Sunday, April 9, 2017

A Final Field Trip

I have been an activity coordinator for our cover school the past few years.  In exchange for planning field trips and events, I get my fees waived.  It's worked out well and I have enjoyed it for the most part.  There's always the occasional annoyance and the every-single-time last-second ditch or no-show.  It's almost a requirement to planning a trip.  I think maybe 10 times in the past 17 years, everyone who said they would be there has been there.  

But, that is no longer an issue for me to deal with as, March 27, 2017 was my LAST field trip to plan!  I'll still go on trips and still set up things for my immediate friends as interest arises if they don't do it first.  But that phase of my life is done.  Yay!

We went to Birmingham Southern to tour the environmental center and ecoscape.


Yes, that's a toilet slide!


Mural depicting where kids want to live.  It's in those apartments above a pizza store or a movie theater.


In the 70's, we made about a pound of trash per person per day.  Now, it's 6 pounds.


Katy has spotted the BIGBIG Little Caesar's pizza box IN THE WRONG DECADE


The floor of the pavilion in the ecoscape


There they are, the last field trippers



The ecoscape had a half mile Appalachian Trail, so we hiked it.  I hope the real thing is that easy... 


It also had a treehouse!



After the class, we hung around the garden, it's open to the public, so go check it out!


Afterward,, we went to Pizitz Hall, a name I can not remember for anything and Katy and Amanda both can rattle off like it's saying boo.  Anyway, it's at 1821 2nd Ave N, Birmingham, AL 35203



There is a parking garage next door that is free for the first 2 hours, so use that.
There are many places to eat in the hall, we looked at all of them and then zeroed in on Ghion, the Ethiopian place.  It was SO good, I was ready to go back the minute we left, though it was the next day before I could eat another bite.

We had never had anything like the food or even the seating they had, so the servers were extra nice and explained everything.  The chef came out at one point and watched us eat, telling us again the names of each item.  The server had also identified everything, though none of it was too foreign.  There was chicken, beef, lamb, lentils, greens...I don't usually eat 4 legged animals and when we go back, I will stick with vegetarian fare, but I am glad we tried it all.  It was $45 for the Ghion platter, which fed 4 of us there and Matt at home later.   Well worth it!