our trek to the South

this past weekend Ray and I went to Birmingham, AL to attend the wedding of a friend's little sister (who is like another little sister to Ray). we flew into Birmingham Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Tutwiler, in downtown Birmingham and relaxed for a bit after our long flight from Los Angeles. the hotel is a beautiful historic hotel and our room was wonderful. comfortable beds, a fully stocked bathroom... very nice.

not knowing the area at all, we took a recommendation from a friend to eat dinner at Surin West, a Thai and sushi restaurant. it was quite delicious. I've only tried Thai food one other time, and I wasn't a huge fan. this place was good, though. their potstickers were YUMMY. ohmygod, I could eat hundreds of them. we also ordered some sushi for an appetizer before our meals came, which was also pretty above average. which surprised me since we were in the middle of Alabama. I'm a sushi snob and have to admit that the Bay area (our old home) and Los Angeles both have wonderful sushi. we were skeptical, but it was good. for dinner I had Pad See-U with beef and Ray had chicken curry, extra spicy. I was pleasantly surprised. my dinner was quite delicious. I'll definitely have to give Thai food another chance. oh, and their Lychee martinis were delish.

after dinner, we met up with the bride and her family for a quick hello before they went home to finish up their last minute details. after that, the L.A. crew (there were 6 of us there) went out for drinks at the Blue Monkey Lounge. I had a caramel appletini. so me. so good.

we woke up Saturday morning and got ready to go meet the L.A. crew (minus 1) for lunch for some real southern bbq. we went to a place called Dreamland Bar-B-Que. it was alright. growing up in the South, I've had better. Ray and I split a pulled pork sandwich and half a slab of ribs. the table got some baked beans and mac & cheese for sides. I have to admit, I liked the sides better than the main food.

here's Ray enjoying a rib:

and us with our friends and our bibs on:

after lunch we did a little bit of sightseeing (there's only so much sightseeing to do in Birmingham from what I can tell). we took a little trip to Vulcan Park. the huge cast iron statue is Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forge and has been a symbol of Birmingham for over 100 years (Birmingham was built on their iron ore and coal supplies).

a closer look at Vulcan:

a gorgeous view of the city from the park:

afterwards I got my nails done. then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding, which was beautiful.

we had an 11am flight Sunday morning. and we went to bed at 4am that morning. we. were. exhausted. but I zonked out on the plane. when we landed in Dallas to switch flights, we realized that we were going to be making a stop in Albuquerque on the way to L.A. yeah, I was not happy. I hate flying and try to minimize going up and down as much as possible. it was a long day of travel, but we made it home and passed out.