There are several reasons for this trip. Anne and I have both visited NC for study and business reasons, but never as tourists; our friends Vivian and David moved to a retirement community outside of Raleigh recently; and we had to use up some United Airlines credit before the end of the month.
Because of Anne's teaching duties (started today, Wednesday 1/17) I booked a 7:10 pm flight EWR-RDU. That flight used the 737 Max 9, which has been grounded by the FAA due to a door plug issue. I notice United would substitute a 737-900 for some of the flights (UA2654), and cancel others. A couple of days before departure Flight Status showed a 737-900.
Wednesday 1/17. We have had a cold spell for the last couple of days, but fortunately not a lot of snow. Forecast actually says snow again on Friday, so we will see if our travel will get interrupted.
The plane United "found" was to arrive at Terminal B from Cancun at 6 pm. One would think that would make a 7:10 pm departure at Terminal C impractical. Indeed it was. We had a 7:28 pm (no kidding), and then a 7:44 pm, which they met. And the plane landed at 9:27 pm, less than 30 minutes late. (Of course if everything had clicked arrival would have been an hour early.) No one foresaw the Max 9 to be grounded, and it is a large fraction of United fleet, for some perspective.
RDU (Raleigh-Durham) looks like a modern airport, although all the shops were closed when we landed.
When we got to the Hertz parking lot, there were quite a few cars in our class (compact). But the majority of them were EVs, which I wasn't ready to select. We got one of the few remaining ICEs (in that class). It was a short drive to Towne Place Cary (but called TP Raleigh Cary Weston Parkway by Marriott). Check in was around 10:15 pm. The clerk told us a few fast food restaurants close at 11 pm, so we grabbed a couple of burgers at McDonald's for a late dinner/snack.
United managed to find a substitute for the scheduled MAX 9. It was to arrive at Newark Terminal B at around 6 pm. Our schedule departure from Terminal C was at 7:10 pm.
First delay was 18 minutes.
Then it was 34 minutes.
Actual departure was at 7:56 pm. A lot better than a canceled flight.
Photo of RDU taken at 9:38 pm. I thought shops were closed because it was late. On our return trip we found many of them were closed, or not opened yet. There are 500 or so flights every day at the airport.
Accommodations: TownePlace Cary (3 nights).
Thursday 1/18 and Friday 1/19. We spent most of the time with David & Vivian, Monique, a Cornell Aluma living in the area, also stopped by.
We had breakfast at our hotel, but ate the other meals with the Yee's. Lunch and dinner on Thursday, and dinner on Friday. For lunch Friday we ate at Clyde Cooper's in Raleigh, a BBQ restaurant that's been around since 1938.
Meals at Glenaire were relatively inexpensive - and we used the Yee's account as they needed to use up their 900-point allotment by 1/20 anyway. Monique paid for the BBQ lunch.
In addition to touring the Glenaire facility, we also attended a Bible study on Thursday.
Close to the hotel is this Lake Crabtree. One can imagine it bustling with activities in the warm seasons. Few people were about when we visited on Friday; it was freezing out, very cold by local standards.
Lunch at Glenaire.
The Yee's have a spacious apartment. Two bedrooms and a den.
This complex started admitting residents late last year. A shuttle runs between this building and the older one across the street.
Coffee and soda after dinner.
We stopped by Lake Crabtree Friday morning.
Clyde Coopers' BBQ comes highly recommended.
TownePlace kept getting my name wrong: it was first Doug, then it was Chandra.
Saturday 1/20. We were on our own today. After a leisurely morning, we drove to Duke to visit. Parking was quite impossible. The campus was quiet, but cars were not allowed (and certainly no parking allowed) on most of the campus. We did find parking the visitors' lot on Duke University Road (close to Nasher Museum) and by the Duke Chapel. The former may or may not be legal parking as we didn't have a "permit;" the latter required payment.
The Nasher Museum has on an exhibit "Utopia and Dystopia" curated by ChatGPT, I don't know much actual human input was involved, but eh exhibit made a lot of sense. The other exhibit - Love and Anarchy - actually was more confounding. From this one example, ChatGPT worked out better for the cursory visitor, it seems. Photography (no flash) is encouraged.
After that we went to Raleigh Museum of Art for a quick visit. There seemed to be a lot going on, we couldn't quite get the idea given our lack of time.
Statue of James Buchanan Duke in front of the Duke Chapel. He is called an Industrialist and a Philanthropist, technically correct. That he was a tobacco tycoon does get mentioned on Duke's website.
Nasher Museum have five "rooms" like the ones in this photograph. We saw exhibits in two of them: Utopia and Dystopia; Love and Anarchy.
A Liberia mask work by judges among the Mano peoples in Liberia.
By Andrew Wyeth.
"Hot Rhythm" (1961) by Archibald J. Motley, Jr, a chronicler of African American life in Chicago. Here a Jazz concert is depicted.
A Dali.
Picasso.
The Gothic interior of the Duke Chapel.
The statue of Robert E. Lee has been removed.
Installations at North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.
As with many of these modern museums, the interior designs are sometimes more interesting that the exhibits.
Our rental car registered 130 miles. So we probably could have checked out an EV. Hertz charges $35 to charge the vehicle if returned without a full charge. I paid less than $15 for gas.
The A319 we flew back on (Registraion N898US) is about 16 years old (young) and has an updated interior with these huge overheads. Flight time was a short 1:01 hours. We took an Uber home.
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