Oh Carolina!

After our escapades in New York, we headed back to Washington DC to spend the weekend with Peter & Louise. On Saturday afternoon, Meg's uncle Mike came round, along with Louise's sister, Florence and her husband Pete. We put together a DVD of photos, videos and music from our travels which everyone seemed to enjoy, although we couldn't help feeling like we were subjecting them to the modern equivalent of the dreaded holiday slideshow.

In addition to enjoying Peter's home cooking, we also had a classic American breakfast at the local Pancake House. 'Omelet' containing processed cheese and cubes of bacon, served with hash browns, corned beef hash, pancakes, and finally doused in maple syrup was very different to a Full English breakfast, but probably similarly as healthy. However, it certainly all tasted very good!


As the snow began to fall, Mark spent a day visiting the sights of DC and some of the museums. During the day, another 'Severe Weather Warning' was issued and Mark managed to make it back to the house before 8 inches of snow fell in just 3 hours.







It was wet and sticky snow that brought down a large number of tree branches in the neighbourhood and finally resulted in a complete powercut. Once the snow had stopped falling, we ventured outside to clear tree branches from the driveway and pavement, help a stranded vehicle and build snowmen. Meg's two-headed monster was an inspiration!




The next day we headed South to Charlottesville, Virginia once all the roads had been plowed. The snow had not been as severe in Virginia and fortunately Charlottesville had power.



Our next destination after Virginia was Durham, North Carolina to stay with Meg's friend Jess and her husband Matt. On Friday night we went to a local bar / brewery for a fun evening. And on Saturday, after looking around the impressive Duke University campus, we went to watch a basketball game between North Carolina Central University and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, both of which were historically African-American universities. It was an exciting game played in front of a full stadium, with the band playing energetic tunes and the cheerleaders clapping their hands and stomping their feet throughout the game.





Saturday evening was Dr. Jess' one free evening from working the nightshift at the local hospital and we went out for a nice dinner after the game. On Sunday we took their retired racing greyhound, Mitchell, out for a walk, and then went for dinner with Matt at the local Mexican restaurant.


On Monday we drove back to DC where the temperature fell from +21'C to -2'C. Considering the journey took 6 hours this seemed an incredible difference in climate. Although we would have preferred a warmer return, we were pleased to find our gang of snowmen welcoming us home!