B'ham!...and the longest post ever!

As I mentioned previously, Grant and I went to Birmingham, AL Valentine's weekend to see our friends Christin and Kevin. Christin and I attended Samford University together in B'ham where they have an annual event called "Step Sing" which is a singing/dancing competition performed primarily by sororities and fraternities. It's a big deal on campus. Really it was just a fun reason to go to Samford and visit with Christin and Kevin. We had sooooooooo much fun. We left Maggie with my mom and Benton and everyone won with this scenario. Maggie was spoiled rotten, Mom and Benton had so much fun, and we had a great, child-free weekend with no stress!

Christin and I wanted to see the campus as it's really changed a lot since we were there (we both started there in 1997) and we were pleased to see that the grass was just as green in the winter as it was when we were there. We always joked that half our tuition money went to pay for the landscaping. Every few months you could see landscapers pulling up perfectly good plants and flowers and putting new ones in. Here are two photos of Christin and I on campus.

You can see the beautiful library bell tower in the background of this one:Grant took this photo of some wood carvings inside a beautiful chapel on campus:
Later that night we attended Step Sing. It's funny how some things are better in your mind than when you revisit them. Grant and Kevin were troopers and really were sweet to sit through the whole thing!
After StepSing we went to an old favorite late-night dive, The Purple Onion. They had the best grilled cheese and french fries. It's amazing we didn't gain 40 pounds in college! But it was sooo good. Plus, it felt decadent eating dinner at 10:30 and staying up late talking. Since we usually have to get up early with Maggie we don't normally stay up super late.

The next morning we went on a hike. The hike ended in an abandoned rock quarry that is supposed to have hundreds of fossils but we didn't see any. We ended up exploring a little bit up there and talking for about an hour before we hiked back down. Basically everything we did ended up with us just talking for hours and hours. Do you have friends like that where you can go without seeing them for a while and as soon as you get together you just pick back up where you left off? Our friendship is very special, too, in that we were able to discuss serious subjects we didn't necessarily agree on but we all felt safe to say what we thought without worrying that we might not be friends at the end of the conversation. I think true friends like that are few and far between. Anyway, here's Kevin and Christin hiking and then a GORGEOUS one of me and Christin, sweaty and with no makeup.

Can I just tell you about Christin and Kevin? They are both from Atlanta and moved to New Jersey several years ago to plant a church called The Point. Christin is one of my best friends in the whole world and I feel so lucky that she would stoop to be friends with me! I'm not trying to put myself down but you just have to know Christin to understand what I mean. She is so giving and kind and patient. We lived together in college and she would end up doing the dishes 9 times out of 10 just because she knew everyone else hated washing dishes. I could tell you a million things like this. Maybe soon she and Kevin can come visit in Nashville and you can see for yourself if you live here :)

(She will probably kill me for putting this photo up and saying all this about her!)
We took these photos at he Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
It was just the most fun. Grant and I really needed a restful weekend of fun and we got it! But we were definitely excited to see Maggie when we returned and I'm pretty sure she felt the same way.

Before I forget, let me mention Dreamland BBQ in Birmingham. It's famous around AL for having the best barbecue. In fact, when I spent a semester in London, a guy I'll call "Drew" (okay, that was his real name) told his mom at the end of the semester that if she didn't bring Dreamland ribs with her to the airport to pick him up that she could just stay home. Somehow I managed to never eat there during the 4 years I was at Samford. We decided to eat there this weekend. First of all let me just remind you that the whole big deal about BBQ is that it's slow cooked for hours and hours or even overnight.
Grant ordered their famous ribs and I ordered a pork sandwich. The sauce was GREAT but I kept having to spit out fatty bites. In my entire sandwich I bet there were 7 or 8 huge chunks of fat. And Grant's ribs were okay but they just weren't falling off the bone.
At our B&B the next morning Grant was talking about Dreamland with another guest, a championship barbecuer from Memphis (seriously). The innkeeper chimed in, "Yeah, they cook their ribs right on the grill for at least an hour and a half!" As soon as he walked away the Memphis guy said, "My ribs cook for at LEAST 8 hours." When we thought about it we remembered Kevin asking how the chicken was cooked and the server said, "It's right there on the grill next to the ribs." So it's not barbecue at all! It's just grilled meat! This probably seems silly to some people but in the South barbecue is serious business.
So...the sauce was delicious and unique but in the end we felt very let down by Dreamland Barbecue. All those Alabamians need to head up to Memphis for some real BBQ!!!