End of semester bike rides, ice cream outings and days at the river

Since my exams have been rather sparsely scheduled this semester, I managed to knock a few UNC-Chapel Hill bucket list items off the list this week with several of my housemates and I certainly know I will return to these places before I graduate. The first adventure, as detailed in Leslie Ann's post, I too traveled to Maple View Farm for some delicious and fresh ice cream, but instead of making the drive, two housemates and I decided to hop on our bikes.  It's about a 14-mile ride round trip from our house in Carrboro, and overall, the hills are minimal (there were maybe three that require some real umpff). We went Sunday evening, when the weather was perfect and arrived well before the sunset.  After enjoying double scoops of chocolate chip cookie dough and Carolina Crunch, we took our turns in the rocking  chairs on the porch, and eventually migrated to the grass before making the trek back home. Before we left, we even managed to play with some adorable little children who were scattered across the grassy hill, inflatable balls and bubbles in hand. For a few slightly stressed out college kids, it was the perfect way to temporarily wind down.

On Tuesday, I decided to continue the relaxing exam week schedule with a trip to Bobbitt's Hole at the Eno River State Park, just about half an hour away.  It was a lovely scene, plenty of rocks to sunbathe on, water that was a little chilly, but still refreshing, picnic lunches and then of course SNAKES.  Naturally, that later portion was not a pleasant sight, in fact it ended up shortening our visit when we realized we couldn't get back into the water with 100% safety.  Instead of giving up, we decided to find the next best watering hole we could think of, and with that were off to Jordan Lake.  The sun was still fairly high in the sky as we arrived to our second destination and although the water was a little too cold to brave, it was nice to continue our adventure. Overall, in a time generally characterized by stress and too much school work, the sunshine on our backs and the time to reflect on a year of friendship and being housemates made the trips to the river (and lake) well worth it.