I don't know why it has taken me so long to tell everyone about my recent trip to North Carolina. It was just the weekend that I needed filled with best friends, family, and some Hokie Football. Really, it couldn't have been better!
It started with this...
I knew it was going to be a good weekend because the foam finger was involved. I'll have to share that story another time, but we planned on using said foam finger as a Flat Stanley the whole weekend. Plain failed when we realized that Miley Cyrus had ruined the appropriateness of foam fingers for all of us.
Thursday night I picked up my friend J at the train station and we headed back to my house to do some serious baking. We knew we had to leave super early the next morning, but we obviously still stayed up way too late cooking and catching up.
Friday morning the alarm went off at 5am (yikes) and we piled into the car with our pillow, blanket, and socks and got ready for the 9 hour drive. We watched Silver Linings Playbook and The Big Wedding, which was much much funnier than I had anticipated. However, what I was most looking forward to on the drive down was our lunch stop at Chick Fil A. When you live above the Mason Dixon line, it sure is a treat, and I planned on taking full advantage!
It. Was. Delicious.
We only had a little travel time left after lunch, and were so excited when we pulled into my brother's apartment complex that afternoon. It baffles me how cheap rent is in the south. I could literally rent his entire apartment for the price of renting one bedroom with a shared bathroom in New England. Anyway.. we shortly left my brother and went to pick up weekend supplies. Walmart in the South never ceases to amaze me.
Pickled Eggs, anyone?
When we finally got everything together, we checked into our hotel. As we were unloading the car, J and I got the best surprise of the day... The Virginia Tech Football Team was staying at our hotel. I would be sleeping under the same roof as Frank Beamer, Logan Thomas, and those fabulous Fuller boys. There may have been more than a few shrieks of excitement (and maybe a few tears... it had been a long day...) as we watched the busses pull in.
After making friends with the bus drivers in the hotel lobby, we headed up to the room to shower, wait for our other friend to arrive, and get ready for dinner. We ended up eating at the Carolina Ale House in Greenville. The food was delicious, but the service was absolutely awful. We didn't have to wait very long for a table, but once we were inside, we waited almost an hour for our food. Our waitress never checked on us to make sure that our drinks were filled, or see if we needed anything else. We had all ordered Flatbread Pizzas, and Burgers, so it's not like any of us ordered anything fancy or complex. I would definitely not recommend it if you are starving like we were, because the food takes forever!
After dinner, we headed back to my brother's frat house for a few drinks. I learned a few things about myself;
1. I am not 21 anymore. My 25 year old body cannot handle alcohol like it used to.
2. Frat parties are a little ridiculous, but my parents can still hang better than I can. And, the other parents that were at the party can also hang way better than me...
3. Freshman girls barely wear clothes. And they wear lanyards. Has no one taught them that lanyards do not belong around your neck? Poor kids...
It was great to catch up with friends, and see some of our favorite people from home. K and L drove over from Virginia Tech to spend the weekend with us, and we had a blast. Probably a little too much fun on Friday night, but thats okay, I don't do it every weekend, right?
When the party got too loud, we headed back to the hotel. We had to be up in a few hours, and I needed as much sleep as I could get.
When we got up the next morning and headed down to breakfast, I knew that a little hair of the dog was the only way to get past how my head and belly felt, so we packed our supplies and got ready to tailgate.
After the cooler was packed, we looked out the window and noticed that the Hokie team was casually hanging out by the pool.
I die. I'm not a stalker, I swear!
We got to the tailgate, we didn't waste any time. It was great to finally meet all of my brother's friends and one of their girlfriend's was even a Chi O and let us tour their house on campus. It was adorable and it made me super jealous that at VT we don't have real-stand-alone houses to make all our own. I would have killed to live in a house like that!
We finished tailgating and headed to the game. It wasn't super awesome to be on the boring alumni side of the stadium, especially since we were surrounded almost completely by ECU fans, but it was great to finally see a Hokie football game live for the first time in a few years. Some differences between Lane Stadium and Dowdy Ficklen Stadium;
1. Virginia Tech Fans were louder than ECU fans in ECU's stadium. At Lane Stadium, we would never let the visiting team be louder than us. It is just not possible.
2. We missed the entrance of the team. The stadium was still half empty when the team took the field. I would get to Lane Stadium a half hour early to be sure that the seats were filled and I was ready to jump when Enter Sandman came blaring through the speakers.
3. The student section was not full. How does that even happen? Especially on Parent's weekend?
It was a long game, but my Hokies pulled out the W in the end. By the time the game was over, I was beyond sunburnt, exhausted, a little hungover, and starving. We hadn't eaten since 7am and it was now almost 3pm and I needed food. After a 2 mile walk to Sheetz, a delicious sandwich, and too many bottles of water to count, we went back to the hotel to shower and get refreshed for dinner at the Frat house. Everyone was exhausted, but the night was perfect for hanging on the deck and eating delicious food. We called it a night pretty early, and headed back to the hotel. I think I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow. I had to keep reminding myself that I am, in fact, not in college any more. We got another early start on the road on Sunday, but I have to admit that I slept for a good portion of the trip.
If anything, this trip made me more excited to visit Virginia Tech in the spring. I am making it a point to get there (hopefully for spring game) to visit the place that I love so much!
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