Birmingham, Alabama

We love a good road trip. This is excellent, since a little travel has been necessary in our relationship. Road trips for us are a chance to connect, yes, but also a chance to play music really loud, sleep (me. always.), read aloud, and sometimes just take in what's passing by our windows. 

Carson had a conference in Nashville this past weekend, and since it was also my birthday weekend, I went with him. Because we don't like being on the road ALL DAY, we left at 5am (this was an hour later than I'd left for work the previous morning). There were several routes up to Nashville, and one of them was through Birmingham. It was our most successful road trip to date, thanks to Google maps and a little planning ahead. In just a few short days, we saw four cities and ate some really tasty food!

Neither of us have been to Alabama, even though it's the state right next to us and really not that far away at all, so we thought "Hey, why not?". And for the trip back home, we decided to take a different route, so we went in sort of a diamond shape and got to see parts of the south we (particularly Carson) have never seen before! 

Also pretty great was the sky. The moon was big and beautiful for a lot of our drive (and also hard to photograph), and then we watched the sun rise. 

I thought that there might be a touristy street or something for us to check out, but nothing popped up on my quick google search. Instead, I saw a place that overlooked the city. Great view of a city we wouldn't get to REALLY explore? Okay, sure. Even better was that when I put the address into Google Maps for a search, it was 8 minutes away. Excellent.

Here's the view. Not too shabby, huh? It may not appear this way, but it was 14 degrees outside. Beautiful and sunny, but 14 degrees and breezy is pretty darn chilly.

On top of this little mountain is the world's largest cast iron statue. It's of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forge. This is an homage to Birmingham's roots in the iron and steel industry and was made for the World's Fair. It's 110 years old, and the statue itself is 56 feet tall. The stand it rests on is much taller, which makes for a pretty impressive representative of the city.

There's a museum and park around the statue, but we arrived about thirty minutes before its 10am opening, so we just read the plaques and had the place to ourselves.

Carson was confident that if we just went through the city, we'd eventually find our way back to the freeway, so we took the scenic route (and then turned the GPS on, because a little guidance doesn't hurt). Here are some things we saw on our short drive.

Back on the freeway, we passed Huntsville, Alabama, and this statue on the side of the road which I believe is a rocket ship. It was fun.

Carson pointed this out to me too. People clearly support the Crimson Tide in Alabama. 

It was another three hours (I think) to Nashville, and that post is already written and ready to go, but I thought I'd shorten it to one Nashville post for the amount of pictures.

Savannah, Georgia

I've said this before, and it's worth saying again. It's great living near family and friends. About a month ago, I was texting my friend Isabel about getting together in Charleston, where she and her husband now live (they are friends of ours from Spokane). She mentioned off-hand that they were going to be in Savannah for the last weekend in February. Very quickly, we decided to join them. 

Our friends the Kipes invited us to stay with them for the weekend, which was the perfect time to meet the newest addition, sweet Wren, who turned one month old over our visit. She was the sweetest baby and although we're certain she has her moments, she didn't cry once during our visit. It was lovely to meet her and spend time with good friends. Big sister Graceanna was fun to be around too. She followed "Mista Cahson" around and got him to chase her around and play with her, which he loved too. We grown-ups also got a few minutes to chat and catch up.

Friday evening, we went to dinner. Eric had been teaching all weekend and asked his students for places to eat and they recommended a pizza place called Vinnie Van Go Go's. They're known for their slices, but all of us got calzones, and all of us ate every last bite. It was so good!

We walked off dinner on River Street. It was cold and windy but really fun to explore. Carson and Eric had great fun checking out the huge yachts along the Savannah River. We stopped in a coffee shop to talk and warm up a little before resuming our walk.

The next morning, we got to spend a little more time with the Kipes before heading out to explore the city.

Gracie and "Aunt Lindsay"

I love this picture of the sweet Kipe ladies. Look at Gracie's little smile!

After spending the morning relaxing, we left with the Maertens for some sightseeing. To our chagrin, the day that promised nice weather actually offered wind and drizzly rain. It didn't slow us down too much though and we were able to take in quite a bit of the city.
We walked through this little park, where we saw a statue of John Wesley and I saw the Savannah Theater, where I once saw a musical for Emily's birthday.

We walked to Broughton Street, where we ate an early lunch at Kayak Cafe. The food was good, and we found it funny that it shares a space with a gym!

We went to Paris Market next, where we ran into my sister's best friend and fellow bridesmaid. Small world.

Here's Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons.

Our next stop was Forsyth Park. It's a Savannah icon, but I'd never been there before!

A man offered to take our picture, and handed Izzy and I sweetgrass flowers.

