LDW and the Arts (FRAMILY, #DCRHM, Nature, and Dru Hill/R.L./Q Parker/Will Taylor Concert)

  What a jammed-packed Labor Day Weekend (LDW) with friends and family - FRAMILY! My cousin, Shadlyn, spent her vacation paying me a visit, so I tried to make sure we had a good balance of things to do. It was a great time hosting and showing her pieces of my life while also venturing out to enjoy other parts of North Carolina. This post will be a complete recap of our weekend, starting with Sunday (the day before she headed back to Baltimore).

Sunday|Aug. 31

  We slept in and did not make it to our scheduled morning church service or community yoga session, but the sleep was very needed. When we finally rolled out of bed, we fixed breakfast and watched 21 Jump Street (I'll only say "I've seen better"). A little after noon, I pulled out a blouse that urgently needed to be stitched, so I did that quickly and we got ready and were off to the Durham Civil Rights History Mural (DCRHM) Project wall. Shadlyn had expressed to me prior that she was upset I signed her up to paint, but I found it necessary that we put in a few volunteer hours in our schedule. In the end, she said that she had a great time helping out on a mural for the first time. Below, find some flicks in the slideshow of the site's progress!
  We headed straight to my sister's house to visit her family afterwards. They had fried rice, peppered cajun seafood, and drinks waiting for us. SCORE! While there, my brother in law ran out to buy some fruit that I agreed to help him carve into a "wagon". More visitors came and we had a great time bonding with each other. It wasn't until close to midnight when we headed back home to get some rest. We all had a splendid time and I'm glad we convinced Shadlyn not to hit the road until early Monday morning. It's a blessing to be people rich.

SATURDAy|AUG. 30

Saturday was originally going to be spent kayaking at Lake Crabtree since our Kayak Trip at Hammocks Beach State Park filled up before I could register us, but we kind of just went with the flow that morning when we woke up instead. I made us a traditional Liberian breakfast/brunch dish to start our day. It doesn't have a specific name, but anyone who knows West African cuisine would recognize it. It's made with boiled cassava and plaintain topped with a fish or chicken and shrimp gravy and is a savory-sweet goodness. After brunch, we went outside and spent about an hour cleaning our cars before heading to the airport to drop off my brother for his flight to Florida [yet another fraternity brother's wedding]. Yes, this day was very random so far. Because Lake Crabtree is about a five-minute drive from the airport we stopped there anyway. I was telling my cousin how peaceful it is and how some mornings you can find the weirdest animals roaming the roads, i.e. wild turkeys. Within seconds she asked, "so what is that? while pointing." In shock, I gasped and shouted, "A WILD TURKEY!" immediately reaching for my camera for pictures. I'd never gotten and good photos of any before, but I managed to snap a couple before it wobbled away. When we parked, we browsed the trails quickly and stopped at the boating house to check on the rental hours, which he had just missed. Boo! I spotted a couple of lizards on the way back to the car and took some time to observe them. While Shadlyn ran for her life I made some new little friends and we talked about Blue Tailed Skinks.
  We stopped at the Redbox to get a couple of movies on the way home, got redressed and headed to visit my aunt and uncle. There, we spent some quality family time talking, watching television and then Divergent (awesome movie), and stuffing our faces. We left close to 11 o'clock that night and went to get ready for a night of dancing! The last time my cousin visited me, I was too tired to do all of these things, so I had to make sure this time was better than the last. She wanted to go to Farotage Lounge last time, an International Club in Raleigh, NC that my brothers often DJ at. This time... we dressed up, showed up, and turned up. I really enjoyed the different music from various African countries being played all night long (and Latin music on the other side of the club). You don't find that in many places. We stayed until the very end and stopped at iHOP with DJ Lyrical. Although we were both exhausted by the time it was time to head back to Durham, it was all worth it! The photos in the gallery below are from Saturday's adventures.

FRIDAY|AUG. 29

  The shenanigans actually began upon Shadlyn's arrival Thursday night as I rushed home from an evening of watching my niece after school. The first thing we decided to do was go to Walmart for some extra groceries, so we had until midnight to get there and come back home. Check!
  Friday, our only mission was to arrive in Fayetteville by 3 o'clock that afternoon and be on time to the Dru Hill, Q Parker from 112, R.L. "The Voice of Next", and Will Taylor of Day 26 concert that evenig! We woke up, had breakfast, made a store run to a store I had no clue no longer existed for a top I wanted to wear that evening, came back home a little disappointed and got dressed in what I already had. We departed around 1:15p.m. and made one stop for gas before meeting up with my friend, Alicia. Then we headed to visit our friend Kev [AKA who IS this dude? AKA Hey LayDeez] at WCCG 104.5FM. This was a first time for all of us being on the inside of  a radio station and it was so exciting. We chilled with him for awhile, got a chance to record some drops, and headed to Festival Park for the concert. Good, good, good times! This was also my cousin's first concert experience and I'm so glad I got to be a part of that. The gallery below contains pictures from Friday and even future down, you'll find videos we recorded of the show. Enjoy!