Tour de South - Part 1

As soon as Courtney landed in Nashville, I whisked her away and off we went to Alabama! We made it down to Birmingham not too long after dark and were greeted by Aunt Jackie, Uncle Rick, and tow of their nieces - Ashley and Jacklyn. The girls regaled us with their stories of spooky circumstances in the local countryside. I was cracking up from their enthusiasm. Courtney and I were definately ready for bed and getting ready for the next morning. Who can complain about a Friday morning that starts with wine? Aunt Jackie took Courtney and me to Morgan Creek Vineyards for a wine tasting (before noon!) I've never had muscadine wine before and it's great. During the summer they have music and fireworks in the vineyards and end the season with a big grape stomping event complete with I Love Lucy lookalike contest.

From there we continued our tour around the countryside to see some of the old covered bridges and antebellum homes in the area, even stopping at one of the homes in Talladega for lunch. Magnolia's restaurant is on the main level of a home with beautiful wood floors and double hinged folding doors. You'll have to ask Courtney for more technical names for some of these things, but it was beautiful - as were the other homes in Talladega's Silk Stocking District.

We couldn't rightfully say we'd been to Talladega without a detour to the speedway, right? Especially if Gretchen found out :) So there we were at the Talladega Super Speedway. The place is phenomenal. About five miles before you even see the structure there are massive RV parks - I suspect just for race fans. Maybe next time Courtney comes down she'll bring Gretchen for a race weekend. I did a little YouTubing to see what came up for the speedway. It looks like a good time.

At the end of the day we made it back to Birmingham and Courtney got her first experience with "Jimmy Nicks" (aka Jim & Nick's), my favorite place to eat in Alabama. After our day of touring it was high time to put on the sweat pants and calm down for the evening... what a surprise that Aunt Jackie and Uncle Rick got us a birthday cake! I love chocolate and this cake seemed to be made of every variety of chocolate - and strawberries. One of the nieces, Tina and her husband Ken joined us for cake. I hadn't seen her since I was six or so and she reminded me how impressed she was at my interpretive dance skills at that age. I like to think my interpretive dancing has only gotten better with age.



After our adventure in Birmingham we were ready to get a good night's sleep and head to Memphis early the next morning!