One last bit of summer fun

We had a terrific Labor Day weekend in North Carolina!

Warning: if you do not care about college basketball, the Tarheels, college football, Chapel Hill, or Michael Jordan, then you may want to wait for tomorrow when I post our first day of school pictures. :)

But, for the rest of you, here you go! Start with this:

Yes, that is Michael Jordan, sitting next to two legendary coaches--all 3 of them members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The game we went down for was a kick-off to the 100th year of Carolina Basketball. The link above will take you to a great video they showed on the screens in the Dean Dome, commemorating the last 100 years. I haven't figured out how to embed a youtube video into the body of the text so you'll just have to click the link.

This game was a pro-alumni game--UNC alumni, who are currently playing professional basketball, went through a mock draft and came out on blue and white teams to battle for bragging rights. The game was fun-we got to watch an incredible dunk by Vince Carter, and see a bunch of other big NBA names like Jerry Stackhouse, Antawn Jamison, and Sean May. One of our favorites was getting to see the boys from last year's NCAA National Championship team reunited. It was great--I won't belabor the point. :) We were cheering and yelling and laughing and having a ball.

At halftime they unveiled the 2009 NCAA Championship banner alonside the other 5 Championship banners in the rafters.

Our favorites: Roy Williams, Michael Jordan, and Tyler Hansbrough (who may be familiar to you if you followed this blog at all during last season)Saturday the kids and I went shopping at our favorite mall down there while Dave took the van in to get a leak in the tire repaired. I think he was secretly relieved he didn't have to go to the mall....

Afterwards we went back to Chapel Hill for the tailgating prior to the first football game of the season. It was another gorgeous day. We climbed to the top of the Bell Tower, got a drink from the Old Well, listened to the marching band play, ate some barbecue, Joshua played on the blow-up slide, we got lots of free stuff covered in the UNC logo (band-aids, chapstick, buttons, etc.) We ended up watching the game from a restaurant in Chapel Hill which was lots of fun.

Sunday we went to our church. It was so fun bumping into people we hadn't seen in 2 years and reconnecting. And, given the difficulty finding a home church up here, it was very nice to be back someplace we felt we belonged.

After lunch at another favorite restaurant, we drove down to Fort Bragg. Fayetteville has a new Airborne Museum and it is awesome!! Lots of static displays and interesting exhibits, following the beginning of the Airborne in WWII all the way up to the current War on Terror. To enter the hall you walk through the body of a plane. They had a full-size glider as well, a couple different movies playing, and lots of great examples of uniforms, weaponry, and basic daily life of the Airborne soldier. It made me want to come home and watch Band of Brothers again. :)

We drove home late Sunday night, sorry to have to leave, but filled with memories of a great weekend.