<p>DS is a junior. He loves schools with warm weather and good football teams. He does not know what he wants to major in. He likes to play trumpet and ultimate Frisbee. He wants to be sure to get a chance to study abroad. (He’s a high school athlete looking forward to intramural sports in college.)</p>
<p>Here is our tentative itinerary for a mom and DS trip to look at Auburn and Alabama over DS’s four-day President’s Day weekend. (I like to plan ahead.) DH may join us on Fri or Mon if he can make it the extension of a business trip.</p>
<p>Thurs Feb 17 - fly to Montgomery after school. Pick up rental car.
Fri Feb 18 - tour of Auburn
Sat Feb 19 - a little more time in Auburn, with lunch/brunch. Then drive to Tuscaloosa.
Sun Feb 20 - r and r in Tuscaloosa. Spend some time walking around campus. Maybe go to the football museum.
Mon Feb 21 - Attend the “University Days” college visit
Monday at 4 or so - drive to Birmingham
Monday at 7 or so - fly home to Ohio</p>
<p>Alamo is not hitting us with a surcharge for picking the car up in Montgomery and dropping it off in Birmingham, which is nice. I was thinking for Auburn we’d say at the Holiday Inn Express near campus and for Alabama we’d stay at the university’s hotel on campus.</p>
<p>We are open to any suggestion of things to be sure to see, ideas for Friday night in Auburn or for Saturday night and Sunday night in Tuscaloosa. Thanks in advance for any ideas. I had posted this on the parents form and it was suggested I might get good input on our plans to visit Alabama if I posted here.</p>
<p>We visited with both schools honors colleges a few weeks ago. In Auburn we stayed at the Sleep Inn and at Bama we stayed at the MicroTel. Both were reasonably priced and had clean comfortable, no issues at all. I would definatle suggest “Nick in the Sticks” as a restaurant while visiting Bama. Very good steak at a great price, don’t expect a beautiful building but you will eat well!!</p>
<p>FWIW…DS enjoyed both cities and campuses, but the general presentation at Auburn felt a bit “plastic” to him. It was very full of history and tradition and really didn’t hit on many academic points, since he is an academic kid it just didn’t feel right. Bama impressed both DS and I. Great campus, and the profs treated DS like an adult and seemed to truly care about his thought and opinions. They also shared some info for him to consider during the search process.</p>
<p>Hope your trip goes well.</p>
<p>Your itinerary looks great. If your son is interested in being in an honors college, I would contact them about scheduling visits with professors/deans, sitting in on a class, and lunch with a current student. At UA, you would contact Jami Gates (<a href=“mailto:jami.n.gates@ua.edu”>jami.n.gates@ua.edu</a> or (205) 348-5599) about scheduling these events. If your son is interested in CBHP or University Fellows, mention that to Jami.</p>
<p>Also, there are not many (3, IIRC) flights out of Birmingham that leave at 6PM or later (Atlanta, Charlotte, and Dallas Love Field). The good news is that any flight that departs at 5 PM or later will still give you a full day in Tuscaloosa.</p>
<p>I hope y’all have a great visit to both UA and Auburn.</p>
<p>I see a problem.</p>
<p>**UDays does not have a campus tour, **so you’d miss that and that’s an important thing.</p>
<p>Spending time on Sunday walking around campus is not the same as a campus tour since you won’t know what you’re looking at nor will you know what specifically to look at. Plus, many buildings will be locked.</p>
<p>UDays is really for students who’ve toured the campus on another day.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll get a fair appraisal of Bama if you don’t go on a real campus tour.</p>
<p>I think you should reverse your days…tour Bama first.</p>
<p>I don’t think there will be campus tours that day for those who don’t go to UDays since employees are busy with UDays ( you can’t go by the online schedule, you’d have to ask the school.) IF there are tours, I’d skip some of UDays and do a tour. (But, again, I don’t think there will be tours that day.) </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>^mom2collegekids is truly THE expert on all things Bama …</p>
<p>BUT, my son and I happen to have a different opinion than m2ck regarding the campus tour. It was the least favorite, least valuable part of our tour. We didn’t dislike it. We don’t have anything negative to say about it. It was fine. But, it really didn’t improve upon the rest of our visit, for the most part. </p>
