<p>The Visit:
DS and I went down to UA for the Meet the Dean event this past Friday. Just let me start by saying the campus was twice as nice as I expected. Everything manicured and obviously well taken care of. The visit started in the Gorgas Library with a presentation by the Honors College. We arrived at the event a little early and were greeted at the orange juice table by a wonderful gentleman who introduced himself as Dr. Sharpe who we later learned was the Dean at the Honors College. He engaged my son and I in conversation for at least 10 minutes talking about everything from my DS choice of major, the Honors program to the club Lacrosse team. He was very personable and gave us what seemed like a very personalized one on one campus tour and informational. If you werent already in the Honors program youd have wished you did by the end of the event. After, we headed over to the Ridgecrest South dorms which were incredible. Four bedroom suites with kitchen and living room that could easily make do as a second home. We then headed over to the Lakeside dining hall for lunch. Nice size area with many dining choices including a soup corner. My son commented on how really good the potato/bacon soup was. We then broke up into groups by major college. ¾ of our group where there for the Engineering program which made our group (Business, DS majoring in Accounting) only about 8 strong. This small group enabled our Dean at the Business College Dr. Heggim to provide us with a more personalized explanation of each students major and their requirements. Since this stop at the Business College lasted 10 minutes longer than it was supposed to (well worth it) we all missed the scheduled Crimson Tour bus ride. Fortunately DS and I were able to jump onto another bus tour 20 minutes later where we were given an amazing tour by Crimson Lady Katie Lamberth. She was unbelievably knowledgeable with a million dollar personality who was well versed not only about the campus but UA history as well. Periodically Katie would ask everyone if they had a question, and when no one responded with one she would comically say well thats a great question or glad you asked that question and go on to describe some piece of UA trivia which everyone found both funny and informative. Overall a great information session and even better tour.</p>
<p>Football game:
Starting off the game at the Rama Jama for breakfast was quite the experience. Long wait but well worth it. This place although nothing pretty gave off such an air of pride and tradition into UA football with countless memorabilia hanging everywhere. Bryant-Denny stadium is tremendous. Tens of thousands of avid fans packed the stadium. The inside was very modern and nicer than any inside of any professional stadium I have ever seen and I have seen many. We were very lucky to have seats on the fifty yard line in the first row. Fifty yard line was great but first row not so great. Trying to see over the heads of very HUGE Alabama players was challenging to say the least but electrifying none the less. The fact that Bama went on to win as expected made it even better. The fact that the win coupled with two other teams losses brought them back into BCS contention was a bonus.</p>
<p>Hotel:
We stayed at the Hotel Capstone. Expensive but for us well worth it. We didnt to the hotel until 11:30pm, but not having to get up any earlier than we had to for travel to our event which was 2 short blocks from campus was well worth it particularly on gameday. </p>
<p>MAJOR HOTEL PLUS:
Unbeknownst to us this is the hotel that the entire UA Football team stays at the night before the game. Friday evening while heading down a back staircase enroute to dinner we encounter A.J. McCarren who gladly spoke for 2 minutes with DS and took a photo…PRICELESS</p>
<p>Restaurants:
Breakfast at the Rama Jama, very highly recommended. Great atmosphere and awesome breakfast. We ordered the SEC Championship breakfast. Awesome. DS still wouldnt try grits but Im working on it. I imagine a pretty young Crimson Lady may ask him to try grits someday and he would eat the equivalent of a five gallon pail no questions asked.</p>
<p>BBQ:
Tried both Dreamland/Northport and Jim and Nicks. We both found the ribs and pulled pork at Dreamland to be the best but the sides at Jim and Nicks better. Just our opinion.</p>
<p>Cons:
Nothing major but I have to note that there were some that didnt get the memo that the war ended many years ago. We encountered on at least 3 occasions some Northern hostility. Caught me by surprise. It was as subtle as being asked rudely if we were from up North to an outright attitude asking if we were from NY. Being raised on the streets of Brooklyn and having spent almost 25 years in Law Enforcement I am some what quick witted myself and on my last Northern encounter which was by the waitress at Dreamland decided to change my responses. When asked with an attitude by the waitress if we were from NY or NJ I responded NO. When she asked where I was from I responded Alabama. She asked where was my accent I stated that I chose not to have one, since I travel a lot and needed to stay neutral. She looked at me like I was nuts while the other patrons around us just laughed. It was all in good fun I tried to tell myself and wasnt going to let it ruin an already incredible trip. I would have loved to send my food to the lab that night though, Id imagine I received a little something that I hadnt ordered. LOL. EVERYONE else was very nice and even more accommodating when they learned my DS was contemplating attending UA. Overall the trip was awesome, the campus and UA programs amazing and the people were very nice. As I expected and was told by our CC Family the trip sealed the deal. </p>
<p>Only Regret:
Didnt schedule a conference with someone from Accounting department, although Dr. Heggim was great DS would have liked to hear it from an Accounting professor.</p>