The South's Best College Towns

Southern Living magazine recently featured Chapel Hill, NC as one of the South's best college towns. But of course, some of us already knew that without having to read it in a magazine...

In their words: 

"Chapel Hill 101: From outdoor cafes and public art murals to formal colonial residences fluttering Stars and Stripes, the University of North Carolina's hometown is classic Americana.

Why It Made Our List: Think of this city as one big food festival where farmers, chefs, and diners all come together in the name of local ingredients and Southern cuisine. Culinary events take over downtown streets and James Beard Foundation Award-winning chefs like Andrea Reusing think local. At her Lantern restaurant on West Franklin Street, she serves up Asian-inspired dishes."

In my words:

Chapel Hill is a magical place. I don't just say this because I attended college there - because I could hate the place where I was dumped not once, but twice. That's just how awesome this place is - especially on game days. Those football Saturdays, there are sparks in the air and everyone feels like God is truly looking down on us from the Carolina blue skies.

That baby blue means so much to me and my fellow Tar Heels. It's not a common color as far as collegiate brands, so there's a sort of feeling of ownership of this color - and everything Carolina blue. When you visit Chapel Hill, you'll see they've embraced the baby blue - on the Chapel Hill fire department trucks, street signs, ice-cream, trash-can liners. Pretty much anything you can think of has been turned blue in celebration of this awesome university.

Walker and I have attended two of the UNC home football games already this year and we had a blast! Mike works most Saturdays, so we had to go without him (but that's ok because he's a Dukie anyway). Walker literally sat through the first game in its entirety, without even getting up once. Plus, it was a TV game - so it was almost four hours. I think he's officially a Tar Heel too.