A Weekend In North Carolina

This past weekend I headed down to North Carolina for my oldest sisters graduation from UNC and her commissioning into the Navy. But not before I stopped to get some of the best [if not the best] BBQ this country has to offer!!

First stop was Raleigh, NC where I was able to meet up with a friend from college for dinner at The Pit, located in downtown raleigh. You may be saying to yourself "Wait a sec, The Pit? This sounds familiar, explain yourself." Well, if you were in fact saying something along those lines in your head, then you're a better follower of my blog than I thought. A little over a year ago, I headed south on my famous BBQ Tour of North Carolina, and our 3rd and final BBQ stop was at The Pit. Well, the memories were so good that I wanted to head back there again, and yes, it was just as good as I remember. I split a platter of carolina style ribs and a platter of pulled and chopped pork with my brother, and added some mac & cheese, and fried okra on the side. [The okra was AMAZING!] Here's a poorly lit picture of the feast I enjoyed my first night down there.

Day #2 consisted of my sister's commissioning in the morning, and graduation from the nursing school in the evening. Here's a video of my dad administering her oath and she swears in and officially became an Ensign in the Navy, and a picture of myself and siblings after the ceremony. [I look like a total goober in this picture though, bad posture or something!]

Erika Swearing In

That evening after a nice walk around the UNC campus, we headed to the Dean Dome for the nursing school graduation. 

The graduate and proud parents.

Day #3 and Sunday morning consisted of early rain showers that thankfully let up just in time for the main commencement ceremony at Kenan Stadium. Here's a before and after pic of all the graudates filing into the stadium. I have some video from this as well, that I just haven't uploaded yet, maybe I'll get to that tonight, maybe not....we'll see. Anyways, the ceremony was real nice and not too terribly long either. If you want some more pictures, head over here. Congratulations Erika!