A Few stops along the way - Part 1

Today was more of a travel day for us. Not before meeting some of our good friends that we had back in Minnesota, however. How did that work, you ask? Well, I used to be one of the boy's deans for a high school level boarding school just west of Minneapolis, MN. I was the first one to leave and get married and eventually run off to South Dakota. Ryan and his family, left a couple of years later and is now a boy's dean at a sister school in Virginia. They met us at the Childrens Discovery Museum there in Charlottesville. That was a pretty cool place! All sorts of fun science activities for kids of all ages to do. William had lots of fun until he looked like he was about ready to fall over from exhaustion. It was great to spend a couple of hours catching up with the A-team!

Once we got William strapped in, we headed south through the Virginia countryside towards Durham, NC. The east coast forests are quite a bit different to what I am used to. Out west we have tons of pine trees with a few deciduous trees spattered throughout. Out here it is quite the opposite - tons of deciduous trees with pine trees spattered throughout. It was quite enjoyable to drive through the Virginia countryside. with little to no traffic outside of the big cities.

The city we are staying in, Durham, NC, is important for a couple of reasons. This is where the Few family as a whole migrated to after Pennsylvania. More on that tomorrow, but this city is also the location of Duke University. Can you guess who the first president of Duke University was? You would be correct if you guessed a Few. :) William Preston Few worked with the Duke family to put together the first levels of the University that is here today. He worked at Duke which was formally known as Trinity College for 40+ years in various capacities cumulating in a long stent as president. He died of a heart attack in 1940. He was laid to rest in the Duke University Chapel. Yes, he made a more recent mark on Few history, but it is cool all the same!

On another note, we have had free water given to us at pretty much every hotel we have stayed at so far. Tonight was a bit different, we walked in to find a 20oz. Aquafina ($1 back home) with a tag on it that said $4. Meaning if we drank it, we would be charged $4 to our room! The joke on them though, the vending machine is right across the hall and the same size and brand of water can be bought for $2.50! Someone thought things through here... Oh well, off to the land of dreams!