Day trip tp Alabama

 I actually cried when I had to sell my piano before we moved😢 It just wouldn't have made it. Thankfully, I was able to sell it to a girl who was writing her own music and had been saving up her money to buy a piano. Since it was going to a good home, it made me feel better. But still, that left us without a piano for a few weeks before we moved and a few weeks after - I didn't realize how much therapy that piano provided until one of my kids said "Life is better when mom has a piano." I mean, it could have been the stress of moving but still, I do love to play! Long before we actually moved, I started looking on Facebook marketplace for a new piano. It wasn't like looking for a piano in the East Valley, hardly any options out here! But I looked at a lot of pianos and finally opted to go to the Steinway Gallery in Spanish Fort, Alabama (just outside Mobile, about 90 minutes away from us).

When Sophia was 6 weeks old, we went to Gulf Shores for vacation. It was so lovely - even with a tiny baby! My sister, sister-in-law and her family, and some of our Texas neighbors were all there with us! (Pretty sure there is an old blog post about it if you want to see how cool it was!). That vacation was probably the start of the live-by-the-beach dream. So since we were already driving to Alabama, we decided to do some other fun stuff along the way, starting with Buccee's! IFYKYK. 

Roasted nuts, BBQ, treats, home decor, all kinds of Buccee's tchotchkes, and like 100 gas pumps that are always full! It's an experience and we had a good time! Next was the Steinway Gallery - the fact that it's in Mobile Alabama is weird. But apparently, the art scene is a lot bigger here than I realized (thankfully). Micah, the sales guy, was darling! He's from a tiny town in Alabama and had seen a performance of the Marine Corps band at an inauguration when he was young.  He decided that's what he wanted to do when he grew up. He did it! And now that he's out of the Marines, he married his childhood sweetheart, they have two kids, and he sells pianos. He showed us a lot of cool stuff. 

A picture of John Lennon playing his white Steinway piano on which he wrote Imagine (the copy at the store was autographed!) And the newest invention to come out of Steinway is the Spirio, a next-gen player piano that uses AI. A pianist performs on this instrument and the instrument records every nuance of the piece - how hard the key was hit, the volume, everything! Then you can watch the video of the performer and (if you have an extra $30k AFTER you buy your Steinway) listen to them on your piano! It's like a virtual concert - so cool. But for Sophia, the best bit was informing her that only a few weeks before, Zac Farro, drummer for Paramore, had just purchased a piano for his beach house nearby. Sophia's orange hair is a tribute to Hayley Williams of Paramore. At the end, we bought a piano! And we knew a lot of cool new things! The piano was delivered a week later. 

It is glorious and Sophia and I have been playing a lot! Probably making everyone else in the house a bit crazy cause there is no where to hide!

After the piano store - Lambert's! Home of the Throwed Rolls! Good southern cooking with pass-arounds like fried okra, potatoes and onions, apple butter and molasses for your rolls. We had pot pie, dumplings, BBQ pork, country-fried steak, and pot roast. PLUS all the rolls we could eat (which was surprisingly few since they were so big but SOOOO yummy)! Mya was with us but doesn't love to be in pictures with us (plenty of her own selfies tho 😁) 

 

After that huge lunch, we rolled out of there to see... duhn da da duhn...

Bama Henge!

No joke, some rich guy paid an artist to recreate Stonehenge right there in the middle of nowhere Alabama! It was pretty cool even though it was like those rock walls kids climb at fairs. Sophia loved that panoramic feature that allowed her to be in several places at once. 

Last on the list of adventures that day was the Crestview Fall Festival. Very fun! My favorite part were all the vendors selling Jesus t-shirts

 We are in the Bible Belt after all!