Our First Visitors!

My sister and her husband, Kim and Ben, arrived in Birmingham about 20 minutes after I did.  They had to sleep among half unpacked boxes but we were sure glad to have them!

We ate at some amazing places those two days! Wednesday night we ate at Saw's.  It is a southern BBQ joint with great food.  We asked a lot of questions to the waiter and his answers just confirmed that I know little about southern food.  I ordered "Pork 'n Greens".  What is that, you might ask?  Well duh- it is smoked pork over steamed turnip greens on top of grits with fried onions on top.  Super delicious! Now I know what "'n greens" means.  Not what I thought it meant, but really tasty.

We had lunch the next day at a random place downtown that had good reviews on Yelp.  Babalu's.  It is a tacos and tapas place.  We all got different types of gourmet tacos and Matt got a burger.  The waitress was super southern sweet and told Matt that the burger there-even though they specialize in tacos-would be the best burger one would put in their mouth.  Matt proclaimed that this waitress did not lie! The tacos: They. were. so. good.  Rest assured grits are offered on about every menu in the south-even a taco shop.  This place even had complimentary mouthwash in the bathroom-pretty cool!!

We went to the famous statue in Birmingham-the Vulcan.  The Vulcan is a 56 ft. tall statue of a burly bare-bottomed man.  He is the Roman God of Fire and Forge and is a symbol of the iron industry in Birmingham.

We also went to the Sloss Furnaces. It is a National Historic Landmark here in Alabama.  It is a giant blast furnace that produced pig iron during 1882-1971.  I mean it is really giant!  They have "self-guided" tours...pretty sure we "self-guided" ourselves into places we weren't suppose to be in?!  

It was a HOT day.  I think it is was the hottest day we've had since I've been here.  This week we have had quite a few rain showers to cool us off.  Anyways it was so hot we had to treat ourselves to Steel City Pops.  'Bamers love Popsicles so we had to give them a try.  They were good! Plus they are all gluten free - I tried the Strawberry shortcake. Yum! Some other flavors are Watermelon, Pineapple-Jalapeno, Vanilla Bean, Blueberry Basil, and more.  I gotta try them all!

We love visitors!! We promise to take good care of any of ya'll who want to come check out Birmingham!