A trip in the great outdoors and some hannah pictures to boot

Well, it's been in the 100s everyday this past week. I've tried to limit my outdoor exposure and relish the a/c at our place...That means getting a bit stir crazy, so Dan, Hannah and I went out for a drive to see a little bit of the South. We headed north from Tuscaloosa to a place called Dismals Canyon after reading about it in one of our numerous library books...it sounded promising - hiking beside a stream in between giant moss-covered boulders. It was about 100 miles north of T-town, and quite worth it. We had our initial doubts upon parking...male tank tops abounded...sigh...prayer circle before hiking...crap...many overweight children sweating their way from the trail..ugh...However, once we made our way down to the water we were rewarded for our perseverance. The loop was short and very mild, but it was a full 20 degrees cooler down beside the stream. Hannah also gave up her fear of water and actually waded in the tannin-stained waters common to deciduous forests...All in all it was a lot of fun to see the rock formations and see a bit of our new home. Next up we may head south to Talladega National Forest or back North to visit Bankhead which is supposed to be amazing...Wherever it is there will be water for sure.

Here are pictures of the trip prefaced by random pictures of the house/hannah.

We've been noticing a lot of bug love in the air around the house, so a few pictures to document that, we also have a new grill which we try to break in nightly, so pictures of our dinner bounty to share...

xo

More randomness

Got my craft on with some spray on chalkboard paint...I made three in total...with two I decided to start a list that Kristin suggested Dan and I get out of the way early on in our live-together relationship...

It has since become this...

Anyhow, a few pictures with art finally up...

We also went for a little bike ride around town yesterday...

A few random pics...

I don't know if I actually talked about Five Guys: Burgers and Fries. It will be the closest to In-n-Out Burgers as I can get out here in the southeast. They have a simple menu of Burgers, hot dogs, and fries. The true beauty is in their free toppings:

• Mayo
• Relish
• Onions
• Lettuce
• Pickles
• Tomatoes
• Grilled Onions
• Grilled Mushrooms
• Ketchup
• Mustard
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Green Peppers
• A-1 Sauce
• Bar-B-Q Sauce
• Hot Sauce

Below is a picture of Dan and I enjoying a shared large burger and cup o fries...well, the photo shows part of Dan, and my hand holding up a menu...Our first burger was topped with grilled mushrooms, grilled onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. What will be the best combination? Stay tuned for future mixes..

Here is a picture of Dan in front of the Biology building on campus:

And finally, a picture of the great Bryant Denny Stadium, which is our southern analogy to Mt Rainier in Seattle, as in "Oh look, you can see the stadium from this part of the city" and so on. It is ginormous and recently expanded..I hope to see a game and hear the deafening roar of the state of Alabama cheering on the Crimson Tide soon enough...

Last night Dan and I walked downtown to Epiphany Fine Dining for a drink and dessert. We had Mojitos and a delicious watermelon martini made with fresh yellow watermelon. Dessert was a tough choice but we went with the Blackberry shortcake made with olive oil cake and a chantilly cream topped with basil and surrounded in a balsamic vinegar reduction...tasty and very different! We will be returning to Epiphany during the week where their happy hour provides half off appetizers ($5 kobe beef sliders with egg salad?!?! yes please) at the bar..I can't wait!

xo

What we've been up to

A lot has happened since the last post. We are finally almost finished with setting up the house. We tried another downtown restaurant (Edelweiss German Bakery and Cafe). And finally...we checked out the climbing wall at the student rec center. Yesterday I had the urge to go climbing and was able to talk Chau into going with me. We had originally planned to go to an outdoor gear store located across the river called Alabama Outdoors (AO). They have a nice selection of outdoor gear and clothing but more importantly, a small indoor climbing wall. We wanted to go to AO because it would have only cost us $3 each to climb as long as we wanted and it was near AAA which was on our list of places to go for the day. Unfortunately, their wall was closed due to a change in ownership. Thus, they were having permitting issues. Still having the urge to climb, we decided to check out the climbing wall at the student rec center. I am not officially a student yet and Chau is not yet a member of the rec center so we had to pay a small fee of $10 each. First, the wall is pretty nice. Maybe not as nice as the facility at U of I, but we were spoiled there. One really cool thing about the wall at UA is that there's a bouldering wall on which you can top out on. For you non-climbers out there, topping out is when you climb up the boulder and actually pull yourself up onto the top of it so you can stand on the top. This is much more difficult (and fun) than climbing until your hand reaches the top hold, hanging there, then letting go to get off the boulder. Topping out was not an option at U of I. There were also a variety of problems of different grades to play around on and keep us happy. Because both Chau and I haven't climbed a lot lately, we have lost a lot of stamina. Thus, we only spent about an hour climbing. However, we both can't wait to go back and work on some of those problems that thwarted us yesterday.

