The first night, I was surprised at the sprawl and the warmth. I didn't put on my winter coat the entire weekend (since it hovered around the 50s and 60s!) We went to midnight sushi at a local bite, and Valerie ran into friends of hers. (Go figure... 24,000 undergrads and we find someone she knows.)
We rented a car for a few days, for convenience, and she began showing me campus the next day (as I sat in on a class she TA'ed for). Then, it was off on a walk to see the library, the newest engineering buildings, the tree-filled quad (and the part that wasn't tree-filled), the mental institution that is just by campus, their stadium (Roll Tide!). I was in the presence of greatness.
She made sure to go inside her favorite building, Reese Phifer Hall, with the speech team rooms inside. When we went inside, she found others to invite out to lunch at Mugshots, the local burger joint. (Peanut butter burger? It exists, protein-full and more delicious than you might think.)
After a very filling lunch, we finished up the campus tour by going to the student center and I found the new love of my life:
Why don't we have something like this on CMU's campus?
Those two days were also amazingly gorgeous weather, even for Alabama. We had frozen yogurt, and it was melting. I had to take off my jacket while we were walking. What a pick-me-up from the gray Pittsburgh weather.
We had a couple more Southern institutions that we had to visit. One was Dreamland Barbeque, the sketchiest building with the most comforting interior. Every meal starts with slices of Wonderbread and BBQ sauce (interesting...), then some ribs (yum), and banana pudding (quadruple yum).
We went into Birmingham before my flight left the next day to see the Vulcan, the largest cast-iron statue, and the art museum (which had some Chihuly pieces, go figure). We wandered a bit, but it was getting chilly and threatening to drizzle, so I got my ride to the airport with a dozen gates, and flew back to sub-freezing temperatures.
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