January 26: Our Adventure Ends

Yesterday, we woke up early, had breakfast, then headed to UNCSA for the interview.  At first it was a lot of waiting while they checked everyone in, then we watched two student-made movies before the welcome.  They had just shown the movies at the Sundance film festival in California.  The first movie was very well done and quite frightening at the end, the other was animated and very quirky.  Then, after a tour of the film school,  the dean spoke and the head of the theater department spoke, then a Q & A with some current students.   Then the parents were taken to another room to have refreshments while the students did a writing sample and waited for their interviews.  For the writing sample, they were given 5 prompts and had to choose one to write a story in 15 minutes.  Then at their interview, they and the panel discussed their story as well as having the typical interview questions.   Then we were free to go.  The schedule had listed 8 am to 5 pm, but Anneliese was done around 2:00.  So Anneliese wanted to go back to the pub we went to yesterday for lunch.  Then back to the hotel for naps and homework before facetiming the family.  Then we picked up Jimmy Johns to eat in the room while we watched a movie. 

I am reading the Outlander series and the current book I’m reading is  about the Scottish settlement in North Carolina in the 1770s.  It is interesting to see the hills that they talk about.  The story mentions more of the mountains which we saw on our flight to Atlanta this morning. 

To drive to the airport, return the car, check-in, etc., we had to wake up at 5:15.  I didn’t sleep well the night before, so 5:15 was very early indeed.   The hotel breakfast doesn’t start until 7:00 on Sundays, but we had luckily each taken with us a bicuits we didn’t eat at breakfast yesterday, so we heated those up in the microwave in our room to eat before we left.  We listented to music most of the way (the rental car had a jack to hook up our ipods to the stereo system).  Anneliese slept for at least half of the trip, barely waking for a second when we stopped to fill up the tank in the rental car before returning it.  We returned the car, took the shuttle to the terminal , checked-in and went to our gate..  I had a Starbucks gift card we used at the Starbucks near our gate for  a hot chocolate and muffin for each of us.  Our flight was delayed by 30 minutes, so we had a lot of extra time for our little breakfast as well as a little cat nap.  Then in Atlanta, we had a longer layover, so we found a place for a burger and then went to the gate for my second cat nap of the day.  Flying over the land was interesting to see the hills and mountains.  Anneliese is napping as I write this on the flight to Minneapolis. 

We are waiting to see if school will be cancelled again tomorrow due to cold; the school district said that they would decide Sunday afternoon or evening and the Atlanta airport doesn’t have open wi-fi.  Their wi-fi is only available for checking flights and accomodations in the area.  We will have to wait until we get home to check.  I have heard it’s very cold at home, so Randy will meet us at the train station near our house for a ride home instead of walking it.  From the unseasonably cool weather of North Carolina to the icebox of Minnesota.  Now we wait until June to fly again (unless Anneliese is called for an interview at Florida State).  In June we fly to Ireland and Scotland—again to feel that thrill of excitement as the airplane speeds down the runway and flight is achieved once again to take us to new adventures.

Downtown Arts District, Friday, Jan. 24

Selfie in downtown Winston-Salem

Today we slept in, having not slept well all night.  So we missed breakfast--which was fine, sleep was more important!  Then went to the desk to report that the message light kept blinking (with no messages) and we couldn't get the drain of the shower to unplug.  Then we asked if he knew of anywhere with quirky, fun little shops to look at.  He replied that he's from Asheville, where they have those all over, but that Winston-Salem has nothing like that that he knows of.  All big box.  Well, we drove to the UNCSA to make sure we knew where we were going before tomorrow; good decision, because the map that we looked at the night before was wrong!  We figured it out fairly easily by just driving in the direction we felt it should be and went directly there!  We drove around campus a bit, then decided to drive in the downtown area.  Pretty small, but we happened on Trade St., the heart of the Downtown Arts District, parked and walked.  Cutest little shops!  One shop was called an art gallery, with clothing and accessories, handmade--you were paying for the art, not the items!  Way out of my price range, but beautiful--the products as well as the shop.  And the shop owner was very interesting to talk to.  Many really interesting shops and galleries to visit!  We stopped for a snack at Finnigan's Wake--a pub with stained glass windows--very cute and great service.  Shared an appetizer. Visited many galleries, some vintage and thrift shops.  In one shop, sister2sister, we met the shopowner, a woman from Kenya that started it as an organization and it grew into a shop.  She goes to Kenya and makes and buys crafts with the women there, beading and other things, then brings it back and uses the money to feed the children of the villages.  She is even building a children's home for the many orphans now.  What a wonderful woman.  Her husband is legally blind, but refused to give up and is working in the North Dakota oil fields and writing a book.  We shared a lot about climate, weather, and children.  Unfortunately, I couldn't afford anything in her shop. At one of the textile galleries, they had a table of 75% off and I found a great hat (I needed a new winter hat) and Anneliese found cute chicken earrings; we bought both!  Then drove around a bit more, and went back to the hotel for Anneliese to do homework and for me to check emails.  After we facebook the family, Anneliese wants to eat at Olive Garden (which is why we had a snack earlier instead of a meal).   Fun day with my daughter!  :)

Lost in North Carolina, January 23, 2014

Yesterday, Anneliese and I left Minneapolis in the bitter cold (school was cancelled due to cold) and went to North Carolina (also, pretty cold right now!).  Annelisese has a college interview at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) on Saturday.  Our first thought was to drive, but driving through the mountains in January with stops along the way to sleep and eat, with gas prices what they are, it financially wasn't much worse to just fly and driving through unfamiliar mountains in the middle of winter is never a good plan.  So we flew into Raleigh via Atlanta with the thought that if our flight were delayed by weather, we could always rent a car there and drive.  So we originally were going to leave Friday, but the only flight got us there fairly late, and with her interview the next morning, giving ourselves a cushion of a day seemed like a good idea.  So we flew out Thursday morning and arrived in Raleigh around 6:30.  By the time we got our rental car and found a place to stop for dinner, it was around 7:30.  Well, somehow I had it in my head that we were heading EAST all the way--east from Minneapolis to Atlanta, and east from Atlanta to North Carolina, and we continued to go east from the airport. The bad part of this is that Winston-Salem is WEST of Raleigh!  We stopped once to get out the Atlas and couldn't find where we were--even the mile markers didn't match up with where we should be.  And there were few exits and absolutely no signs.  So, slightly frantic, I left the highway, following gas and food signs to the small town of Burgaw, about 25 miles north of Wilmington.  I went into the gas station with the atlas and asked the clerk to please point to where I was on the map.  Well, she was young and couldn't do that (?!) but another man there asked where I was headed.  When he said to follow 40 (which we had been on) through Raleigh and Durham I almost lost it--we had left from the airport in Raleigh and almost reached the coast!!!  I was almost near tears at the thought of going back the way we came, then the way that we were supposed to go--and it was already 10 pm.  Since I had told Joshua I would facetime him from the hotel, I called Randy so that he could tell Joshua and so that someone knew where we were.  I used the clerk's phone at the gas station.  So, we turned around, stopped for a diet coke along the way, then as we were getting closer to Winston-Salem realized that we were almost out of gas (gas light was on)--we first tried a station that was closed, then hoped we'd find one that was open around 12:30 at night.  Luck was with us, and we finally found one before running out of gas, late at night, with few cars around, not many lights, and no cell phone in the cold.  We eventually got to the hotel (we were never so happy to reach a hotel!), messaged Randy to let him know we were safe, and went to bed!