Mardi Gras Mobile and Birmingham Feb 2016

This was our first trip to Mardi Gras Mobile, the home of the original Mardi Gras!

We decided to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola on the way to Mobile. It's one of the top rated museums in the US and well worth the visit. 

After checking into our hotel, which was located right on the parade route, we went to the last parade of the day on Monday. On Fat Tuesday, there were four major parades. We went to all of them.

By the time the parades were over, we had dozens of moon pies, 10 pounds of beads, 3 footballs and various other things.

The next day we went to Birmingham, since we has never spent any time in that area. Our first stop was American Village in Montevallo. Very nice memorial to veterans. Exact replica of Liberty Bell. Hand carved miniatures of all the presidents and their wives and other historical scenes. Mt Vernon and Oval Office replica were also there.

While there we learned about Tinglewood, so, we had to visit. All the carvings are done by Tim Tingle.

The next day started with a trip to the Birmingham Botanical Garden.

Then a visit to Vulcan.

And Sloss Furnaces

The day ended with a visit to another museum. The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum has an amazing collection of motorcycles and racing cars. Later this year they will be opening a new building to be able to display even more of the collection. Also, there is a Race Car Driving School. We could watch them go around the track in Porche's.

Kawasaki built Worlds fastest motorcycle, 300 HP!