I am from Provo, Utah. I grew up there. Lived in the same house pretty much my entire adolescence. I loved it. I lived in a wonderful bubble. :) My parents, who had lived all sorts of places, raised us to dream big and appreciate lots of different cultures and religions and gave us a sense of adventure. As soon as I graduated High School, I moved to Rock Springs, Why-O-Ming. And let me tell you, it seems at least twice the size now, than it was when I was there. I like small towns. They are cute and usually have a strong personality. I gained a great appreciation for mother nature while I was there. Wind that could blow you off the sidewalk and extremely cold and long winters. After living in cowboy country, I moved to New York City and from there I lived in Paris for a spell. I can honestly say I like big cities the best.
I am pretty sure Alabama will not have flocks of tourists coming to visit for a night out on the town, but I have found that some of the places I've spent some time have been nice. I'll probably just create a post for each city. If I can figure out how to categorize them, I'll add to them in the future.
Here is are some stats: (curtesy of AAA 2011)
Birmingham
Population: 242,820
"Birmingham's a delight for any travler looking to find that certain "sense of place." It's part big city, part small town, and 100 percent Southern."
Birmingham is by the biggest and most established city that I have been to in Al. It has all the shopping a girl could want. The Summit was by far some of the best shopping I've seen in one place. They had some of my favorite stores such as: Banana Republic, Anne Taylor, Apple, Talbots, Cache, Aldo, White|Black, Express, Gap, J. Crew, Sephora. plus TONS more.
I usually only shop sales at these places, but I love being able to go there in person, because I haven't been able to grasp the online shopping craze.
Not to mention they have tons of other smaller places/strips/malls. They also have Costco, which is the only in the area is somewhat close to Fort Rucker.
It also has the biggest airport--which is where we found the cheapest tickets to fly home my mommy and sis-in-law who came to help us move (we did the DITY move...a post about that later).
* I will try to keep updates/comparisons on flights and what's the cheapest. most convenient and reliable for flying in and out of Fort Rucker.
Our trip included the airport, which I found to be pretty easy to navigate and didn't seem too overwhelming (not like JFK or LGA or Paris' main airport.) We were in and out in 20/30 mins--including goodbyes.
Next we stopped by fleet feet because hubby likes the way they measure and exam your feet for running shoes.
Afterwards we were starving and ate at Jim 'n' Nicks as a recommendation from the people at fleet feet. It was extremely hard to find and the sign was even hidden by some trees. When we stopped we weren't sure if it was the right place, but at that point we didn't care, because we were so hungry. I guess good thing it was. Here's what we thought of it.
Hubs got the Pitmaster's Plate with corn on the cob, baked beans, baby back ribs, turkey, brisket, and pulled pork. I got the Rib and Meat combo with corn, mac 'n' cheese, spare ribs and the bbq ck. We wanted to try as many different things as we could (we took home LOTS of left overs)
We both thought the cornbread they bring is amazing, but the food was half ok and half really good. The ribs were hard to eat and had a lot of cartilage, fat and a little over cooked. The ck was the best meat in my opinion (the waiter's as well). The turkey, brisket and pork were all ok. The BBQ was nothing to brag about. The corn on the cob was fresh and very good, but still average. The baked beans were probably the best thing there, with the ck a close second. For us, Texas Roadhouse is much better! It seems as if Logan's roadhouse is similar. I will review that in the future.
After we had food in our tummy we stopped by the Apple store for some maintenance needs.
As you can see I didn't spend a ton of time there, but from what I can see, it's all you've got for big city life. It's about 3 hours away, and hubby would probably need permission to go that far, but is worth the trip if you want a get-away.
No comments:
Post a Comment