We visited our son at Samford University’s Family Weekend and it was a great start to autumn. Birmingham is four hours north of Fairhope, but the weather seems like another planet. Once you leave our low coastal area and move into what seem like huge mountains to us, the air is crisper and much cooler. Samford University puts on a beautiful football weekend for the families of students with a great tailgating area, campus tours and my favorite . . . cupcakes that spell out words! How did they know Moms love that sort of thing?
Being in Birmingham is my chance to visit the larger stores we don’t have in Fairhope, like my favorites, Restoration Hardware (above) and The (elusive) Apple Store (for a new iphone case). And yes, once again, I’m appealing to our hometown hero, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple to bring a little Apple Store to us in Baldwin County!
Our Southern Jubilee Blogger’s group kicked off our Fall meeting with a social media conference at The University of South Alabama Baldwin Campus. Front left: Lorraine who blogs at CLAMCO, Hope from Crafty Hope. Second row, Kim from CoziNest and Karyn from Professor Storytime and Swim Team Lifestyle (two blogs, and also my favorite children’s author). And on the back row with me, Alan from Stump The Librarian.
Afterwards, we went to lunch in Fairhope’s French Quarter at local favorite, Panini Pete’s. We’re very excited Pete is opening a new restaurant called, “Sunset Point” in a few short weeks. More on that delicious development later.
Our group took a few moments to stroll around Downtown Fairhope and enjoy the gorgeous Autumn colored flowers. Pink ribbons supporting breast cancer awareness month are tied to all our light posts, and once again, the fountain at the rose garden is tinted pink.
Even the garbage cans are decked and ready for cooler weather.
Store owners are scurrying around making everything festive for fall, even though our idea of “cooler” still means temps in the low 80’s for now. Nights are mercifully in the 60’s. Buurrrr!!! Make some chili and put on a sweater, for cryin’ out loud!
The best part of the afternoon with friends was a quick dash into the new(ish) FMC Chocolates & Confectioneries, also located in the French Quarter area. I’ll make sure to share more with you about this decadent new addition to downtown at a later date.
But let me just explain this right now . . . even fancy big Birmingham doesn’t have chocolate like this.
There’s no place like home.
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