Day trips and other fun stuff

Since Dismal's Canyon, we've been keeping busy with other trips around the area. On Thursday evening we headed across the river with our neighbors to the city of Northport for a little culture. The city's galleries were holding their monthly "Art Walk". The average age of the artists was probably 65 and there were common themes of pet portraits, people portraits, and southern landscapes. To say the least, the art wasn't very imaginative. We did however meet some folks that could paint a nice portrait of Hannah if we ever felt the urge to have one.

We awoke on Friday morning with the urge to get out of town. We decided to head to the small city of Huntsville which is located in northern AL. Huntsville is famous for being where the US space program first took off. The NASA Space and Rocket Center and a branch campus of UA are located in Huntsville. However, we decided to leave these two attractions for our next visit, instead opting for some delicious Vietnamese food and an art gallery. Chau was really excited about the food and I think it passed her rigorous approval. While in Huntsville, we also took in some breathtaking views of the surrounding area from the Monte Santo State Park lookout.

Yesterday, still feeling the urge to get out of town, we headed to B-ham to watch the Birmingham Barons battle it out on the diamond with the Mississippi Braves. First, you should know that the B-ham Barons are a legendary minor league team. The Barons have produced several Hall of Famers such as Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Robin Ventura, Bo Jackson, and Frank Thomas. You may also remember that in the early 1990s, Michael Jordan attempted to play major league baseball. The minor league team he played for was the Barons. Out of the three big things we did this weekend, the game was our favorite. The stadium was great. The people watching was great. But best of all was the fireworks spectacular (Pyro Palooza III to be exact). It was awesome. Plus we got to eat hot dogs and drink extremely expensive beer. Oh yeah...and the Barons won! We'll definitely be back.

Check out the photos from our weekend...here.