The First Day of Spring…

We got up at about 9:30.

Robert had a call with the study he has dropped out of… the “exit call” so to speak.

We grabbed lunch at Subway on the way out today, and then did this:

Historic Trolley Tours

Historic Trolley Tours, a program of Capital Area Preservation (CAP), Raleigh’s only riding tour of the city’s historic downtown sites, and runs every Saturday from March through December.

Travel back in time and see Raleigh’s 200-year history from a historic perspective on the Raleigh Trolley. From the first mule-drawn street-car in 1886, to the electric trolley cars in 1933, the trolley was a constant fixture on the Raleigh street scene. Bloomsbury Park opened in 1912 at the end of the trolley line near Old Lassiter Mill. The trolley became part of Raleigh’s streetscape in 1989 after a long
absence.

The narrated tour includes stops at Mordecai Historic Park, the Capital Area Visitors Center, State Capitol at Bicentennial Plaza, Glenwood South at West & Jones Streets, Joel Lane House, and City Market.

Departures from Mordecai Historic Park, which is stop number one, are on the hour at 11am, 12 noon, 1 pm, and 2 pm. There is unlimited same day boarding and reboarding and Mordecai Historic Park offers free parking.

PRESENTER

Capital Area Preservation, Inc.
(919)833-6404

VENUE

Downtown Raleigh

Catch the Historic Trolley Tour at any of the following locations:
– Mordecai Historic Park, Wake Forest Road & Mimosa Street
– State Capitol at Bicentennial Plaza, Edenton Street
– Glenwood South at West & Jones Streets
– Joel Lane House, Hargett Street
– Capital Area Visitors Center, Blount & Lane Streets
– City Market, Martin Street

Info: (919) 834-4844

It was cool being on the trolley, and taking this tour after living here for so long. We learned some things, like that Krispy Kreme location on Person Street is now listed as an historic landmark. (It is all about the food, isn’t it?)

From there, we went to see the movie, “The House of Sand and Fog.” Seeing how I hate happy endings, this movie was fantastic. 🙂

Movie Synopsis: Academy Award® winners Sir Ben Kingsley (“Gandhi”) and Jennifer Connelly (“A Beautiful Mind”) star in the drama “House of Sand and Fog,” based on the acclaimed bestseller by Andre Dubus III. Massoud Amir Behrani (Sir Ben Kingsley) is living a lie to fulfill a dream. Once a member of the Shah of Iran’s elite inner circle, he has brought his family to America to build a new life. Despite a pretense of continued affluence, he is barely making ends meet until he sees his opportunity in the auction of a house being sold for back taxes. It is a terrible mistake. Through a bureaucratic snafu, the house had been improperly seized from its rightful owner, Kathy Lazaro (Jennifer Connelly). The loss of her home tears away Kathy’s last hope of a stable life – a life that had been nearly destroyed by addiction – and Kathy decides to fight to recover her home … at any cost. “House of Sand and Fog” exposes the unsettling truth that it is sometimes our hopes and not our hatreds that drive us to ruin, in a devastating exploration of the American Dream gone terribly awry.

The film also stars Ron Eldard (“Black Hawk Down”) as deputy sheriff Lester Burdon, who tries to take the law into his own hands to help Kathy; major Iranian film star Shohreh Aghdashloo as Behrani’s wife, Nadi; and Jonathan Ahdout as their son Esamail.

Once home, we got a nap in. There was a message from Donna wishing me a Happy First Day of Spring. I hate that I didn’t get to her first, and get something to her, in spite of the fact that I had it on my calendar, and hadn’t forgot. It’s just a little awkward sending a card or flowers to her house with that small matter of her new husband, and she’s always on the road, so I can’t send her something at work. Oh well. I left her voicemail message on her cell phone.

We had DiGiorno’s pizza for dinner.

We got to Flex at about 8:15. Dancing was a blast tonight. There were a lot of people there, and we all did a lot of fun flirting.

The porn star, “DC Chandler,” came on just after midnight, and it was as lame as anticipated.

We left at about 12:30 since I had to be up early in the morning for volunteer work.

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