We Love Durham NC

Friday Night at American Tobacco

Took the family to the ATC complex on Friday. Bobby Hinton band was cool. We found out you can’t play in the water, but think you ought to be able to when it’s 90 degrees. Also noted that you should bring a blanket and sit close to the front if you have kids, who will want to be at the front. Frisbee and balls and running after the band wrapped up. V. clean bathrooms.

Postgame

…we followed the crowds into the American Tobacco Campus. I cannot believe we hadn’t made it there before (we had tried, but parking was always an issue). My big (maybe only) complaint about Durham is that there isn’t a central gathering “lawn.” I was wrong. Grass… riverwalk… coffee… rumored wireless… waterfalls… food… people-watching… Here it is! If they could put that Locopops that’s coming to Downtown Durham here, oh, we’d be happy happy camper.

Yay Bulls!

The Bulls put on a good show for us Jonesing fans on their first night back after 2 weeks. For the first time, The Boy got really into the game. He wanted to know all about all the parts of baseball (thrilling Dad). The Girl was not much interested except for Woolly Bull’s antics. She did, however, delight in spilling lemonade on the woman in front of us (sorry, sorry, sorry) twice (really sorry) and kicking her accidentally in the back (oh, gosh, really super sorry). We finally popped out to the playground, my only gripe about which is that you cannot see the game from there. It would be a nice addition if there was at least a screen there. Otherwise, a lovely family evening, followed by my next post.

Strawberry Festival

A little rain isn’t going to stop our Durham kids! Lots of fun to be had, like:

Donna Washington… when the boy heard her name, he RAN to the stage. You can see her “in a little box” here.

Strawberry Shortcakes… Shortcakes from Guglhupf. Freshly sliced strawberries. All-natural whipped topping. Compostable bowls and forks. A crunchy tasty happy time!

Giant bouncy dragon castle… Enter, jump, exit, end of the line. Repeat until you hurl or mama won’t give you any more tickets.

More… Stirring glue sloooowly into the secret eye of newt mix to make silly “puddy.” Some really great local bands. Voting for our favorite strawberry treat (chocolate-dipped won). Face-painting with some artistic Durham high school students. Strawberry fingernails. Funny hats. Dress-up and fingerpainting and obstacle courses and birdhouses and bubbles.

When we left (after the festival was officially over, mind you!), there were still folks crowded around the stage, dancing and hula-hooping to the sweet sounds of the TROSA band. After-party, anyone?

Paving Downtown Durham

You can hardly find a place in Downtown or Central Park that is not under construction, public or private, but the piece of Corcoran that runs in front of the We Want Oprah (someone please explain this) building, near the new plaza with picnic tables and trees, is freshly paved and smooth enough to roller skate on.

Ninth Street Bakery

In the midst of downtown construction, but still easily accessible (parking directly outside the door) on Main Street, Ninth Street Bakery offers a We Love You card, with both a free cup of coffee and a loaf of bread after 10 coffee purchases. It’s covered in hearts, which warms mine. In more good news, the bakery products do not contain shortening.

Durham Farmer’s Market Grand Opening

The Durham Farmer’s Market is in a new location on Foster Street. Saturday was icy cold, but lots of folks came out for opening day anyway. The crowd enjoyed live music, live cooking from a local catering company, fresh hot chai, a jeopardy-style game from SEEDS, fuzzy dogs, and of course early spring foods and young plants. The kiddos picked out lavender and spearmint plants for our garden area. I either missed the empanadas, or they weren’t there today.

Durham Bulls

We missed opening night for the Durham Bulls, bummer! But now the schedule is on our fridge. This summer is the Summer of Baseball for us.

Ninth Street Bakery

Also found the Ninth Street Bakery bakehouse and cafe today. It’s downtown on Main Street. There’s a big sign; you can’t miss it (even though I managed to for 20 years). There’s still a lot of streetscaping going on down there. Downtown Durham promises to be a destination soon. Wednesday is $1 loaf day. Also available: cookies, muffins, yogurt, soda bottles (Stewart’s, etc.), coffee.

Pansies

The little one wanted to plant some flowers, and we settled on pansies–good excuse to check out the colorful Stone Brothers shop downtown. I think they have everything you need tucked in there somewhere. You need pickled eggs, right? Stellar service, and just the right flowers we needed. A short history of the Durham garden shop is here. For gardening novices like me, they have monthly gardening cheat-sheets at the register and online.

Where is the Post Office?

Earlier in the week, the little one and I drove around downtown looking for the Post Office. And around. And around. We finally gave up and went to our second errand at the library.

Yesterday, we tried again. It is a pretty large building after all; how hard could it be? We found it immediately…strange.

The downtown Post Office has that heavy, intricate architecture of old Official Buildings. Carved wood, granite, columns. A fun feature for kids is the rotating door–don’t get stuck!

The parking directly beside the P.O. was taken by construction trucks (lots of cityscaping going on), so we parked on the Downtown Loop and walked over to Chapel Hill Street. Our path was a little roundabout through alleys, but don’t you find the most interesting things when you’re lost? We passed an intriguing building with swipe-card entrances and a huge security desk that piqued my curiosity. Beside that building was a cobblestone path, and at first I thought it must be from Olden Times, but it’s just a walkway with a shady seating area.
We’ll walk around more when the weather stays warm for good (but before it gets hot for good). Who needs Little Gym (note: we do love Little Gym) when you can balance on curbs, jump over rocks, and run down long sidewalks?

Bull City Headquarters

Check this out: a new nonprofit arts venue and community center in Downtown Durham. Rockin’! (UPDATED LINK)

Nice photo of downtown Durham

This is on Joyce Bliss’s blog/website.

Durham Visitor’s Office

We were a little early for an appointment downtown, so the girl and I stopped in to the Durham Visitor’s building at the corner of Riggsbee and Morgan Streets. I’ve always been curious. It’s not very big inside, but we found a bunch of brochures, a little photo display highlighting parks, science, museums… You can buy clothing with the Durham CVB logos, Jim’s barbeque sauce, Burt’s Bees kits, and more stuff made in Durham. The man at the desk was more than incredibly nice. It’s a welcoming place!

Publishing House in Durham

Maybe you’ve seen the ABC painting in the lobby of the Main Branch of the Durham County Library? The artists also wrote a book with the same paintings… available from the Carolina Wren Press here in Durham.