Update on Birmingham

We have been enjoying our visit with Dan & Debbie. While Debbie has had to work this week, Dan took off to spend time with us. We've been very lazy, but did go a couple of places.

On Monday, Randy & I went to Oak Mountain State Park, which is just a few miles from Dan & Debbie's. While it was a nice park, we were a little disappointed because there were few walking trails and none right around the lake. We took a look around, let Blackie sniff here and there and then came home.

Tuesday, Dan, Randy & I went to downtown Birmingham. We wanted to visit the Museum of Art and the Alabama Museum of Radio History. The art museum was okay - it was a museum. There was one cool display of American history. A couple of well-known pictures and some not so well-known. Other exhibits were of Japanese, Chinese and European origin. Those were not so interesting, at least to me.

Then we were off to find the Radio History Museum. It was supposed to be located in the Alabama Power Headquarters. We found that building, but no one seemed to know what we were talking about. Finally, one security guard referred to the museum as the "archives" and had the receptionist call the person in charge so we could get in. Well, of course, that person was out of the office and there was no one else who could help us. We were flabbergasted. This was advertised on the Alabama Tourism website as a free museum, open to the public. We couldn't believe that we needed an "escort" to go through it. Well, needless to say, we never did get in to the museum or archives, or whatever.

So, we walked around the outside of the building to see if we could find another entrance, but there were only doors that had to be opened with a key card. As we were walking by one of the doors, an employee used his card to open it and Dan followed him in! I figured we were going to get arrested!! Randy & I went in, too, and there was the museum! But, it was only accessible by a key card as well. How frustrating!! So, we looked in the windows at some of the things, but it wasn't very satisfying.

There is a nice park area near the art museum that we walked through. It's in the square where City Hall and the county courthouse reside. There was a beautiful fountain there and I'm sure the gardens are gorgeous in the summer. I've got pictures on our Webshots website, if you're interested.

http://community.webshots.com/user/guiler85/0

Unfortunately, once again, Blogger is not allowing me to upload pictures and I don't know what's happening with that. So, if you want to see pictures, you'll need to go to Webshots. I have e-mailed Blogger to tell them of the problem, we'll see what they say, if they respond.

May be going to Sloss Furnace tomorrow. It's also downtown and it's an old iron mill that you can tour. Could be interesting. Then, we'll leave Saturday morning and go to Atlanta to spend time with Randy's sister, Missy and kids.

Hope you take a look at the pictures. Take care until the next time . . .