Tuscaloosa

Matt is sent off to various locations for work, and this weekend I was able to go with him! Our destination: Tuscaloosa, Alabama!!

I have to admit, I was so thrilled to go down to the "south". I am intrigued by the architecture, culture, history, and the beautiful country. Tuscaloosa was not your stereotypical honkey-tonk/hillbilly city. The University of Alabama is the focal point of this city, which is why we were there.

Matt's job this weekend (I helped!) was to shoot a ballet concert held at the U. of Alabama. The concert hall was actually a music concert hall, and it had a beautiful organ, I had to get a picture.**Warning, this post may contain a lot of photos!**

Ok, I shall carry on. The actual concert was semi-entertaining. Basically is was a show put on by students that were sent to a 3-week summer ballet boot camp. We did a 12pm and 4pm show...the exact same show...ugh, I love dance, but the same show twice can be a little much, espcecially when you are standing on your feet the whole time.

Once the show was over we took advantage of our remaining time in Alabama, I think the best way for me to share our experiene is to just give you some pictures!

I love this picture, because it shows not only the beautiful river that runs through Tuscaloosa, but it also shows the sky during one of the thunder/lightening storms we had.

This is Matt and I standing in front of the river...is that a baby bump?

The homes were so cute! California doesn't have a whole lot of brick or stone houses, so I just think they are so beautiful.The buildings are beautiful in Alabama. This is one of the buildings at the U. of Alabama. (I apologize for the power line and pole in the picture, I took most of my pictures as we were driving).

This residential street seemed to be the typical look. I LOVE the trees and how green everything is. I love that you can't even see the houses in this picture. Some of the homes had porch swings and I even saw one house with clothes hanging out on the line. I think living in southern California makes me appreciate the simple life when I get to see it.

This is one of the many churches found in Alabama. Besides Utah, I don't recall seeing so many churches in one little city. Again, I love the architecture, it is so beautiful.

I have no idea what this building is, there wasn't a sign, but isn't it beautiful?

We asked our hotel desk clerk for a recommendation for dinner and I really wanted some good 'ol Alabama cookin', so we went to Dreamland BBQ. It was unbelievably good! Even Matt, the BBQ-man, loved it.

We managed to go to church on Sunday, there is one chapel and one ward for the city of Tuscaloosa.

We tried to get a picture of ourselves in front of the church, the reason the picture is so foggy is because we had just come outside from the nice air conditioned building, into the HUMIDITY! At one point I got out of the car and my glasses fogged up so much is was like I had put my head over a pot of boiling water.

Keeping with the theme of having southern cooking, we stopped at the waffle house for breakfast. It was so busy, they actually had to turn people away.

Enough food?

I did it! I tried grits! They were...interesting. Needed a little salt though.

On our way back to the airport I managed to convince Matt to take a 10 mile detour to the Birmingham temple, built in 2000. It was a smaller temple that shared the lot with a chapel. It was beautiful. The white marble bricks were so pretty.

Its too bad we didn't make arrangements to go inside while we were there. It was kind of funny, when we were out eating our BBQ the night before I asked the waitress what there was to do, and basically the only answer she had for me was where all the bars were. Maybe we could have gone to the temple instead, quite a contrast. But I am glad I go to see it.

All in all, I loved Alabama! I would go there again, but chances are slim that we will ever have a need to go back. Maybe next time we come to the south we can go to Georgia!