was entering Bojangles country and would probably be able to find a Bojangles to stop at for lunch. Sure enough I was. And of course I had to get some sweet tea to drink with my meal. I love me some sweet tea.

I met Teresa and Brian my Freshman year of college at Wake Forest University. Teresa and I lived down the hall from each in the same dorm. Brian was a senior at Appalachian State then. They got engaged the December of that year, but didn’t actually get married until after Teresa graduated 3 year and half years later. Then it only took them 14 years to have a baby. I figured they would eventually since we used to joke in college that Teresa was our mom. She always knew our schedules and when we had tests, etc and would ask how they went like a mom would. She’s going to be a great mom, and she’s got a pretty great kid.

Look how adorable she is.

Oh no wait, that’s one of their cats. Let’s try that again. There’s sweet little Olivia.

They live outside of Winston-Salem where Wake Forest is, so on Tuesday Teresa and I took a trip to campus to check things out. It had been a little over 3 years since the last time I was there, and I was amazing how much had changed even in those three years. There are 2 more dorms, a new dining hall, and a new building for the business school among other smaller changes.

I tried to show Olivia where she was going to go to college, but she was not impressed. She better not be thinking about going to Duke or Carolina. We got someone to take a picture of us in front of Johnson Hall where we first met. I don’t really like to think about how long ago that was, but let’s just say that most Freshmen entering Wake Forest this year will have been born the year we met.

 

While we were on campus we picked up an adorable little Wake Forest outfit for Olivia, which she wore the next day.

All that kicking is exhausting.

 

 

 

 

Before I left on Wednesday we had lunch at a little cafe near their house. They were promoting something called Wafflepalooza, so of course we had to share the turtle waffle special for our dessert. I mean you can’t eat somewhere celebrating Wafflepalooza and not eat a waffle. That would just be wrong.

And a few more pictures of an adorable baby before we go. 

It was a great trip, and as always when I visit friends and family who live far away I wish they all lived closer and I got to see them more often.