Advice from parents and current students, please?

<p>Dreamland:</p>

<p>From Birmingham:
Take I-20/59 South to McFarland Blvd Exit (#73).
Take a left onto McFarland Blvd.
Take a left onto Jug Factory Road
Go to the top of the hill, you’ll see a Dreamland sign
Take a right at the sign</p>

<p>Cracker Barrel:</p>

<p>4800 Doris Pate Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35405-3557
I-59 & Skyland Blvd, exit 76
(205) 562-8282 </p>

<p>If you’re staying at the Wingate (4918 Skyland Blvd. E.), you can practically (or literally) walk to the Cracker Barrel.</p>

<p>I’m not sure if I would recommend driving around Tuscaloosa during the heart of rush hour. You won’t get much of anywhere.</p>

<p>Also, instead of Cracker Barrel, I instead recommend trying the Waysider for breakfast.</p>

<p>yeah, i am not sure i would make cracker barrel a must see stop. you will probably run into some along the way to or from clemson. it is a decent place, but not a can’t miss place.</p>

<p>then maybe we should eat at the Dreamland in Bham, wait for rush hour traffic to die down and then head to Wingate. (Does T have that much traffic, is it that big?)</p>

<p>In that case,how do we get to the BHam dreamland that M2ck refers to from the Bham airport?</p>

<p>The traffic’s mostly on roads in the city - not on the interstate. Basically, it won’t affect you coming in from the Birmingham airport on Thursday (but Birmingham rush hour traffic might!). I think the Birmingham Dreamland is in Five Points, near the heart of Birmingham, so it won’t be too out of the way.</p>

<p>^ Yeah, I 20/59 isn’t that bad, at all actually, at least until you get near downtown Birmingham, but it’s still better I-240 here in Memphis. The main road in Tuscaloosa-McFarland Blvd.- has terrible traffic at pretty much most times earlier than 8 PM or so, not to mention that it’s planned poorly as well with all the side/access roads.</p>

<p>Directions to Dreamland Birmingham:</p>

<p>From the Airport:
Take I-20/59 toward Birmingham, take
I-65 South to the 4th Avenue South Exit, Stay on 4th Avenue until 14th Street take a right onto 14th Street South, Dreamland is at the corner of 15th Street South and 14th Avenue South.</p>

<p>*Itinerary
9:30 Jami
10 Dr Halli
11- Honor Symposium
12:30 lunch at Lakeside
1:30- tour of Ridgecrest Residential
2 – Ms Channel, Study Abroad programs
3 Dr Sharpe</p>

<p>then (on our own)
4-5 drive around T town to get a feel
5:30 – go to the 6:30 baseball game
9 pm head up to Clemson*</p>

<p>Since you’re not getting a campus tour, I suggest that when you leave the baseball stadium (will you have moved your car to the stadium?), that you drive to the Student Rec Center and quickly walk thru it. Just tell the people at the front that you’re visiting the campus and they’ll let you in to look around. North of the Rec Center is the Outdoor Aquatics Center, which many of the students enjoy when it’s warm outside. </p>

<p>Bama has a nice work out rec center with both indoor & outdoor pools. [Student</a> Recreation Center - The University of Alabama](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama) </p>

<p>Here’s a general listing of what the rec center has (scroll down): [The</a> University of Alabama Student Recreation Center](<a href=“http://urec.sa.ua.edu/facilities.cfm]The”>http://urec.sa.ua.edu/facilities.cfm) </p>

<p>It also an outdoor pool area with water-park style water slide and lazy river. Scroll Down to see outdoor pool area… [The</a> University of Alabama Student Recreation Center](<a href=“http://urec.ua.edu/aquatics-facilities.cfm]The”>http://urec.ua.edu/aquatics-facilities.cfm) The very bottom picture is a pool that is by the Super Suites housing.</p>

<p>From the baseball stadium to the Rec Ctr. Take 2nd Ave back up to University Blvd. Turn left onto 5th Ave (going north). You’ll pass the Student Health Center, the Tennis Courts, and then you’ll come to the Rec Ctr parking lot. After visiting the Rec Center, if you don’t want to walk to the outdoor pool area (north of the Rec Ctr), when you leave the parking lot, go left and it will be on the corner on your left.</p>

<p>M2ck’s idea about visiting the rec center after the game is a good one. Also, since you won’t have much time for a campus tour, consider watching the video tour at [iTour</a> Bama - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://itour.ua.edu/]iTour”>http://itour.ua.edu/) and then walking the campus on your own between 4 and 5 pm. The video tour is very well done. My son and I watched it, then had a wonderful time walking the campus on our own the day before our meetings.</p>

<p>Hmm…if you’re going to eat barbeque in Birmingham, I would actually recommend Jim 'N Nick’s in Five Points.</p>

<p>^^^</p>

<p>I agree. I think their BBQ is better than Dreamland. I’m not a big fan of Dreamland. Others can explain this better (since I’m a Californian and don’t know the BBQ lingo), but Dreamland seems too vinegary to me, while Jim n Nicks and some others taste better to me. In T-town, I like Full Moon BBQ. It looks a bit divey on the outside, but it’s nice on the inside.</p>

<p>Thanks for the barbecue recs, guys. Mom, thanks for the reassurance of Full Moon. I passed by it on the way to campus last time and was worried it would not be good. I did want to get some of the cookies, but hit Publix instead. I also do not like vinegary barbecue. I will definitely try Jim n Nicks next time I’m in Birmingham.</p>

<p>Full Moon has some nice Bama memorabilia inside, too.</p>

<p>Full Moon has the best pies I’ve ever tasted. It also does a larger of variety of meats than traditional southern BBQ joints like Dreamland or Archibald’s (Jim 'N Nick’s also has a good variety, I believe).</p>

<p>My youngest son would recommend skipping dinner and just go straight to Yogurt Mountain.</p>

<p>Where is Full Moon BBQ – again we would go there from the Bham airport. I was just considering Dreamland bc of earlier suggestions, but if ttown Dreamland donly has ribs and Full Moon has UA memorabilia and is eaiser to get to since I’m not familar with the area, that’s fine by me too.</p>

<p>^^^ [Full</a> Moon Bar-B-Que : “Best Little Pork House in Alabama” ™](<a href=“http://www.fullmoonbbq.com/locations.html]Full”>http://www.fullmoonbbq.com/locations.html)</p>

<p>Full Moon is way easier to get to. If you’re following M2KC’s directions to get to campus, Full Moon is on McFarland Blvd. on the right, a 1/4 mile south of University Blvd.</p>