I took my boys to Birmingham over spring break. We had a great time exploring, hiking, eating, and touring. Birmingham is an amazing city with friendly people, a hip but very family friendly vibe, great food, natural beauty, charming architecture, and a cool urban university. UAB was the primary reason for our visit. Our eldest son is considering UAB for its music and science/engineering/pre-med programs. As usual, we stayed at the Aloft hotel in Homewood. It’s centrally located in the Homewood core, surrounded by mixed use developments, just “over the mountain” from Birmingham.
Our stay included a long visit to Railroad Park, busy with families and students exercising and lingering in the beautiful sunset. Doug did an article on Railroad Park for MetroJacksonville a few years ago. Since then, Birmingham has built a new minor league baseball stadium next to Railroad Park with the intent of bringing the Birmingham Barons back to the core from the Hoover suburb. It worked! New businesses are coming in to the area, creating a connection from booming UAB to the park.
Railroad Park at sunset.
We took a trip to Oak Mountain State Park for an afternoon of hiking to Peavine Falls.
Jacob loved the urban campus, the city of Birmingham, the mountains and their promised adventures, so I think UAB is at the top of his list. Not to mention the 1997 Van Cliburn Piano Competition’s silver medalist, Yakov Kasman, as professor and artist in residence at UAB’s piano program. I wouldn’t mind;)
So long as the scholarships follow.