OUR FAVORITE EATS IN BHAM

Dude the food in Alabama is INCREDIBLE.  I posted on my instagram a few months ago that Alabama has turned me into a foodie and I am so happy about it! All my life I have been one that went to a party and could care less about the food, I would rather socialize with people. I don't even know what happened, but I've changed! haha. And I feel like I finally understand what all the hype for good food is about! I've had tons of people ask me where our favorite restaurants were in Bama, so here is a list of all that I can think of!

• Saw's Juke Joint: The best BBQ around! When we first moved to Alabama, we decided we needed to find the best BBQ because that's what everyone raves about in the South! So every week for date night we would go try a new place and we are seriously obsessed with Saw's! But you have to go to this location...Saw's and Saw's Soul Kitchen are also owned by the same people but don't have as good of a menu in our opinion and are not as big.  Saw's Juke Joint also has live bands on the weekends! Basically everything here is good, but some of our favorite dishes are the pork baker (think huge Idaho potato stuffed with pulled pork, bacon bits, cheese, green onions, sour cream and smothered in BBQ sauce), the pork and greens (a true Southern meal! cheese grits, greens, pulled pork, and the best dang onion rings ever), and their wings! Hands down the BEST wings we have EVER had. Life changing! They also have the most delicious BBQ sauce that is vinegar based and a white BBQ sauce that is equally as good. We made sure to bring some BBQ sauce with us to Pennsylvania! :)
• Mugshots: the most amazing burgers with sourdough buns! Our favorite non-fast food burger joint ever!
• Bottega: coconut pecan cake. amen. (plus everything else there is seriously amazing).
• Chez Fon Fon: go on Thursdays at lunch and have their amazing crab cakes! 
• Frank Stitt is the owner and executive chef of Bottega, Chez Fon Fon, and Highlands Grill. He is world renowned and after eating at any of his restaurants you'll understand why! Go eat some amazing Southern dishes with French, Italian, and Mediterranean flair.
• Niki's West: the best meat and three! What's a meat and three? The South is famous for them...it's cafeteria style with any meat and three sides for a set price. You better know what you want when you get to the front, otherwise they aren't going to be very happy with you! We recommend any of the following: catfish with tartar sauce (best tartar sauce we've ever tasted), spinach, mac'n'cheese, rutabaga, fried green tomatoes, broccoli, rolls, fried okra, and banana pudding -- it's the best in town, we guarantee! 
• Dreamland BBQ: their ribs and BBQ sauce are soooo good! We are picky rib eaters because we prefer to make our own, but we loved these!
• Steel City Pops: organic, fresh, gourmet popsicles with constantly changing flavors. I've never had one I didn't like! Some of our all-time favorites are: strawberry-lemon, buttermilk, peanut butter, and avocado.
• El Barrio: the most incredible Mexican restaurant! Totally hipster and fills up super fast so get there early! Also, if you don't mind family-style seating then you can usually be seated faster. We hear their meatloaf is super popular, but we weren't crazy about it.We love their bottomless salsa, shrimp quesadilla, al carbon tacos, and their chopped romaine and spinach salad. 
• Bettola: a delicious Italian restaurant with the yummiest thin crust pizza! It's one of those places where you can't read a single thing on the menu so you just pick whatever is the most fun to say. ;) Sit outside if you can, it's lovely! 
• Five: a restaurant that is designed for those who get overwhelmed easily...there are only five choices in each category (appetizers, entrees, etc.) Go during lunch hours because it's the same menu, just cheaper. We love their appetizers more than anything and recommend the baked avocado and uptown shrimp.
• Big Bad Wolves' BBQ in Tuscaloosa: BBQ NACHOS NEED I SAY MORE?! Sooo good. This pop-up BBQ joint is on University Avenue, really close to the Bryant-Denny Stadium and is only there for home football games! Make sure you get some nachos before heading to a game and make sure you throw in a "roll tide" in place of a thank you if you want to fit in!
• Crawfish Boil: this is a Southern tradition that you don't want to miss! Every spring in April you can find buckets of crawfish simmering in cajun seasoning along with some corn, sausage, and potatoes. Cover a table with newspaper, dump the bucket onto the table, and gather 'round for some seriously yummy food. Make sure you have a local teach you how to eat them and suck out the heads! (It sounds so gross but it's amazing).
• Blue Belle icecream: we are obsessed! They change their flavors year round and we love them all! Sometimes Walmart sells them for half-off which is a great day because they are expensive! G tells everyone that you can pull out Blue Belle from your freezer and it's soft enough to scoop and always tastes amazing. You can also pay for the scoop at The Whole Scoop in Hoover (and they give a giant scoop! we love the turtle flavor here).  And we never went, but heard that the Blue Belle Factory in Sylacauga is fun and gives out free samples!
• Zaxby's: Chick-fil-a's competitor. We love their chicken but like Chick-fil-a's fries so it's a toss up!
• Donut Joe's in Pelham: to die for! Get their maple bacon, classic, and blueberry cake donuts!
• Heavenly Donuts: we like their donuts alright but we really go on Saturday mornings for their beignets! Hurry over because they sell out fairly quick.
• Taco Truck: right by Regions Field. We tried one of each taco, but our favorite was easily the steak tacos. And I think they are only $3 a plate if I remember correctly! 
• Bahama Bucks: Our literal last night in Birmingham we were introduced to this place (thank you Johnsons!) and I still crave it/think about it! haha. Best. sno cones. ever. RUN, don't walk. We loved the snickerdoodle!
• Eli's Jerusalem Grill: a taste of home!!!!! I was SO excited to find this place and it totally lived up to my expectations! Eli is from Jerusalem and usually working so it's fun to chat with him. One wall is covered with a giant picture of a spice market in the Old City and the other wall is covered with a giant picture of the Western Wall / Dome of the Rock. I refuse to buy pitas from the grocery store because they just don't taste as good as they did in Jerusalem, but these took me right back! I recommend their pitas and hummus (duh), falafel sandwich, beef/lamb schawarma sandwich, and a slice of knafeh to share! But seriously, I don't think you can go wrong here.
• Mi Pueblo: is actually a store, but has a restaurant inside too! This store has food from many different Hispanic countries and has really cheap and fresh produce.  Make sure to get some fresh tortillas (corn or flour) from the tortilleria and some goodies from the bakery! We also love the pineapple Jarritos brand drink. 

