Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Come Visit Carol-Ann & Ethan

I (Rebecca) thought I'd write a post on Carol-Ann and Ethan's blog to tell you all about my great week out here in Durham! And to tell you the top 10 reasons why you should come too!


#10 What good blog post wouldn't start out with a nod to Reya, the cutest, funnest dog ever?! It was fun to play with Reya at the park, watch her do tricks for treats and throw the ball to her. And, I don't have a dog at home, so bonus for me.

#9 Durham, the city. We had a great time going to the Saturday market, walking around downtown, visiting the Duke campus and looking at the beautiful old buildings, seeing Cameron Stadium (home to the famous basketball team), enjoying all the trees and birds (it sounds like a jungle in the neighborhood where CA and Ethan live!), running on fun trails... It was fun to be a local for a week!

#8 Frisbee games. As you know, CA and Ethan have found some great opportunities to get crazy good at frisbee. I got to go to one of their pick-up games which was really fun. Ethan had some great defensive plays, CA threw for several scores and their team won!

#7 Meet Carol-Ann's classmates and see her program. CA invited her team over for dinner one night so I could meet them all. I learned a lot about P.T. and we laughed for about 5 hours straight. What a great group! Seeing the building and classrooms where Carol-Ann has spent so much of her time the last couple years was good, too. I even got a mini P.T. treatment :)

#6 Food. I heard about the food long before I came. The highlights: Amazing tacos, killer nachos, gourmet pizza, veggie sliders, sweet potato tots, great frozen yogurt, Ethan's burgers, Chick-fil-A (my first time ever), She Crab soup, coffee, goat cheese, fried green tomatoes, pastries and more. Yum, yum, yum.

#5 Sunshine. Yes, I live in Oregon, so of course this was going to be on the list. The blue sky here is beautiful! 70+ degrees almost every day I was here. Sitting on CA and Ethan's screened-in-porch and sipping coffee in the morning and eating dinner outside at night was a huge treat.

#4 The beach. Hello, Atlantic Ocean! Putting our toes in the water was refreshing and driving along the coast line was awesome.

#3 Charleston, SC. Carol-Ann and I took a road trip down to Charleston for two nights. What a great little city! We walked around looking at the old, historic houses for over 4 hours, marveling over doors and porches and gardens and cobblestone streets. I can't tell you how many pictures I took. And the people were so friendly! We visited a local coffee shop both mornings we were there, and were befriended by some older gentlemen who are regulars at the shop. They are native Charlestonians and were giving us tips on where to go. They were sad we couldn't stay and spend more time with them :)

#2 Did I mention the food?

#1 Q.T. with the Nelsons. CA was on break for the week, so we got to spend all day together, and even though Ethan had to work during the day, we got the evenings with him. We made the most of our time, did a lot of laughing and had many adventures.

There are many other things I could share, but as Ethan says, "What happens in Durham stays in Durham". Guess you'll just have to come check it out yourself!

Southern Girls!

(Carol-Ann)

Just last week my mom and I went on a trip through a few southern cities - we visited Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA and Jacksonville, FL, with quick stops in Hilton Head and Jacksonville Beach.  Our primary purpose was to look for apartment complexes for when Ethan and I move down in July...but we managed to have plenty of fun exploring the southern cities we visited on the way down to FL.  Here are a few pictures of our trip:

Charleston - a quaint town right on the water, with cobblestone streets, hidden alleyways, tons of iron work, and beautifully restored homes.  Our first day we went on a walking tour with a woman who is a 13th generation Charlestonian.  It was a great way to get acquainted with the city and hear her perspective on how things have changed over the years.  We spent most of our days in Charleston walking around - along the battery, where there are rows of beautiful homes facing the water, up through the cobblestone alleys, where we could peek into people's elaborate gardens, and around the main streets, where incredible church buildings sit on nearly every corner.  Here are pictures of one of our amazing dinners in Charleston, and at Patriot's Point Naval Museum:

Savannah - cute, artsy Southern town with beautiful mini-parks scattered throughout the 2-mile x 2-mile city center.  It's a great town for walking, and we had fun wandering our way through the parks and streets.  We had no idea that art was such a prominent focus of the city, but we enjoyed visiting the SCAD store (Savannah College of Art and Design), and stepping into some of the many art galleries around the city.  Although we didn't eat there, it was impossible to avoid walking through the Paula Deen restaurant and store, and we found several boutique shops to wander through when the wind chill picked up.  Here is a picture of us in one of the Savannah parks:

Jacksonville - by the time we made it to Jacksonville, we were ready for a few days of rest.  However, we still hit the ground running and managed to see 9 apartment complexes, the beach, a huge dog park, and the rehab hospital in 2 days!  Jacksonville is the largest city by area in the US, and the largest by population in FL. (thanks Wiki)  The St. John's river runs through the center of the city, and Jacksonville Beach is a short 20min drive to the east.  Ethan and I are excited to be living so close to the beach - most of our weekends next year will be spent lying in the sand, swimming and bodyboarding in the waves.  Anyone want to come visit???  :-)  Here are a few pictures of our FL time:

Coming out of Hibernation

Well I looked at our blog today and realized that we haven't posted since August 2011.  Hmm, I think we went into hibernation.

Actually, it was an eventful winter.  There was our trip home for Christmas, which was fantastic and we loved getting to see family and friends.  Carol-Ann visited DC at least twice to visit with friends.  She also met up with her Mom in Charleston SC for a trip south through Savannah Georgia and finally on to Jacksonville Florida where we will be moving this Summer.  Ok ok... so maybe I went into hibernation and Carol-Ann stayed busy as ever!!!  Well hey, someone has to stay home, take care of the dog and pay the bills right?

Well that's the big news, looking forward to our move.  At Duke, the Physical Therapy program dedicates the entire 3rd year to clinical rotations and Carol-Ann got a prestigious 36 week clinical at Brooks Rehabilitation (well known in PT circles), hence the move to Jacksonville.

I'm making plans with LTD and it looks like everything is good to pickup and move the home office yet again which is also exciting because of the long term projects I'm involved in.  I'd go into it all, but really nothing could be more boring than to talk about engineering software systems and business process to realize coordination of ADA style and Medicaid style paratransit services within the context of a one-call call center.  Yawn...  But really, it is a lot of fun for me because of the people I get to work with, the flexibility I have to design, build and implement systems and the unique challenges this area of business poses.  I had no idea when I started at LTD what I was getting into.  Transportation, whether it is UPS/Fedex or the city bus system, poses some of the most interesting business problems I've ever encountered.  Plus, on top of all that, I have to do it while following two major bodies of federal law (Americans with Disabilities Act, and Medicaid).  Oh, you got bored again... sorry...

Well I will sign off for now.  I just thought it would be good to post something so you'all knew we were still alive over here in Durham.  Will post again with some pictures from our recent doings!

-Ethan