Soothing the agony of defeat --March 16th -- Day 4

Saturday got off to a better start. At breakfast at the hotel we were seated next to two men, both wearing insignia of West Virginia University. Max -- who makes friends everywhere -- struck up a conversation and it turned out that they were both teachers from the same high school where my brother Mike taught until he retired last year, quite a small world coincidence. Having decided to skip further basketball for the weekend, we instead spent the morning touring Blandwood, the 19th century home of John Motley Morehead, who was Governor of North Carolina from 1841-45 and is given credit for laying the groundwork for NC's education and transportation systems. Max consoled herself further with a trip to the showroom for Replacements Ltd, which, although it does most of its business online, has a huge showroom south of Greensboro with literally thousands of pieces on display and, of course, for sale. Although I found it overwhelming, Max was able to find a few things that she had been looking for. Fortunately the vast inventory does not include Department 56 pieces for our Christmas Village! Following lunch at the O Henry Hotel (turns out he was from Greensboro) we looked for the 3 piece sculpture dedicated to him downtown (see picture at right) and for the statute of the "Greensboro Four," the four students who participated in the first sit-in. Our day concluded with a lovely dinner at Nico's, an Italian restaurant recommended by a friend from Chapel Hill.