We got to one end of the park and I spotted a familiar name: Brighter Day. "My sister works there!" I said, and so we went in to see if Becca was working. She wasn't. Next door to that is a building that used to be a hospital, and it's where two of my uncles were born, and behind that building is the place where Becca had her wedding reception.

We went to Foxy Loxy Cafe for coffee to warm us up after a cold walk through the park. It's right across the street from the public library, so we wandered over and looked at that too.

Eric had heard about this huge antique warehouse, so we decided to look around Jere's Antiques, right behind River Street. It wasn't what I was expecting. It was massive, and had huge pieces of furniture. We couldn't have afforded one thing, but it was fun looking at so much history.

We walked back down to River Street after that. These stairs were intense and in the rain, we could all see ourselves tumbling down them. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

We called this bridge the "H" bridge growing up because to us it was shaped like an H. So obviously I still call it that. It's really the Talmadge Bridge.

Jillian alerted us to the fact that there was a free ferry, so we jumped on at River Street and rode around until we were back at our destination. It wasn't amazing, but it was nice to sit, and we got to see River Street from a distance.

Carson got a nap in while we rode.

And Izzy and I documented that we were there and got photobombed by a mystery couple.

The Bays on Bay Street.

Thanks, Carson.

We did some window shopping in the City Market area, which is where we'd eaten dinner the night before. As Isabel and I were browsing one little store, this scene caught our eye: our husbands decided to see if the slices were actually that good. They apparently were.

We meandered around some more, and when we came out of a store, we noticed that our poor husbands were being chatted up by a bachelorette party on one of those traveling bar things.

We went to dinner after that at B&D Burgers, which also came highly recommended. Carson got The Wormsloe, which had fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese. We all regretted the ice cream we'd gotten after the ferry ride, but stuffed our faces anyway.

We went to church at my sister's church the next day, where she and Thomas were leading worship. My parents and Scott joined us there and it was a little family reunion! Dad took a video if you'd like to see. We all went to lunch next at Cancun's, a little mexican restaurant.

After that, we were back on the road. We had an excellent time! We are thankful for friends who are hospitable and welcoming, and friends who are so fun to explore and adventure with!

26 Random Things About Lindsay

Today, I'm 26! Here's a random list of things about me. You might know all of these already, and that's okay. I like lists a lot and thought it would be fun to come up with these. Happy Birthday to me!