mmmm...The City Cafe

I'm not sure if ya'all have heard of "a meat and two/three" restaurant before, but they are truly delightful. The premise is that you get an order of meat (i.e. fried catfish, fried chicken, beef of some kind) and with it you can get 2 or 3 side dishes. The side dishes are typically comfort food/southern style foods like fried green tomatoes, potato salad, fried okra, beans etc. Apparently these types of restaurants are all over the south and Chau and I finally hit one up today for lunch.

The City Cafe is located in the small town of Northport, AL which is situated just over the Black Warrior River from Tuscaloosa. It is one of the more popular "meat and three" places in the area because of its reasonable prices and large portion sizes. So popular in fact that when we arrived, the line for a table snaked around the restaurant, leaving barely enough room for the servers to tend to their tables. Although the line was long, they moved people in and out of that place so fast that the wait was not bad as we first assumed.

The menu is fairly basic. They have a set menu for every day of the week (they are only open Monday through Friday) and most of the items are repeated throughout the week. I ordered the fried catfish, fried okra, and cole slaw while Chau got the chicken and dumplin's, mac & cheese, and fried green tomatoes. She also ordered a "sweet tea". The food came out quick and the server even brought out an extra tea for when we wanted a refill.

I don't remember the next few minutes of this event because it happened so fast. The food was really tasty and there was so much of it that I just started devouring whatever was on my plate. I eventually had to slow down and throw in the towel. Chau and I both had leftovers but we couldn't resist getting a slice of buttermilk pie to share. The pie was also great and when the greasy bill finally came with the total, we were pleasantly surprised. The entire meal cost a little over $12!! Just $12 dollars for all that food! Simply ridiculous. And now you know about the wonders of "a meat and three".

Week One

Hi! Well, we've been here a week officially. Thus far we've thrown up some art, unpacked all the boxes, and for all intents and purposes have "settled in"...We've found our local NPR station and listening to it in the morning has helped me feel like it's home. We are a block away from the post office, a couple blocks away from my credit union, a few blocks away from the downtown (the Alcove tavern is fantastic), and far enough away from "The Strip" that we can enjoy it as necessary, but stay away as well.

On Saturday night we went out to The Strip with some biology graduate students. We ended up at the Houndstooth, which, according to its website was voted the best college sports bar or something or other. It was great to chat with the other students, they assured us we would like Tuscaloosa life - unsure why there were so many unsolicited assurances, but I guess a positive in the grand scheme of things. Overall, the patrons were pretty fratastic - dress shirts and shorts, along with backwards baseball caps. It was quite entertaining to people watch throughout the night. We ended the night early at one o'clock and headed to Little Italy for a slice of NY-style pizza. at $1.80 it hit the spot and provided more people watching of frat boys and sorority girls stumbling about - Dan and I left quite grateful to have each other and to no longer be 21 year old undergrads...

Yesterday we had a lazy Sunday around the house finishing up some packing things...We stopped by the student rec center which is quite impressive. The climbing wall has some great looking routes and a bouldering wall you can top off on! There is also an outdoor aquatics center with a lazy river and a slide that is part of the membership - awesome! We plan on taking advantage of the pools throughout the summer to cool down from the heat/humidity!

Afterwards we had a hankering for food so we stopped by the legendary Dreamland BBQ and got hit in the head with some solid BBQ. A tangy sauce with great sides and banana pudding. We plan on donating our Idaho/Hawaii license plates so they can put them up in the restaurant and when you visit we can point out our personal mark on Tuscaloosa!

Ok, time to put together the coffee table...xo

Pics of the new place!

Here's a montage of the moving in and settling in process...still have some work to do in the office/guest bedroom, and general organization in general. The backyard has tons of potential other than simply a bike storage hold and poop palace for Hannah...in due time, in due time...

xo

Welcome to bloggy blogginess...

This will be a continual work in progress with posts from chau and dan...

Here are a few pics from the start of our trip....we left Saturday and arrived Sunday, July 4th! All in all over 3000 miles driven by each car, 10 states visited, no catastrophes, plenty of fun...