He’s getting older.  I’m getting older.  Where has the time gone?  It seems like yesterday I was changing diapers, going to the pediatrician and chasing him around the house.

His first official college visit was this past week.  We left Lexington around lunchtime on Thursday.  Got to the ole alma mater….ECU around dinner time.  We checked a couple hotels out trying to find the most convenient for the best price.   We found one, vowed to come back and left for campus with a couple of hints from one of the deskclerks at the hotels.

Dinner was at a college hangout.  Boli’s downtown.  It was a scattering of college students as the night was still young by college time, 6pm.  Dad chose the place to sit while Junior chose the entree……3 amigos pizza with tea and a shared salad.  The food was good but the company was better.

We pondered our next steps.  Let’s drive through campus to get our bearings.  We circled around a couple times.  Got lost one time and found out one way streets mean one way.  It was getting dark.  Students were still trickling out from late labs or other campus activities.

We parked on the far southern end of campus.  Time to walk and gauge the safety of the campus.  We walked up to the old dormitory, up and around walking under bright lights much to the embarrassment of Junior as he didn’t want to be seen with a gray bearded old man.

We circled around one complete route taking around 1.5 hours.  I was getting tired but Junior was finished.  He wanted to check into the hotel and watch some baseball, football and other programs.  The drive back to the hotel was good, going by the football stadium at night.

Our guests were late in arriving.  It was sometime after midnight before they checked into the hotel.

The next day we were up and about, eating lunch at Chico’s downtown Greenville.  Thereafter, we took the tour of campus with our official guide, an ECU ambassador.  Ambassadors are students chosen to led alumni around to show them campus highlights.  Our guide did a wonderful job, showing us the major sites, the cupola, the fountain, library, student store, student activity center, dorms on central compus and southern campus.

A quick trip to the bookstore produced some T-shirts and a ball cap.  The price of books was astonishing.  An beginning biology book costs $125+.  Wow!

The drive home was uneventful and enjoyable as Dad got some Q-time with Junior.

Now, on to a next visit.