I took a trip to Durham on Thursday with my friend Danny. It’s about that time where I have to plan elaborate lunch adventures to celebrate the last time I see my friends for a very long time. An especially long time in Danny’s case, as not only am I moving to California, but he is moving to Eastern Europe in a week to join the Peace Corps. It will be at least two years until we see each other again, so I’d be damned if we weren’t going to have something good as our last meal.

I decided on the Federal. Mostly because I love the structure, and the food… and everywhere else I wanted to try wasn’t open for lunch. I had curry corn chowder + bread + butter + half of a grilled cheese piled with roasted tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and balsamic on grilled focaccia. ALL FOR FIVE DOLLARS. Best lunch special ever?

Conveniently, it also happened to be Danny’s birthday. It was officially on Friday, but he was born in Korea, so according to Korea time, his birthday commenced while we were having lunch.

So we celebrated.

Birthday jump.

Danny actually fell on his face approximately 0.5 seconds after this photo was taken. Maybe he’ll practice his jumping while in Europe.

We had some time to kill, so we asked waitress where we should head next. She advised us to either check out a graveyard down the street (we checked it out for 2 seconds. uninspiring.), or go over to the Duke Gardens. We ended up choosing the latter.

New friend.

Accidental outtake. Turned out halfway interesting.

END!

Just another day of jumping around Raleigh.

I noticed this little gem on the way back from the Bain Project. Never knew it existed. I fell in love with it immediately.

So I brought back witnesses to jump in front of it with me.

Jumpfail 1.

Jumpfail 2.

Jumpfail 3. Seb is winner.

Then off to the graveyard.

Jumpfail 4.

SUCCESS!!!! I really need to get a remote, so I don’t have to deal with this timer hassle anymore.

And then we rest.

On Sunday (5/10) I had the chance to explore Raleigh’s historic abandoned Bain Water Treatment Plant (aka E.B. Bain Waterworks). The site opened up to the public to display The Bain Project, a collective display of work by a group of artists in a variety of disciplines, a few of which are friends of mine.

It was Mother’s Day. Mother had no plans, brother was in town… so I figured I’d drag them out there with me with the assumption that they’d find it halfway engaging. I couldn’t wait.

The map says it’s on Fayetteville Street. So I park on Fayetteville near the Raleigh Times and begin walking south. What I don’t realize at the time is the plant is located way down south. Almost-to-the-beltline south.

So the walk continues. No sight of the plant on Fayetteville. (I had wondered why I had never encountered this building before.) Google tells me the plant’s actual location. We are faced with the decision to retreat or continue. We decide it’s nice weather, and the additional walk couldn’t be THAT far anyway.

After about an hour or so of southbound wandering through unfamiliar seedy territory, we finally find Bain in all its glory. I am in heaven. Color and decay and creativity and morbidity everywhere. I came back twice that day.

View my complete set of Bain Project photos on my Flickr.

For more info on The Bain Project, visit bainproject.com.

(Complete Bain Project photo collection on my Flickr.)