Fun in Florence

You can see here, I really enjoyed meeting Natalie in Florence but the real reason of the trip of course was family time!
Happy and I swept into town on Thursday since travel time (lengthy connections) were so long, we figured it would be nice to have a little more time.
That little more time consisted of chilling with the lions at the University campus, chowing down at Trowbridge’s (egg and olive sammich plus Caramel Pie milk shake!) and getting absolutely blitzed at On The Rocks, the local bar. Did we really have 10 Long Island Iced Teas? I haven't had one of those since Thanksgiving Day in London in 1998. But we jammed to the country band, chilled with the locals and giggled alot.

The next morning I was still drunk, but breakfast at our B&B was divine. After our visit with Natalie, Mom and Angela showed up and we walked around town, ate at Trowbridge’s again and saw the lions again. Do you see a trend here? There ain't much to do in Florence! Sadly, recession has taken this town by storm and many stores were closed.

We did check out the Frank Lloyd Wright house that was fascinating and a local restaurant that wasn't too exciting, but they tried.

Saturday we headed to the very grand sounding town of Tuscumbia to tour the birthplace of Helen Keller. That was interesting as well. Lots of original clothes, furniture, portraits. Unfortunately, there is little of the family china left, since as a child, when Helen lost her sight and sounds she often became frustrated and took it out on the china. Mother was not pleased.

A real highlight for me was going through ALL of my Africa images with mom and the girls and reliving the trip over several bottles of wine each evening. Only put them to sleep once!

And yes, I did mention we visited the lions. At the University of North Alabama they have a male and female black manned lion on display in a swanky cage with waterfall, pool, shade and play toys. It's true; I went all the way to Africa and didn't see one lion and travel to pokey Florence Alabama and see them daily. Sigh.

Was a good time as usual! Looking forward to next year, destination Miami!