Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

On our Spring visit to North Carolina to visit our son and daughter-in-law, one day Lynn and I went on our own to Chapel Hill when both of our hosts were busy living their daily lives. We arrived on time for lunch and then strolled along West Franklin Street. Walking on the south side of the street, we came upon a set of large revolving doors. From our vantage point in front of the building, we couldn’t see what the building housed, but looking in, it appeared to be a hotel lobby. With nothing better to do, we stepped inside.

Immediately upon entering, we saw the reception desk and a smiling host. We’d never heard of Graduate Hotels before, and the friendly lady behind the counter told us that they are a chain of hotels that basically serve “university-driven towns” around the globe. She said to us that each hotel is designed around the local culture of the city in which they are located.

I was enamored with the artwork in the lobby directly across from the reception desk. A mural on the wall features an image of a North Carolina beach. It is framed in an interesting fashion that I’m not sure how to describe, so I’ll leave you with your own thoughts as to how to describe the design.

Around the corner from the lobby, a $5 check is displayed and a nearby plaque tells the story. You can read the entire story on the plaque by visiting my Flickr site. As the story goes, in 1984, then-collegiate Michael Jordan got into a pickup game. He was up $25 when a second friend joined the game and started winning. Jordan called it quits after he was down to being owed $5, and the $5 check was the pay-off on the game. There was no mention of the name of the player who was beating Jordan just six days before his final NCAA game, and soon to become the number 3 draft pick for the Chicago Bulls.

The receptionist had one more surprise for us. She commented, “You should stop up on the third floor and look around.” Wasting no time, we headed to the elevators. Getting off at level 3, it looked very much like any third-floor hotel hallway with rooms on either side.

Walking a short way down the hall, the hallway opened up to show a large carpeted area complete with a carpeted basketball court. The basketballs on the rack in the background are not what they seem. When you pick one up, you will realize they are more like nerf balls, soft on the inside with a basketball pattern material on the exterior. No, I’m not ready for a pickup game with Michael Jordan. >grin<

Click on any of the images above to view them in 2K HD. Click here to visit my Flickr album to see the entire gallery including the plaque that tells all about that Michael Jordan pickup game.

John Steiner

It seems I can’t bypass a botanical garden. You never know what kind of interesting plants you might find or what interesting facts you might learn there. For example, the carnivorous Venus Flytrap shown in the opening image is cultivated around the world, but is native only to coastal areas of the North and South Carolina. If an insect triggers the tiny hairs on the inside of the leaf, the plant closes in less than a second capturing the morsel and it’s lunchtime for the plant. Once it determines the morsel is edible, the leaf closes tightly and reopens in a few days to a couple of weeks depending upon the amount of time it takes to digest the morsel.

We found the Venus Flytrap and several varieties of pitcher plants in a small section of the garden. Though the specifics of how these plants attract insects varies, the result is the same. The unsuspecting morsel finds itself on the edge of the pitcher where, moistened by dew or a plant secretion, the surface is very slippery. Water or plant secretions in the bottom of the plant drown the insect and the digestive process begins.

During our visit to the garden in October and through December 9, 2018, many sculptures were placed throughout the garden in a competition of sorts. Some, like the hand in the image above were quite large, others were on a much smaller scale. I’ve included several examples including the “Best in Show” in the gallery that accompanies this post.

In addition to garden areas, there are natural areas such as the stand of tall trees in the image above. Nearby the gardens, the Coker Arboretum attracts visitors year round. Though the Botanical Garden grounds are closed on Mondays and holidays, the arboretum is open daily all year long.

Of course, gardens should have flowers and even in late October, there were plenty of blossoms to see and capture. Being only interested in the beauty of the flowers and (unless there is a sign), not knowing the name, let alone variety, of most flowering plants, I will leave the readers of this post to identify the plants for themselves.

There are a wide variety of display gardens in the herbarium. The Mountain Habitat Garden also features a cabin moved to the grounds in 1991. Southern playwright Paul Green used the cabin as a retreat where he spent much of his creative time. Looking at a bibliography of his work, I find I don’t have the literary background to be familiar with his many writings, though I did recognize a couple of titles. He is also known for producing screenplays and books. The cabin has been fully restored and is unlocked and open for viewing inside.

There are lots of walking paths through the gardens and natural areas of the facility managed by the University of North Carolina and its mission “To inspire understanding, appreciation, and conservation of plants and to advance a sustainable relationship between people and nature.” is the garden’s main focus. I submit for your review a gallery of images captured that day at the gardens. High resolution renditions of the images can be viewed in most browsers by clicking on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery. Much of the information in this post was gleaned from the North Carolina Botanical Garden website. You can find out more about the gardens on their home webpage here.

John Steiner

This week’s Cellpic Sunday features another photograph from our visit to North Carolina. The town of Chapel Hill is the home of the University of North Carolina, and the town and university are closely linked.  Our son lives in rural Pittsboro, just a few short minutes from this university town, so we had occasion to visit the town’s namesake one cloudy, rainy afternoon. The New Hope Chapel is the original “Chapel on the Hill” that is the town’s namesake. That hill is now occupied by the Carolina Inn, a University-operated hotel. Just down the street is the new chapel on the hill that is the subject of this week’s Cellpic Sunday. Taken with my Samsung S6, edited in Snapseed.

The rule for Cellpic Sunday is simple. The image must be taken and edited on a mobile device.

John Steiner