Weekend of excitement

This was a great weekend in Tuscaloosa. The weather was perfect, there were things happening, and we got to hang out with several friends. I already mentioned the wine tasting and the dinner we had at Five, so I am jumping right to Saturday. I decided to put these all in one post because while we had fun at all the places we went, none had quite enough to talk about alone.

We started Saturday at Tree House Farm and Nursery for their garden expo. Coach Pat Dye was speaking at 10:00 about Japanese Maple Trees and of course, that caught Wes' attention. I really enjoyed hearing him talk about the trees and the way he has come to love them.  After coaching at Auburn, he started a small nursery at his home and now it has grown into quite the Japanese Maple farm.  He taught us how to prune the trees. After the talk, we looked around at all the great plants they have. If you are looking for trees or bushes this is the place to go! We bought one of Coach Dye's trees for Wes' aunt and uncle.

Coach Dye pruning his trees.

The baby Japanese Maple we bought.

After Treehouse, we went downtown to see what was going on with the Tour de Tuscaloosa and the Druid City Arts Festival. We had lunch at Depalma's. This is my favorite restaurant in town and some of my favorite Italian anywhere. I will make a whole post about this one sometime, but just quickly, the food has always been good, the service is good, and the atmosphere is really cool. There is always a mix of people, from college students, to young couples, to business people at lunch during the week. This visit I had the Mediterranean pasta with chicken. It is one of the lighter pastas, with less sauce but lots of flavor from the greek olives, peperoncini peppers and feta cheese.

We walked around downtown for a bit following lunch and made our way over to the Druid City Arts Festival. This art show is put on by a group on campus. I saw an article yesterday that it might be the last year as some of the founders of the event are graduating, but I hope they figure out a way to keep it going.  There was quite a variety of vendors and artists set up in the government plaza, the green space behind the city hall. Bands were playing music throughout the afternoon. One of my friends, Rebecca, had her Little Bee Design tent set up with her punny art! And, we walked around and saw jewelery, paintings, and knitting a lot of the other tents.

The Junior League of Tuscaloosa was hosting a wine and beer tasting at The Alcove, so we walked over there after we finished at the festival. The Alcove is a really cool spot in town with lots of beer selection, on tap and in bottles, and the home of the 2 oz drinks. They have some patio areas and have expanded what used to be a very small area inside. The crowd is an older crowd and is usually more laid back.  This event had the bar pretty crowded but it was a fun event and we enjoyed the tasting. I always recommend The Alcove for non college students looking for a cool place to have a drink, and we enjoyed sitting out back on the patio with some friends.