Duke at Last

I was finally at Duke, after thinking about it for four years. The great part of it was that I spent the night in Allie's apartment on campus. She was RA and had a very nice apartment just inside the front door of the building. She was very gracious and actually let me sleep in her bedroom while she slept on her very short couch.

I had a great sleep, after all that I had been through on the trains. I did not get a sleeper on any train, so I did not get as much sleep as I usually do. In the morning, Allie attended a special luncheon with a professor, and I checked out East Campus. I found Trinity Cafe by myself, in the East Campus Union. Allie worked there for a good share of her time at Duke. I had a nice lunch and chatted with her friends. Then I took a shuttle to West Campus and spent a few hours walking through the wonderful Duke Gardens. Unfortunately, I had to dodge raindrops a few times, and was unable to complete the "tour" of the whole place. There were some sections that I didn't see, but I saw some great areas, beautifully laid out, with wonderful flowers.

Eventually, I went back to Allie's dorm, and she and I went out for dinner. We walked to Elmo's, a neat place which is very popular and has great food. After that I called a cab, at her insistance, and headed for my hotel. Allie felt that I definitely should not try to get there by bus, with all of my stuff. I had reservations for the next four nights in a decent place with a kitchenette, and a couple of shopping plazas next door. There were a few places to grab a bite to eat.

I had another great night's sleep, after watching some TV, did a bit of shopping the next day, and waited for Coral and Allie's grandfather to fly in from Buffalo. They arrived in the afternoon, and after eating together, we drove to Duke, where we met Allie in front of the Chapel. She was singing in the choir for Baccalaureate that day (Friday) at 5:00. We chose not to attend at that time, and planned to go to the Saturday morning service. The graduating class was so huge that Baccalaureate was divided into three sessions.

Friday evening was spent at Coral's friends' house in Durham, where we had a very nice dinner.