2010-11 Carrboro, NC

In November 2010, we traveled to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC for a second opinion to verify Monique’s diagnosis.  Monique had a thorough exam by Dr. Joseph Moore and his staff.  Dr. Moore did confirm that Monique has a type of Lymphoma Cancer called SLL/CLL and that “Watch and Wait” or  his preferred description of “Active Monitoring” was the appropriate course of action.

We found a very nice campground near Carborro, NC.  This small town adjoins Chapel, Hill, and it is hard to know when you have crossed from one town to the other.   The campground was Spring Hill Mobile Home Park.  As the name implies it was once a mobile home park, but is slowly converting to a RV campground.  We had a large site with huge beautiful oaks overhead.  We hope to return sometime in the future.

We stayed a few extra days to tour the area.  We always love touring gardens and found two very nice ones.  First we visited the NC Botanical Gardens near Chapel Hill.  It was a beautiful fall day and we enjoyed walking the woodlands trails.

(The photo of the pitcher plant at the top of the page is from another part of this garden.)

Another day we visited the Sarah P Duke Gardens at Duke University.  This is an especially nice garden.  There were not as many things in bloom as you would see in the spring or summer, but the gardens were still very lovely.  A few roses were still blooming.

Here is a pretty gazebo overlooking a small pond.

Another area has an oriental design with a lovely little red bridge crossing one end of a lake.

A third day we visited the historic town of Hillsborough, NC.  It was established in 1754 and has more than 100 historic homes and buildings dating from the 18th and 19th century.  Most of these are well marked with a sign showing the home or building name and date built.  We enjoyed a nice stroll around several neighborhoods using a walking guide we picked up at the town museum.   This town is well worth a visit if you are  in this area.  On the way back to the campground we stopped in Carborro and shopped in some nice craft shops.  We love seeing the craft work of local artists.

We definitely want to return to the “Research Triangle” area of NC to see the gardens in a different season and to tour more of the historic towns.