Featuring: Anne-Marie and me!

Our group

I had so much fun with my friends that when I left, I wasn’t even sure what the score was. And I might have had to ask which team was which. Whoops!

My Birmingham Bucket List:

1. 16th Street Baptist Church
2. Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
3. Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
4. Alabama Symphony Orchestra
5. Alabama Theatre
6. Aldridge Gardens
7. American Village
8. Avondale Brewery
9. Birmingham Museum of Art
10. Birmingham History Center
11. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
12. Birmingham Railroad Park
13. Birmingham Rights Heritage Trail
14. Irondale Cafe
15. Kelly Ingram Park
16. Moonlight on the Mountain
17. Moss Rock Preserve
18. Lover’s Leap
19. Oak Mountain State Park
20. The Peanut Depot
21. Pepper Place Saturday Market
22. Red Mountain Park
23. Regions Field
24. Rickwood Field
25. Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park
26. Sloss Furnaces
27. The Vulcan

I’m here to report on # 8, Avondale Brewery. My friend Anne-Marie takes friends to Avondale Brewery (amazing idea) when they come to town, and was so sweet to invite me to join her, her boyfriend Ryan and their friends from Auburn one weekend a while back. To say it was amazing is a bit of an understatement. Beer, live music, an outdoor patio and amazing BBQ just a few doors down = Heaven. I’m currently looking for apartments in the area. No, just kidding…that would be dangerous.

Me and AM. The gentleman we asked to take our picture was struggling.

Yum! Spring Street Saison is the bee’s knees (elephant’s knees?). #trunksup

After we hung around at Avondale for a while, we decided to venture over to Good People for one more drink.

I don’t remember what the name of this one was, but I assure you it was awesome.

The ladies.

Want to come visit? Please do. We’ll grab a drink!

My Birmingham Bucket List:

1. 16th Street Baptist Church
2. Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
3. Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
4. Alabama Symphony Orchestra
5. Alabama Theatre
6. Aldridge Gardens
7. American Village
8. Avondale Brewery
9. Birmingham Museum of Art
10. Birmingham History Center
11. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
12. Birmingham Railroad Park
13. Birmingham Rights Heritage Trail
14. Irondale Cafe
15. Kelly Ingram Park
16. Moonlight on the Mountain
17. Moss Rock Preserve
18. Lover’s Leap
19. Oak Mountain State Park
20. The Peanut Depot
21. Pepper Place Saturday Market
22. Red Mountain Park
23. Regions Field
24. Rickwood Field
25. Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park
26. Sloss Furnaces
27. The Vulcan

We took the long way home and ended up passing a historical marker on the side of one of the mountains in Birmingham (that has a breathtaking view). I am not one to pass up reading a historical marker, especially when it’s on the side of a cliff, so I insisted Natalie turn around and take me back. It turned out to be a Lover’s Leap. From what I’ve read (on Wikipedia), Lover’s Leap is “a toponym given to a number of locations of varying height, usually isolated, with the risk of a fatal fall and the possibility of a deliberate jump. Legends of romantic tragedy are often associated with a Lovers’ Leap.” The Lover’s Leap in Bluff Park has a replica of the first four lines of Lord Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” that were inscribed into a rock in 1827 by Colonel Thomas W. Farrar.

To sit on the rocks, to muse o’er flood and fell

To slowly trace the forest’s shady scene

Where things that own not man’s dominion dwell

And mortal foot hath ne’er or rarely been.

My Birmingham Bucket List:

1. 16th Street Baptist Church
2. Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
3. Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
4. Alabama Symphony Orchestra
5. Alabama Theatre
6. Aldridge Gardens
7. American Village
8. Avondale Brewery
9. Birmingham Museum of Art
10. Birmingham History Center
11. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
12. Birmingham Railroad Park
13. Birmingham Rights Heritage Trail
14. Irondale Cafe
15. Kelly Ingram Park
16. Moonlight on the Mountain
17. Moss Rock Preserve
18. Lover’s Leap
19. Oak Mountain State Park
20. The Peanut Depot
21. Pepper Place Saturday Market
22. Red Mountain Park
23. Regions Field
24. Rickwood Field
25. Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park
26. Sloss Furnaces
27. The Vulcan

Standing more than 56 ft tall, The Vulcan is the world’s largest cast iron statue. Vulcan was designed in 1904 by Italian artist Giuseppe Moretti, and cast from local iron. It has overlooked Birmingham since the 1930s.

It was an incredibly cold day, and standing on the catwalk wasn’t really easy for me (you can see straight down to the ground. It’s high up!) but we managed to have fun, learn a lot about Birmingham and enjoy the view–of downtown Birmingham, and Mr. Vulcan’s cast iron buns.

