Sweet Home Alabama

I love the South and Alabama in particular.  You get the "yes sir" and "yes ma'am" in the south.  People wave to you when you're driving by.  Folks will hold the door open for you.  Smoke actually comes out of the exhaust stacks of barbecue restaurants in the south.  What kind of real barbecue place doesn't have smoke coming out of its stack?  The kind without barbecue pits, that's what kind.  I digress.  Only in the south can you get SEC football, large mouth bass, Golden Flake potato chips, Blue Bell ice cream, black eyed peas, sweet tea and multiple American Idol winners.  Okay, so maybe you can get some of these things outside of the south, but it just ain't the same if you're not enjoying those things with company that boasts a friendly drawl or southern twang - especially company of the female persuasion with a sweet, syrupy southern accent.  I'm a very lucky man to have married my southern belle.  Yeah, Carol's drawl is pretty much gone but all it takes is that weekly phone call to her mama and she's back on the twang wagon once again.  At least for the duration of that phone call anyway.

So after leaving Korea in colorful and almost accident-free fashion (see previous blog post), we landed in Birmingham. Alabama to spend a few days of visiting with Carol's family.  Wish we could've stayed for the 4th of July, but the timing just didn't work out.  Still, it was good to get our Alabama fix.

We picked these from Uncle Sammy's blueberry bushes.  That's become a favorite summer past time now.  Nothing like grabbing a handful of these bad boys and plopping them in your mouth.  Veruca Salt, eat your heart out.

So these are the ones that CJ picked.  His are a little less "blue."  I'm thinking the reason is because of his slight colorblindness.  The setting sun didn't help much either.

Carol's Mom made a nice blueberry pie from Uncle Sammy's blueberry bushes.  The pie was quickly inhaled.  Eating massive quantities of food was a common theme during our time in Alabama.  Must get on a workout program soon. 

Gotta have dessert for a balanced meal.  Blue Bell is a southern staple...

 ...so are sleepy dogs on hot sidewalks.  The quick brown fox jumped over the ... For all of you that never took a typing class, I'll let you google the ending to that sentence. 

Although CJ's game of choice is chess these days, the boys enjoyed a friendly game of checkers down in the country.

What self respecting southerner doesn't own a Robert E. Lee statue or other Civil War print or memorabilia?

Here's the bookshelf of a beloved family member and obvious southerner.  While reading some of these books may help folks to better understand the south, to capture the true southern essence, you have to come on down and experience it for yourself.

One of our all time southern favorites.  Gotta love the CB.  This is where I discovered that pancakes with holes is a good thing.

I also discovered the simplest of intelligence tests at the Cracker Barrel.  Are you familiar with this game that they have on their tables?

Not to brag (which means I'm about to brag), according to my last attempt at this game, I'm a genius.

The view from Aunt Annie and Uncle David's porch.

 Chilling with the Alabama cousins.  Cooper is sporting a fresh mohawk.

 CJ with Uncle Sammy and Carol's Mom. 

The family was nice enough to do a pre-4th of July pool party since we couldn't be there for the big bash.  We even did the parade around the pool, honored the military veterans and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.  Very nice. 

We arrive in Memphis in two days.  Living in Tennessee, we'll be able to visit Carol's family a whole lot more now. This is the closest we've ever lived to family throughout my entire career. It's about a four hour drive from Memphis to Birmingham.  I'm thinking Carol's accent might become a little more prominent during this two year tour.  I'm hoping our eating habits won't mirror the last couple of days.  Either way, we're glad to be back in the south and closer to Sweet Home Alabama.

p.s.  Since we're no longer in Korea, changes will be coming to the blog.  Coming soon...