1. Sitting through a movie or even a TV show without something to do is torture. If you've seen me creating lots of things, it probably also means I'm really caught up on the shows I'm watching because I can't sit still... I must have my phone, a project, or something in front of me. For the same reason, I'm not a huge fan of going to see movies in the theater. I get this from my mom.
2. I like to cook but I don't like to bake. I don't enjoy baked goods as much as I do a good savory main dish and all the measurements and the "chill for one hour" don't seem worth it. When I've done it in the past, I've liked baking, so I think if I had more people to practice on, I'd enjoy it, but two people certainly don't need 3 dozen cookies hanging around.
3. Trying new things is very difficult for me. I've found that I usually like whatever the new thing is (unless it's some sort of a new game - very iffy) but I HATE knowing I'm going to do something for the first time or be around new people. The anticipation kills me. 
4. I tell myself stories when I'm trying to fall asleep. My brain likes to compose lists of things to do the next day, or begin a mental countdown of how long I have left to sleep at night... so to distract myself and give me some mental "white noise", I tell a story.
5. To remember things, I have to make a clicking noise or snap my fingers. I'm not sure why I do it or for how long I've been doing it, but when I was snapping my fingers remembering something about a year ago, I realized that I'd been doing it while zoned out... in a coworker's face! Sorry!
6. I love infomercials. I've never bought anything from one (you have to call! and who wants to pay the shipping and handling?!) but I think they are such a great form of entertainment. 
7. Most of you who read this know this, but I'm 1/4 Mexican, from my mom's side. This is why I don't burn like crazy at the beach. I'm only writing it because when I was in Virginia in January, I was talking about our Christmas Eve tamales tradition and Brooke apparently didn't know that little fact... and we've been friends for 18 years. To be fair, it really isn't obvious and sounds like a lie. 
8. If I could have competed in any Olympic event, it would definitely be figure skating. I've always loved ice skating and I'm just certain that if I'd grown up in a colder climate, I would be world-renowned by now. When I was younger, I really wanted to do gymnastics, so that would have been a close second (a third would be something track related... just because it would be fun to see how fast you could go).
9. I don't have a favorite book (if pressed, I would give you the name of a random book I do like), but I do love to read. I'd probably say my favorite genre (if this can be called that because it's broad) is historical fiction. Many of the historical dates and figures I actually remember from grade school are due to historical fiction.
10. Around my birthday every year, I get a little freaked out thinking that every place I go is actually going to be a surprise party for me. I had one when I was 17 and while I did appreciate the thought of my kind friends, I really hate surprises. If I know other people like them, I have no problem even planning one, but to be the guest of honor? A recurring nightmare. True story: on my eighth birthday, my family was out to lunch and my grandmother had the wait staff sing to me. They entered the room, I jumped up, crying, and jumped in my dad's lap. Needless to say, no one's tried that trick again. 
11. People at my last two jobs have for whatever reason not just called me "Lindsay" but "Lindsay Bay". I know this is my name, but they've made it into a double name, like "Mary Katherine" or something. I think it's funny, and it does sound very southern. 
12. If I could do any form of workout, it would be something like running stairs. I used to do that in Spokane and LOVED it. And looking back at pictures, it paid off. I am not the kind of person who wants to be at the gym or sweating for hours upon hours. I mean, CLEARLY, but still.
13. I love candles, and of course I'm picky about them. I don't like food scents, like vanilla and caramel and apple pie, or things that smell spicy like cinnamon or cloves, or anything that's "cotton" scented (because it doesn't smell like fresh sheets. It smells like pure chemical). I love the Bath and Body Works Fresh Balsam candle at Christmas and the Pumpkin Pie candle by Walmart's Mainstays brand (thanks for the hint, Grandmama!). I like floral and citrus, mango, coconut, and lemongrass. Bath and Body Works is my favorite place to buy candles, and they're pretty good about having sales or good coupons.
14. My favorite Disney movie is Cinderella. I think it's because of the mice and not because of Prince Charming. 
15. I took Russian in high school. I wish I'd tried harder and practiced more and gone further with that. At this point, I don't know when I'd use Russian, but I think it's a beautiful language and I'd love to master it.
16. If I had been a boy, my name would have been Christian Palmer. If my sister had been a boy, her name would have been Christian Palmer. Six years after I was born, my parents had a boy, but his name is Scott. 
17. Coffee. I make it everyday, but I don't drink it. I'm at the point where I've tasted it enough and don't mind it, and could probably work a little to even drink it black, but since I don't feel like I NEED the caffeine, I'm going to put off trying to like coffee for another time in my life. 
18. My favorite time periods to read and learn more about are Civil War and World War II. My least favorite time period is definitely anything middle ages. I find movies or books or anything set in those times to be tedious. I don't know why!
19. I'd love to find something to do where I can work from home. Is this partially because I am lazy? Yes. But also I think it would be fun to develop a creative skill and get to the point where I can fully love what I'm doing. I think my problem is that I know I'm not REALLY great at one thing, I'm mostly average at a lot of things... so which to choose to get better at? 
20. I love personality tests. I re-take take the Meyers-Briggs test every once in awhile and with most versions of it, I am an INTJ. When I look up descriptions of that type, I'm not convinced that it's me. Since I was talking about it, I took this test and got ISFP.
21. I hate beer. I like hard cider and other things that do not taste especially like alcohol, so mostly, I stick to Diet Coke. It's cheaper and I'm guaranteed to like it. 
22. I've learned that I'm not an immediate trend-follower. I usually have a couple of months (or years) of hating a particular trend before I warm up to the idea or stick with my original impression. Things I've bought into but not until later include Toms shoes (I just bought my first pair last year), skinny jeans (2012; necessary with boots), topknots, and my nose ring. The latter was out of fear for pain though. It probably can't hurt to think on things for a bit before doing them? Plus I'm a chicken.
23. I'm getting into crossword puzzles, but I've been doing them via an app on my phone. These are marvelous! I love puzzles and logical things and trying to reason, and it's not something I just do naturally on a daily basis, so this is great. I think I've lost a little brain function in that area (because practice makes perfect), so maybe by this time next year I'll be in Mensa.
24. Carson thinks I'm the pickiest person EVER when it comes to food, and compared to him I totally am. Here's the thing though. I grew up eating white rice and porkchops and just very "normal" and bland foods. I didn't have an avocado until I was 22. I didn't eat ethnic foods until I went with friends. I'm not very adventurous and if I go to a place with a turkey sandwich on the menu and nothing else looks familiar, I'm probably getting it. But my point is... I've grown! I do try new things! Still hate carrots though. Nothing I can do to make myself eat a raw carrot, and I like familiar things. Sorry, Carson.
25. I didn't think I was the kind of person who loves getting gifts, but I totally am. It's not why I love Christmas, but it's definitely something I look forward to on birthdays and holidays. I can't decide if it's materialism or just because I like that someone thought of me. Likely a little sprinkle of each. I love coming up with things for other people too, but often fear of it being the "right" gift paralyzes me and I just send a card. 
26. I don't like doing things by myself. I know people who are adventurers and go out and explore new cities and countries alone, but I don't think I'd enjoy it (who knows, I guess). I think half the fun of seeing someplace new is talking it over and experiencing it with other people!