North Carolina - Day 3

Woke up on day 3 and began watching the Lost finale. That took us to about noon, at which point we were really hungry. Being that I was still in the south, that meant more bbq!

We went to a place called Hog Heaven. It was less fancy than the place we went to yesterday, but the portion was more appropriate for human consumption. I had the pulled pork, which from what I learned is the North Carolina specialty. This pork was better than yesterday. I liked these hushpuppies better as well. I’m still trying to figure out why I got the slaw, as I don’t like slaw. It was good though.

I grew up around, live near and work in New York City. I've heard many many different accents and dialects of our language over my lifetime. It was here at Hog Heaven where, for the first time, someone spoke English to me and I had absolutely no idea what they were saying. This place was an order at the window place, and then someone brought it to you, and would check up from time to time if you needed anything. I suppose you’d call that person a server. Our server would pop by and ask us if we would like anymore sweet tea, or if we needed anything else. I looked at Jeff as if she was speaking German. It felt like I was in a foreign country, and I had that helpless feeling of “I have no idea what she just said.” He assured me it was, in fact, English. I then proceeded to poke fun at him for being able to understand her so clearly.

This restaurant was in Durham. We drove around there through the off and on rainstorms, exploring Durham and Chapel Hill, driving around the campuses of Duke and University of North Carolina. We stopped at Jeff’s favorite coffee house, 3 Cups, and met up with his buddy Ryan from last night. This place serves coffee, tea, as well as a rather extensive wine selection. The coffee is served in a French press, and you order in different sizes, either a 1 cup, 2 cup, 4 cup or 6 cup size press. They give you mugs (in our case, the store-named 3) and after it brews, you enjoy. It was such a simple yet awesome idea for coffee service. We spent about a half-hour to 45mins there, enjoying the coffee and the company.

After 3 Cups we did a little more exploring, checking out a specialty foods shop that had a myriad of kitchen supplies, from herbs and spices to kitchen-ware to wine to fresh meats and cheeses. It was like a supersized and extensive whole-foods without the misplaced sense of superiority. I’d be in a lot of trouble if I had one of those stores close to my home.

After leaving the market, we decided to give the Durham Bulls game a go. It had been raining off and on all day, but the clouds seemed to be breaking up a little. Having nothing else really planned, there was no harm in just trying. We got there and redeemed a few vouchers for some seats behind home plate (minor league ball is awesome for that).

We had a little time to kill so we wandered around the American Tobacco campus that was right next door. It looks like they revamped an old Tobacco factory -all brick buildings with new windows, new occupants, and an really cool stream running through it all. If you look up you can still see the conveyer sorter overhead. It was a really interesting place - I need to do a little research to find out more about it.

A trip to the team store and a hat/t-shirt late we headed inside for the game and to our fabulous and cost-effective seats. A quick stop for a footlong and a soda and we hunkered down for what turned out to be a gem from the Durham Bull’s own Jeremy Hellickson against the Pawtucket Sox. He took a perfect game into the 7th and a no-hitter into the 8th. The Bulls won 1-0 and it was an absolute perfect night for baseball. After the game it was announced that if you spent $20 in the team store you would receive a Jeremy Hellickson bobblehead. We went back to the store, showed our receipt (or, in Jeff’s case, showed MY receipt as he threw his out) and went home with a nice souvenir of a pitcher whom I'm sure we’ll see in the big leagues one day.

Back to the apartment, we watched a few favorite episodes of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia and then relaxed on the balcony with some libations. A little Dexter Gordon on the iPod made it the perfect ending to the night.