Day 46, October 25, 2021

The first half of today was driving across North Carolina from Ashville to Winston-Salem to Greensboro and then Durham, all on I-40. We considered going into the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, but it was $96 each to tour the home and gardens and $76 just for the gardens. We opted to move on to Durham and Duke University.

It was a great decision!

We spent 3 1/2 hours walking around the amazing campus (12,800 steps, 6 miles), much of it spent in the Duke Gardens. We can’t even begin to imagine what these gardens must be in the spring because here at the end of October there were surprises on every path.

We had a special interest in being here. The gardens were created by Doris Duke, the billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist and horticulturalist and daughter of James Buchanan Duke, whose $40 million endowment ($604 million in 2020 dollars) was given to Trinity College. It in turn was named Duke University.

We don’t know all of the connections, but in her youth, my mother would visit her Aunt Mary in Durham and she used to tell us about how much she loved being on the Duke campus. Doris Duke also had an estate in Honolulu, Hawaii, and she used to invite American teachers in Honolulu (a territory at the time) to come over and swim in her pool, one of whom was my mother. My mother never mentioned this to us, but after she passed away, we found letters that described in great detail the times she enjoyed going to Doris Duke’s pool.

The Duke Gardens are divided in four sections, each with a specific theme — Historic Gardens, Native Plants, the Asiatic Arboretum and the Doris Duke Gardens. The image above of the red Meyer Bridge is in the Asiatic section. Here are some images from all of the sections:

While we were walking through the gardens, gardeners were setting up displays of many types of chrysanthemums for a special exhib that begins Wednesday. The image above is one of them and here are some more:

We also spent time walking to and into the Duke Chapel — a centerpiece of the campus and both inspirational and spiritual.

On the steps of the chapel, they were holding a ceremony for dogs who had graduated from Puppy Kindergarten.

One of my big interests in touring the campus was to see the Cameron Basketball Stadium. We walked across campus to get there, but unfortunately, all doors were locked. I had to settle for purchasing a Duke Basketball T-shirt in the Student Store.

It was a very fulfilling way to spent a fall afternoon — even if we didn’t get to see Coach K and his Court!

Tomorrow it’s on to Williamsburg, Virginia, for two days, part of the time visiting my 93-year-old second cousin, Agnes.