Birmingham Recap

This recap is a little late but things didn't exactly go as planned on our return back to Hernando and last night I decided to be productive around the house. My apologies.  I'm also going to apologize for the lack of pictures in this post.  Posts are no fun without pictures, I'll get better, I promise!

We got to Birmingham pretty late Friday night, just long enough to enjoy a couple of drinks.  We stopped in Tupelo on the way for dinner at Chicfila since it's about the only place worth eating in that town.  However, it was quite disappointing given the high standards we've come to know from Chicfila.  Needless to say, we probably won't be stopping there anymore.  Saturday morning, Megan made us blueberry yum yum for breakfast.  We have it so rarely (which is a good thing considering it's main ingredients are biscuits, butter, and sugar haha), that I forget how delicious it is!  Megan and I got ready and headed out to start our day of shopping.  I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned on here how awesome the shopping is in Birmingham but it really is quite wonderful.  We were both on the hunt for things for our homes and I was also looking for Bunco prizes since February is my host month.  After a couple of stops without purchasing anything, the boys called and asked if we wanted to meet them for lunch at Salem's Diner in downtown Homewood.  We were heading that way to hit the shops on 18th St. so we took them up on their offer.  Salem's Diner is known for their Philly cheeseteaks, random right?  Craig Ferguson of the Late Late Show claims it to be the best Philly cheesesteak he's ever had including Philadelphia.  Well I might not be a Philly cheesesteak connosseiur but I think Mr. Ferguson might be on to something.  Megan and I had eaten there once ramdomly while we were still living there and I swear I don't remember it being that delicious but gosh it was so good.  By far the best Philly cheesesteak I had ever had!  After lunch, we hit up all our favorite shops along 18th St.  Megan picked up some items for her dining room and I found a mirror for our mirror gallery wall in our dining room, candlesticks for our DR table, a driftwood cross, and these awesome pillar-ish candles that I can't really describe.  I'll post pictures later.  I also picked up 2 of the bunco gifts but I can't share those since I know a couple of the bunco ladies read my blog occasionally.  After 18th St., a classmate of mine who took a job in Birmingham decided to join us for a few stops.  We stopped first at Pastry Art to get baby bites.  I know I have blogged about this place before since they have the most delicious cake bites in the world.  If I were a famous chef or foodtv personality and they asked me to be on that show "Best Thing I Ever Ate: Bakery Goods"  I would so totally pick baby bites as my feature.  We each got half a dozen.  Megan's 6 we snacked on throughout the day and my 6 we wrapped up so I could bring them home with me. We finished our day stopping at a few more places not really finding anything that caught our eye.  We got home in time to watch the 49'ers finish off the Saints to make it to the AFC championship game.  That night we ate dinner at a place that was new to Ben and I, The Boot and then came back home to see the Patriots destroy the Broncos and then of course we watched Miss America.  The boys acted like they were bored to tears but we all know better than that!

Sunday we were pretty lazy all morning and finally decided to pull ourselves together to get lunch. We drove all over town and decided on a pizza place in Cahaba Heights and as we noticed there were very few cars in the parking lot.  Of course it wasn't open!  The we decided we would try Chuy's at the Summit since we were close.  Megan and I hopped out to get a table while the boys found a parking spot only to learn that there was a 30 minute wait. No thanks.  We then  headed to Homewood to eat at Dave's Pizza.  Shortly after lunch, we decided to hit the road.  We stopped at a gas station to fill up in north Birmingham when I realized I had left my baby bites in the fridge at Patrick and Megan's. BIG BUMMER.  Ben offered to turn around so I could get them but we twenty minutes into the trip so I said let's just go on.  Your welcome, guys :)  I should have known this was a bad sign. We were just trucking along listening to the Giants and Packers game nearing the MS/AL stateline when Ben said that the battery light was flashing.  He also thought that the headlights were looking dim so we decided to turn off the satelite radio to see if that helped anything.  It seemed to help a bit and we just kept on moving.  We were about 10 miles from the Hernando exit when we lost it.  All the lights just died and the car started a slow slow death.  Fortunately, we were able to cruise down an off ramp and off the interstate.  We called AAA and also my parents since we'd need a lift home.  While we were waiting, a car stopped to ask if he could help out.  I, of course texted a friend giving the mam's description and vehicle information in case we wound up dead.  Next the police showed up since clearly there's nothing going on in Coldwater, MS, ever.  My parents showed up followed by the tow truck.  The tow truck man recommended a repair shop in Hernando that was not far from our house so that is where we had him take the car.  We finally made it home after 9:30 just in time to see the conclusion of the Golden Globes :(

Ben got a call yesterday from the mechanic stating that our troubles were not the altenator or the battery, like we had thought but simply loose battery cables.  Hallelujah!  However, this story does not end here since the Yukon died while I was driving to work this morning....

To be continued...