It was a gorgeous weekend in Alabama! Everything is in fully bloom – our neighborhood is beautiful!
Today we did a massive grocery shop + lunch. We hit Sam’s Publix, Wal-Mart & CVS. Just going where the deals are! Ha! In between, we at lunch at the Pearl Garden, where they are now selling ginger salads & shrimp sauce from Hokkaido’s – the Japanese restaurant that was blown away in the tornado. My favorite is the ginger salad. I could eat it for every.single.meal.
And my new spring tablescape!
Tonight we saw The Avett Brothers at the Boutwell Auditorium in downtown Birmingham! They were so good!!! It was like a mix between a rock concert, a country concert, a pop concert and a bluegrass concert all in one. We loved them! All of the instruments were amazing.
Highlight #1 of the evening:
Tortugas Pizza in Hoover
If you research on the internet for “best pizza in Birmingham,” Tortugas keeps coming up high on every list. We ate here once before when we were living in Birmingham and loved it – the only downside is that the Chicago deep dish (the one that we like) takes so long to bake. So we called as soon as we left Tuscaloosa and asked them to get it ready for us.
It was very good! The Chicago style pizza has a really thick, crunchy crust and cheese underneath the tomatoes (fork + knife mandatory!). And the tomatoes are so tangy and awesome and perfect. It is hard to eat more than one slice because it is just so thick.
Two very disappointing triple-shot skinny lattes were consumed on the way to the concert. You know, for the caffeine. We are not as young as we once were and the concert didn’t start until 8 pm. Haha!
The picture on the left is of a statue of a steel worker in downtown, right outside the Birmingham Museum of Art. I’ve been meaning to go to the museum for the past several years but have never made it down there. (10!!! For the past 10 years! I have lived in Alabama for 10 years now! Oh my goodness!)
We actually heard a rumor that they would not be selling alcohol at the concert and we were pretty excited about that. Drunk rednecks tend to be the most obnoxious people in the world. Plus, it never fails that we are *always* sitting at the end of the aisle and have to get up & down all night long to let said rednecks in and out while making their beer runs & taking bathroom breaks. We were actually little bit disappointed to find out that they were serving alcohol (St. Patrick’s Day, after all) AND we were were on an aisle seat, of course. (And had to get up and down several times and one guy stepped on my foot, right on my blistered toe!)
But it wasn’t too bad. We were actually on the front row of seats because the floor level was standing only. We got there, sat down, and simultaneously expressed our disbelief about why people would want to stand up the whole time. Clearly we’re total party animals. In fact, Brent actually said “I wish these arm rests would raise up so I could lay down.” AT A CONCERT.
But the actual concert was so good. I really had no idea how “rock” they would be. I imagined that it would be more mellow. They came out singing “Head Full of Doubt” which is one of my favorite songs ever and the first song I ever heard of theirs. Of course I have made Brent listen to it several times in the car. So after that song was over, we were one song in and Brent had already heard all of the songs he knew of theirs! He said “Okay, let’s go!” Ha ha! He definitely changed his mind though, and he better not think I didn’t see him dancing just a little bit in his seat. “I and Love and You” was second best. They were all good – even the songs I didn’t know. I have been to concerts before where the artists played new music or songs I didn’t know and I just always kind of waited them out. But not tonight! Every song was really, really good. Their voices and the instruments are just incredible – and I know I always say that when I go to a concert, but you really can’t tell (or trust) what some one sounds like on a CD or the radio. The real deal is (usually) so much better (except the Civil Wars, who sound equally as perfect on CD and in person) – I’m not sure why I am always so pleasantly surprised at the artist’s voices. One of my favorites tonight was “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” I just love old Southern gospel.
But to get back to the drunk people, oh they were funny. There are few things in life funnier than watching drunk rednecks dance, especially the older women (not senior citizens, but those who are in their late 40’s – early 60’s - the oldest women who typically attend concerts) who are always wearing a skirt that is a bit too short and some sort of animal print) or the middle aged men, who typically wear a thick gold chain and have on way too much cologne. By the way: Dear stocky white redneck guy in his mid-to-late thirties wearing denim shorts and dancing/convulsing like a banshee tonight: Did the fact that you were flipping the bird with both hands at the stage while you were dancing mean that you really like the show or really hated it?! Very confusing for those of us who were watching you the entire time.
So, all in all it was a GREAT concert! I would definitely see them again! I know Brent is just so happy that I have broadened his musical horizons. 
And with that, I will leave you with this:
Nothing wrong with a little iPhone love!