And now you may finally understand why we came away from Alabama with a little more on our bones than we arrived with! hahaha. There's more of us to love, right??? hahaha.

CLAWSONS COME TO VISIT!

Ohhhh man. I think it's safe to say that these past six months have been crazy! I am waaay behind on this blog, so this marks the start of me getting things together and getting caught up! Yay! I've been making long a list of everything I want to write about.  I think documenting life is so important, and if you haven't noticed I kind of struggle keeping caught up. Regardless, I still think it's important and I still want to look back on this someday! 

So waaaay back in the beginning of the year, the Clawsons (aka the A Clowns) came to visit us in Alabama! Spencer and Gordy have been friends since high school (maybe before that??) and he and Hayley are just the best! We showed them all around Birmingham and had a blast!! Some highlights included: Niki's West for some great Southern food, the Vulcan, the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, Steel City Pops, and Sloss Furnaces. It's always weird to look back in the summer and see yourself wearing a coat. Anyone with me? It's like my mind forgets what it's like to be cold for a minute and I'm honestly not complaining about it. Here are some pictures!

^^ We dared each other to walk across this sketchy part....

and everyone made it there and back alive! ^^

^^ I just love this girl! ^^

^^ The view of our city behind us! also feat. G's magical windswept hair. ^^

^^ So we had finished roaming around Sloss and we saw a group of boys climbing quickly down the side of the tallest tower.  Obviously, G just had to do what they did and go to the top of the tower that was clearly off limits. He tried for a long time to get me on board, but I didn't really want to go and get caught and kicked out. Plus the stairs looked a little sketchy! Finally he pulled the "You're not fun anymore. Where did the fun girl I married go?" card in front of our friends which totally hurt my feelings and got him the result he wanted. I went up the tower. It was one of those moments that totally stings but you laugh about now, you know? haha. Don't worry, he apologized and I've been reinstated to the "Best Wife Ever" status. ;)  The pictures above are from the top of the tower and I have totally admitted that it was worth it to climb up and get those pics. ^^

^^ Spencer's smug grin says it all! If you know these two, 

then you know that they were in heaven! ^^

Bikes on bikes on bikes on bikes....

