The south doesnt need to rise it's beautiful where it is!

The visit was short but still very pleasant, Virginia seems to be a nice place. Claire's uncle Thom and myself, had a ping-pong exchange while he got a chance to catch up and ask us what we were up to. they sent us off with much appreciated full bellies and warm coffee in new mugs! Those little things make a big difference. We drove for what seemed to be way too long, then finally after quite a few hours more of travel Claire's parent's place was in conceivable distance. We first saw her brother Nathan, then her father Eric, not seconds later her sister Hannah. Her mother Anna-Marie was still at work. After hugs, and a stern enough stare-down from her father to myself (joking) we set off to surprise Claire's mom at work. We arrived at Angus Barn in Raleigh just as it was closing, tried the front had no luck so we went around to the back. The man we spoke to said that we had missed her by moments, so decided to launch myself down a hill into some gravel (for very unrelated reasons). I cleaned my wounds in a gas station then we went back to meet Anna-Marie at her home. She was very glad to both meet me and see her daughter again, the feeling was mutual. We had a laugh at my stupidity then talked about life for a moment before bed. Unfortunately in the night as we were in our dreamland our little miss Meep decided it was time for us to part ways. Claire noticed very quickly (the lack of cute little scurries gave it away). We frantically looked for her for quite a while but unfortunately she had decided she liked the grass too much.... She will be missed. The next day Claire took me through downtown Durham in the American Tobacco district. It's an amazing place filled with rich history and full of cool places to explore. Between the amazing architecture and the southern hospitality I'd have to say it's good to be in the south. OH! and WAFFLE HOUSES! (thank you Nathan!)