Sweet Home Alabama, I’m Comin’ to Visit You

Road tripping to Alabama was great because I got to see the “Sweet Home Alabama Welcomes You” sign as we drove in. Sorry that song is now stuck in your head :)

I’ll just say up front that the drive to Alabama was great – baby Owen was a great travel companion (sleep most of the time we were in the car) and catching up with Stephanie and talking about random and meaningful things was awesome.

Traveling on Black Friday was also awesome because there were not that many people around. The only down side is a lot of things were closed that would have been cool to explore in Montgomery.

Never fear, we found some great gems anyway!

Walking around State Capitol buildings is very fun for me. I don’t know why they are so fascinating to me, but they are. And they are usually beautiful. This one was no exception. And in addition to the building being interesting, they also had something I hadn’t seen before – flags from each state with a stone in front with the state name engraved, and the stones appeared to come from the state. Like lava rock for Hawaii. Very cool.

Then came the best part - meeting Santa at the first White House of the Confederacy!

The man in charge of the White House of the Confederacy was Santa. He even Skypes with kids these days if he has to stop working on their toys to encourage them to be good so he can finish and deliver them! 

He also let me take a picture of his key to the North Pole workshop :)

The rooms and other artifacts on display were pretty neat! Every time I see things like this I wish that I lived in that era. And then I think about being covered in so much material all the time and I change my mind.

There were also fun facts and pictures and things like the "pocket pistol" pictured below:

 

It was also interesting to walk around town and see some of the historic buildings and learn a little more about the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery.

On our way out of town I also saw this gem - a sign for a Daddy-Daughter Diamond Princess Ball! 

It brought back good memories of doing similar activities with my father when I was younger. I hope it was well attended and many great memories were created!