North Carolina

Last week I was able to head down to Greensboro, North Carolina for a few days and spend some time with some family. Here is a little back story on them. While my mom was serving her mission in the Philippines about 30 years ago she met someone named Thong (Tom) in a refuge camp. He escaped Vietnam during the war and stayed in a camp in the Philippines. When my mom finished her mission my Grandparents helped Thong come to the U.S. and he lived with them. Thong, his wife Phuong, and their three children are like family to us. Where they live in North Carolina is about a 6 hour drive from D.C. So they offered to come and pick me up to spend a few days with them in North Carolina. We left D.C. on Saturday and I stayed with them until Thursday. It was a blast! North Carolina was absolutely GORGEOUS, especially during the Spring when all of the flowers and trees were starting to bloom. 

There aren’t a lot of touristy places there so we mostly just spent time together. We did go to a cute little Farmers Market one of the days.

This is their backyard. ALL woods, this is my dream backyard in case any of you were wondering.

Where the Civil War took place

The homes there are STUNNING. They were all huge and had big green lawns with miles and miles of woods behind them. If I moved there I would literally not be able to choose a house because they are all that gorgeous!

We went to Chapel Hill and visited UNC where the greatest basketball player ever, Michael Jordan attended college. 

After UNC we headed to Duke University in Durham, NC. The campus is incredible.

The school purchased a bunch of million dollar homes that look like this one for their department office buildings. Ya… they’re pretty rich!

This was the best part, Duke has an amazing garden. It is huge and is literally one of the prettiest places I have ever been! 

I had such a great time in North Carolina, I ate like a king. We had Salmon and Steak for dinner two of the nights which was a great change from the usual frozen pizza and mac n’ cheese. I forgot to mention how smart these people are. Thong has two 4 year degrees in engineering, his wife just graduated from UNC (a very difficult and competitive school) with a Biochemistry degree, their son Dillon is a future doctor, and their daughter Ivy wants to be a lawyer. Oh.. and Dillon was up in his room building computers all weekend, no big deal he’s only 15. They are incredible people to say the least. Thong drove me all the way to Durham on Thursday so I could take a bus back to Washington. I’m so grateful I was able to go and visit them. My mom and I are going back in 3 weeks right before I head back home to Arizona. I can’t wait!