Andy's First Visit

So, my boyfriend Andy is a Yankee....yes, a real-live Yankee doodle boy. Ok, that might be a little much, but his only trip to the South involves Georgia, an excess of peaches and intense memories of the subsequent gastrointestinal experience. Despite this, he braced himself and flew to Alabama for his first adult deep South experience.

The first night he got to meet some of my resident classmates, which is good because they will basically be my hospital family for the next 4 years. He entertained them so well with his story of carrying a moon rock through airport security (ask him sometime, it's a good story) that they are still talking about it! We also checked out my local pub, which is approximately 100 ft from my apartment, which boasts the largest draft beer selection in town.

The next day we explored Sloss Furnaces. Birmingham is a relatively new Southern city; it basically exists because this area has the highest concentration of the 3 ingredients of iron (iron ore, coal and limestone) in the world.

This giant thing brought huge amounts of raw ingredients from the railroad at the bottom to the top of the furnace.

Sloss was one of the largest producers of iron in Birmingham in their heyday and remains a very prominent part of the Birmingham landscape. We never quite figured out what these were, but likely related to huge amount of gas and steam that was created, and used, by the furnace.

Subsequently it became a historical landmark and also has an art focus, with classes, studio space for artists and a yearly iron pour.

Sculptures near the first stage of the water treatment part of the furnaces.

That's one big wrench!

What is it about boys and trains?

The next day we visited another prominent Birmingham landmark, The Vulcan. Vulcan is the Roman god of "beneficial and hindering fire, whether helpful or harmful, including the fire of volcanoes" (dontcha just love Wikipedia?!). The statue of Vulcan in Birmingham was made for the St. Louis World Fair to commemorate the productivity of the area's iron industry.
Vulcan has had quite an eventful life in terms of traveling to St. Louis for the fair and has resided in several spots in Birmingham. It now lives high atop Red Mountain, which is about 1/2 a mile from my place and you can get a great view of the city from the observation deck (which you can see at the bottom of the above picture) if the heights don't terrify you.


Speaking of bottoms, Andy really wanted to visit the Vulcan. Why? Well, the most recent renovation to Vulcan required a large fund raiser, part of which involved making numerous bronze replicas of the famous guy. Andy worked at the foundry that made the replicas....small world, eh? Anyway, his strongest memory of this task was the time he spent shaping a particular portion of the statue.

I'll leave it to you to figure out which portion. This is also a story worth asking him about, but if your time is limited, go for the moon rock one.

All too quickly it was back to the airport, but I'm sure we will have some more fun in B'ham together.