When the work stuff was done, however, I drove back to my hotel and changed into leisure wear more suitable to exploring Birmingham in 89 degree, humid weather. Then off I went to my first new thing of the day, a visit to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. I haven't visited botanical gardens as an adult, and even as a child it was not voluntary. But now I'm a homeowner and have dipped my toe into gardening, so I thought I'd give it a go. Wow! I wandered around from area to area and just found myself smiling while looking at this or that. One minute I'm wandering through Alabama Woodlands, then I come around a turn in the path and am facing a Japanese Garden, complete with a raked sand garden and a large pond with many turtles and the largest koi I've ever seen!
Other areas included the Southern Living garden, ferns, bog (didn't spend long there - it featured mosquitos, apparently), herbs and vegetables, roses, formal areas and woodsy areas, rainforest (in a greenhouse), and lots and lots of paths on which to wander. They also have various gazebos with benches, as well as hanging bench swings throughout, on which you can sit back and enjoy the surroundings. I took tons of pictures on the Canon Rebel - I'll load these up when I return home. For now, here's an iPhone shot of a very large bunny I came across in the herb garden:
And to top it all off, admission is completely free! The are open until sunset, and you can just wander in and out as you please. They also host events, and a wedding party was just arriving as I was departing. The bride was lovely. She looked totally out of place in the Nissan beater from which she emerged, but that's neither here nor there. Once out of the car and into the gardens, it was perfect.
It's probably a good thing I don't live here, as I could easily fall into another habit. I can picture myself coming here every day at lunch or after work. As I've mentioned, once I find something I like it becomes part of my routine. Just ask my facebook friends who are sick of seeing my lunchtime Runkeeper post and map link of my walk around Horn Pond in Woburn.
Usually when I'm on a work trip by myself, I end up getting some fast food crapfest and taking it back to my room. If I'm with colleagues, I'm all over TripAdvisor and Urban Spoon, finding the coolest, most hip and best-reviewed restaurant for us to try. Not by myself, though. So tonight, while relaxing on one of the many benches scattered throughout the gardens, I pulled out the iPhone, fired up the LocalPicks app from TripAdvisor, and checked out nearby eats. I selected Veranda on Highland, a Cajun-Creole, local foods, fine dining kind o'place. I rang them up, and was on my way in with a reservation for a tavola per uno, armed with Julie and Julia for reading. When dining alone, it's important to have something to read so that it's not obvious that you're spending much of your time observing the other diners and doing "the restaurant thing," as my wife calls it, which involves unobtrusively overhearing bits of conversations from other tables. I highly recommend this book, but not for dining. It's hard to be unobtrusive when you're actually laughing out loud. It wasn't a guffaw, but it was a very noticable giggle.
As for the food, I considered the turtle soup since the server highly recommended it. Then I recalled all the wonderful turtles that had been sunning themselves in the pond at the Japanese garden, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead I had the Crispy Appalachacola Oysters with Grilled Sweet Corn Vinaigrette, Basil Oil and Corn Relish for my appetizer, and the Creole Seasoned Gulf Fish on Sweet Corn Succotash Drizzled with Lemon Herb Oil (today's catch was red grouper) for the entree. Oh my god, I was on the verge of picking up my plates to lick off the remaining sauce. Now, these choices were also new things for me. I like oysters, but I like my oysters raw. Preferably plucked out of Welfleet harbor within minutes of serving. These were batter dipped and fried up, but not heavy-greasy fried up. Just crispy coated and light. And the corn relish was light and bright and fabulous. As for the entree - I pretty much never order fish in a restaurant. I don't think Julie (wife) has ever seen me order fish, and we've been together for over ten years. And I've never had grouper anywhere. The mere mention of succotash brings back childhood memories of this canned combination of corn, peas and lima beans heated up into a hot mushy substance that vaguely resembled vegetables. Veranda did not serve my mother's succotash. The veggies were fresh and slightly crisp, each with their own distinct flavor but that all blended together so very nicely.
To wrap it up, I made an effort at caving to an old habit by ordering the creme brulee, but the restaurant saved me by being out of it. So my final new thing for the evening was key lime pie. Up in New England, at least wherever I've seen it, key lime pie is akin to jello pie. It's this whipped nothingness that is face puckeringly over-tart, and once it's cleared into your stomach it doesn't really leave anything pleasant behind on your taste buds. You may imagine that with these kinds of associations in my head, I don't order it. But tonight I did. I have to say, it's still not one of my favorites, but it was a lot better down here in the south than what we yankees can get at home. It was creamy, slightly tart but not overbearingly so, and rolled around nicely on the tastebuds.
So all in all, a good day of firsts. On the way back to the hotel I caught sight of the illuminated Vulcan, the largest cast iron statue in the world. I'll have to go to Vulcan Park on my return trip this fall. In case you haven't followed the links, it's Vulcan the Roman god, not the live long and prosper type. Although I would not hesitate to see a 56-foot cast iron Spock. T'Pol would be even better.
Tomorrow, it's back to Boston. I haven't thought of what my new thing will be, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for opportunities.
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