<p>We may have gained a tidbit of knowledge by the student who led our tour – but really, most of our questions had already been answered at the prior Honors visit, Departmental visits, lunch with a student, and Residence Hall tour. VERY little additional informaiton was gleaned on the tour.</p>
<p>Basically, we rode around on a hot bus (your bus won’t be hot in February 
), and the very nice and impressive student tour guide pointed out which buildings were which and answered occasional questions from the “audience.” Then, we all got out at the beautiful rec center/gym and looked around. Then we drove around a little more while he pointed out more buildings. That was about it! </p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t rearrange any plans I was already happy with, just to include the tour, particularly since you have time to view all the buildings on your own – and they’re all labeled. </p>
<p>Just my opinion – and my son’s.</p>
<p>I wish we could do both! We are looking forward to the University Days program, though. It will be nice to spend some time with a lot of other prospective students and parents. </p>
<p>We’ll try to get a feel of the campus on Sunday, walking through it. Should we drive a loop of some sort? I know it is a big campus. The Bear Bryant museum sounds like fun. Looks like the book store is not open on Sundays.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your suggestions. You are a very helpful group. :)</p>
<p>As I gave you some information in your other thread, I won’t repeat it here. However here is some additional info.</p>
<p>My son and I never did the “official” bus tour, and I don’t think that we missed very much at all, except the bus ride. We did explore the campus together and individually. I just can’t keep pace with my son (LOL).</p>
<p>There are some other things you can do if you call to arrange it, you can have lunch with a student ambassador (we lunched at lakeside). There were several families and several ambassadors which gave us a chance to ask many questions. There was a little walking tour and we saw the honor’s dorms. We saw the inside of the buildings and rooms. They are very impressive.
There is The Alabama Museum of Natural History which is very nice. It is not open on Sunday but is open on Saturday till 4:30.
We went late in the day (needed more time) but still enjoyed it very much.</p>
<p>We’ve got tickets to the 2/19 Saturday night basketball game, Alabama vs. Arkansas at 6 p.m. That should be fun.</p>
<p>Sunday, we plan to hang around on campus; we are staying at the Capstone.
We’ll definitely go to the Bear Bryant Museum. Is there anyplace any of you would recommend for a particularly good Sunday brunch or Sunday night dinner? (I will remember the “Nick in the Sticks” idea.)</p>
<p>On Monday we are heading home on US Air through Charlotte. The flight leaves Birmingham at 6:55 p.m. so we’ll have all day in Tuscaloosa on Monday.</p>
<p>I don’t think Nicks is open on Sunday. </p>
<p>Some restaurants are closed on Sundays…but usually chains are open on Sunday (not Chick Fil A, though). </p>
<p>Sunday Brunch…</p>
<p>FIG…Food is Good! north on McFarland (over the river) and on the right side.</p>
<p>Sunday dinner…</p>
<p>In Midtown Village on McFarland (cross street is 15th)</p>
<p>Longhorn…for steaks</p>
<p>Iguana Grill …for Mexican</p>
<p>Wings U…for wings and gourmet pizza and other goodies.</p>
<p>will there be any places of worship you’ll be visiting on Sunday? I think I know where all the temple/churches are.</p>
<p>Thanks for the brunch idea! And the steaks/Mexican suggestions!</p>
<p>Churches: I scoped out and found the United Methodist church right on the edge of campus, although I don’t know that we’ll make it to church on this trip. I saw from the church web site that there is a college youth retreat this weekend so the UA students who are most active in that congregation will likely be out of town.</p>
<p>I should mention that some of those restaurants in Midtown Village are located towards that back of the complex…so you won’t see Iguana Grill or Wings U from the street. </p>
<p>If you go into the parking lot and drive behind Barnes and Noble, you’ll see them on opposite sides.</p>
<p>Looks like the Udays attendees will have some great weather!</p>
<p>Yes! Warm enough that some will be in shorts!</p>