^^ My personal favorite! You can just pack it up! ^^

Thanks, Clawson's for such a great weekend! We love you guys mucho!!

OUR CRAZY ROAD TRIP!

Birmingham.....Chicago.....Rochester....Pennsylvania....Chapel Hill.....Birmingham

I was skimming through my pictures and realized that I never blogged about this huge trip we took! And this simply cannot be forgotten.  This was the craziest road trip, but so much fun!! G left for Chicago for the annual ACHE conference while I stayed and worked for another week. about 3 hours into his drive, I walked into our bedroom to see his garment bag full of suits hanging on the wall. NOOOOO. So I drove to meet him half way and he finally got to Chicago way later than planned! He had a great time at the conference, networked a lot, at some yummy food, and took some great classes.  He also got to see some of our closest friends from Alabama which I was super jealous about! Maybe next year I'll just have to tag along. ;) Special thanks to the McMinn's for letting me come sleepover so I didn't have to be alone and sad.  haha. 

I flew into Chicago and we ate lunch with two of my cousins--Chicago deep dish pizza, of course! Soon after, we hit the road and began our long drive to Rochester.  The worst part of the entire trip was paying $30 on the toll road just to get through Ohio! Seriously Ohio, not cool.  We finally made it to Rochester at 2:30 am and surprised Spencer for his birthday!!! We had a blast with the Cravens and talked nonstop about how awesome it was going to be to live so close to each other! We also explored this abandoned subway station that was way cool but also super creepy. If we went any further into the tunnel I'm positive we would have died. hahaha.

^^ Spencer is in medical school and was taking us on a tour of the hospital and showed us this display. Some probably think it's creepy, but I thought it was so neat! ^^

^^ We went to the Rochester farmer's market and 

got some of their spice donuts which were YUM! ^^

We drove down to Pennsylvania and began our 5-day house hunting trip! I was SO excited to finally see this town and hospital that G had been telling me about since his interview in October. And let me just tell you....we loved it.  We totally fell in love with it! I especially loved meeting the other fellows, G's boss, and all of our welcoming ward members! We had a bit of a crazy time in PA searching for a house because the market up there is insane. The first day we looked at 18 homes and by that evening, 15 of them were sold.  What!? Every day was like this! We got outbid three times on different homes, so every day we had to start back at square one.  It was an emotionally exhausting time, but then our realtor found the perfect house for us and we immediately jumped on it. They accepted our offer right then and good thing too because we were already on our way out of town and didn't have time to see any more homes! 

^^ The home buying process is a doozy! ^^

^^ We got a new niece and loved all the pics since we weren't in the same state. 

Sweet little Eliza! She's so cute!^^

Then we drove down to North Carolina to spend the weekend with our siblings and nieces. Those girls are sooo cute and we just had so much fun playing with them. We went on an Easter egg hunt, met our niece for the first time, went to the life and science museum, and celebrated Natalie's birthday. It's always hard to leave them, but we finished our drive back to Birmingham which completed our huge road trip! 

^^ G is such a fun uncle and was wheeling these girls around the store so much that they were squealing and laughing so hard! It was the cutest thing. ^^

^^ CHICKEN AND WAFFLES YUMMM. seriously so good. ^^ 

I've always loved road trips because I grew up doing them multiple times a year. Since we've been dating, G and I have been on many road trips together. I love the quality and quantity of time you get to spend with each other and it's like you can just talk and talk and talk for hours. Not to mention that seeing so many different parts of the country is pretty amazing! When I drive, I feel like I see so much more of this blessed USA and I just love that. They're the best, in my opinion!