My Birmingham Bucket List:

1. 16th Street Baptist Church
2. Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
3. Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
4. Alabama Symphony Orchestra
5. Alabama Theatre
6. Aldridge Gardens
7. American Village
8. Avondale Brewery
9. Birmingham Museum of Art
10. Birmingham History Center
11. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
12. Birmingham Railroad Park
13. Birmingham Rights Heritage Trail
14. Irondale Cafe
15. Kelly Ingram Park
16. Moonlight on the Mountain
17. Moss Rock Preserve
18. Lovers Leap
19. Oak Mountain State Park
20. The Peanut Depot
21. Pepper Place Saturday Market
22. Red Mountain Park
23. Regions Field
24. Rickwood Field
25. Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park
26. Sloss Furnaces
27. The Vulcan

A friend and I got together last weekend for a trip to Moss Rock Preserve, and while sitting on one of the big boulders, we decided to start a list of touristy things we want to do while in Birmingham. I regret not seeing and doing more in Columbus, so this time, I want to make sure I see a much as I can. I promise to take pictures and share my experiences with you.

My Birmingham Bucket List:

1. 16th Street Baptist Church
2. Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
3. Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
4. Alabama Symphony Orchestra
5. Alabama Theatre
6. Aldridge Gardens
7. American Village
8. Avondale Brewery
9. Birmingham Museum of Art
10. Birmingham History Center
11. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
12. Birmingham Railroad Park
13. Birmingham Rights Heritage Trail
14. Irondale Cafe
15. Kelly Ingram Park
16. Moonlight on the Mountain
17. Moss Rock Preserve
18. Lovers Leap
19. Oak Mountain State Park
20. The Peanut Depot
21. Pepper Place Saturday Market
22. Red Mountain Park
23. Regions Field
24. Rickwood Field
25. Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park
26. Sloss Furnaces
27. The Vulcan

“Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat.
‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.
‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

I definitely know the full meaning of the word bittersweet. I have been standing at the fork in the road for a few months now. Questioning what it was I wanted to do. I’ve never felt so pulled in opposite directions… these choices are the hard ones. On one hand, the past two and a half years have flown by. I’ve had a blast. I’ve made best friends in Ohio. I’ve learned a lot about an amazing city. On the other hand, I’ve missed being close to my family, missed the great state of Alabama and it’s weather, missed Auburn football and sweet tea.

So to make it short and sweet, I’m proud to say that I’ve finally made a decision…I’m moving back to Alabama! I’m packing up and moving to Birmingham in just a few weeks (I’m now a city girl, so this was the only real choice). I’ll get to see friends and family that I haven’t seen (or seen much of) in the past few years. I’ll make it to an Auburn game here and there. It’s going to be sweet. And the sweetest part? I’ll still be working for Kappa

So for the bitter part…I’m leaving fabulous friends in Columbus. I’m leaving people who would do anything in the world for me. I’m leaving people who I’ve spent the last two and a half years with. I’m leaving a city that I truly love.

It will be hard. It will be fun. It will be another learning experience. But I’m excited to start down this new path, open this new chapter, begin this different part of my life. I’m excited to have a bit of direction. And excited to have something new to blog about…

“Good parents give their children roots and wings: roots to know where home is, and wings to fly off and practice what has been taught them” – Jonas Salk

As it turns out, I’ve always been an author. The Kick is a fabulous (and insanely thrilling) short story I wrote in first grade. It’s about a girl who puts her foot in the air and then back down. In addition to being a very creative great writer, I was quite the artist. My first grade teacher happens to live next door, and happened to be cleaning out her attic while I was home on vacation. Talk about lots of laughs!

Concert at Park Street Festival. Turned out to be an awesome band!

I thought I was doing a really great job. I spent my Friday evening walking Grandview with E. On Saturday (even though I almost died of dehydration and hunger) I walked the 8 mile round trip from my neighborhood to downtown Columbus with E.

I was confident. And then I met The Shredder….

Columbus Commons, the newest green space in downtown, offers free bootcamp, kickboxing, CrossFit, yoga and Zumba throughout the summer. I got really excited last week and signed up for every class. The first class, bootcamp, met tonight after work. The new HQ intern and I decided we’d go together, so we showed up (nervous, of course) to see what bootcamp entailed.

We were met with the very in shape, nice looking trainer (who was literally Mark Sloane in the flesh). The Shredder wasted no time. His first words to us: “You see the sidewalk that borders this park? Yep, we’ll call that a lap. Now everybody run one. Quick, or I’ll release the dogs.” And so we did. I was so proud the whole way through my lap that I wasn’t at the back of the pack that I failed to notice that The Shredder had already begun lining up those who finished first. They were doing high kicks across the park. (At this point I’m a little short of breath, but still feeling confident in my abilities.) Annnd so I begin my high kicks across the football field-sized park. About halfway through, The Shredder gets bored and has my line sprint to the opposite side. Now I’m struggling just a bit. He has us quickly line up and we begin what he calls “the warm-up.” I have to admit that I’m a little confused at this point, because I thought we had already warmed up…

We proceed to do squats, lunges, push ups, burpees and the like. Out of 300 people, The Shredder notices that my squats aren’t low enough (‘scuze me) and comes over to push me lower to the ground. So now I’m visibly struggling. The Shredder proclaims that we are finished with our warm up and can move on to the actual exercises. He has us do squats at one side of the park, sprint to the other side, do burpees, and sprint back. This cycle counts as one point. He yelled at us to “run faster or I’ll release the dogs!” I channelled Cato in The Hunger Games…I fought hard for a minute, but in the end, I certainly would have been eaten by the dogs.

I wasn’t even embarrassed that I stopped to get water and only racked up two whole points tonight. See you next week, Shredder.