just two hours from Atlanta

Last month we visited Birmingham, Alabama for the first time. We have driven through the city before, but since my wife attended a teacher's convention in there, I decided to tag along. I was surprised that it was only a two hour drive from downtown Atlanta to this city. We stayed an extra night (using our SPG points) and visited some attractions Friday and Saturday. First, we stopped at the Peanut Depot, where they roast peanuts all day long in roasters that were made in the early 1900's. Then, we drove to the top of Red Mountain. This mountain was discovered to have lots of iron ore, limestone and coal in the late 1800's. Those are the three ingredients used to produce pig iron. Furnaces were built in the valley where the city is today, and by the early 1900's there were 108,000 workers in the various industries. However, during the Great Depression, 100,000 of those workers lost their jobs.



There is also a tower with the Vulcan statue on top. This huge statue was commissioned for the first World's Fair to be held in the United States, the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. This fair was also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, celebrating the centennial of that historic purchase. We rode the elevator to the top for a beautiful view of the city. As we left Vulcan Park, we decided to drive out to the Summit, and outdoor mall. You can never trust Mapquest or even Google maps! I think we took three or four wrong turns and after what seemed like an hour of driving, we found the Cheesecake Factory. We had a gift card to eat there and I thought since it was Valentine's Day on Saturday, we could beat the rush by going there on Friday night. Wrong! We had to wait for an hour and a half to be seated, but it was worth the wait!


On Saturday, we drove to the Five Points area to walk off our free breakfast buffet. The city has many historical buildings which have been restored. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The city owns the gardens and there is no admission fee. We will have to go back when the flowers are blooming, but it was nice to see all the landscaping and I especially enjoyed the Japanese Gardens with the bamboo forest. I had never seen black bamboo before.

Click to view the photo gallery of our trip