Earlier this year, Av had a function in Tuscaloosa, so we made it a nice weekend and spent some time in the area — of course took the boys to campus so they could have their pictures made with the statues outside the stadium:
…had lunch at what has to be my new favorite restaurant there — Shiraz International Grill:
…and tried Priceline for the first time. We had a couple of ideas as to where to stay, but I opened the Priceline app to see what they had as options, and they had one of those ‘secret’ deals where they tell you what general location the hotel is, how many stars it has, etc but not exactly which hotel it is (until you book it) in exchange for a super-good rate. I could tell from the details it gave that there was only one property it could possibly be — the Yellowhammer Inn and Conference Center. The most surprising part was that the room was only $39! How could this be? I consulted with Av and sure that we had guessed the only place it could possibly be, we got it right and booked into a room at the Yellowhammer that I think otherwise was going for about $120 that evening.
The grounds are beautiful and you can take a fantastic walk around the neighborhood, even to Lake Tuscaloosa. This was the view from our window:
Before leaving for home, we needed to go back to the campus at Alabama for something, and I told Av that we should drive by Bryce Hospital since it is right there, and although I had been to campus a million times I’d never really seen it. I wanted to get some pictures of it, because I knew the architect was Samuel Sloan who among others designed Longwood in Natchez:
Photograph in the public domain, courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, MS-1-1
and Rosemont in Columbus MS:
Photograph in the public domain, courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, MISS,44-COLUM,2-1
So we drove up — ‘new’ Bryce is actually the older one, and ‘old’ Bryce is the newer one, but you can definitely see which is in better condition.
Bryce has its own security, so when we drove by this building (this one not designed by Sloan) below, we were pulled over. The very nice gentleman asked what we were up to, and when I explained that I was interested in architecture and just wanted to take some pictures from the car, that I thought it was okay since we were on campus, he explained that the university hasn’t yet taken over so it’s still technically private property. Oops. He was still really nice though.
Another reason why they are so careful about people on the property is that they occasionally have people go inside and vandalize. People who have gone in with a camera I think do it because of this, this, this, and this.
