The whole month of march in Tuscaloosa is full of parents’ weekends. The weather starts to get warmer, the flowers start to bloom, and the trees become even more green. One of the main goals of parent’s weekend is to explore Tuscaloosa, your UA student’s “home away from home”. In the fall there is a University of Alabama parents weekend for all then typically Greek life has theirs in the springtime. As this year rolls around it is now springtime and march so all the parents are in town. Later in this blog, I will be going over the perfect parents’ weekend itinerary for you and your family. My sorority had our parents’ weekend this past weekend March 3rd through the 5th. Both of my parents came, and we had a grand time together. They arrived in Birmingham on Thursday the 2nd and left Sunday the 5th.
Here is what we did this past weekend together and what I think is the perfect parents’ Weekend Itinerary. Thursday I picked them up from the airport and we went straight to the hotel for them to get checked in, they stayed at the AC Hotel by Marriott downtown Tuscaloosa. It was their first time staying there, and we quickly found out that it is a perfect location. It is right across from Tuscaloosa Amphitheater and Heritage House. It is also a short 10-minute walk from everything downtown. For dinner, we went to SoCal Cantina. It is a fairly new Mexican restaurant downtown and it was okay. There is a beautiful bar right when you walk in, and we sat at it while we were waiting for our table. The drinks are amazing, I suggest getting the tree of life and honestly anything else that is on the drink menu. After dinner, it was pretty late, so my parents went back to the hotel and I went home. I knew Friday would be a super long day, so I wanted us to get some rest Thursday night. Friday morning we woke up early, and we went to Waysider Café for breakfast. The Waysider is one of the oldest restaurants in Tuscaloosa so that means there’s a lot of history and a lot of it relates to Alabama football. Bear Bryant used to sit in this restaurant decades ago and you could sit right where he did or check out the local newspaper or all the football photography hanging on the walls. Besides the great ambiance of this restaurant, the food is amazing. After breakfast, we did some shopping we went to Lou & co, Luca, and some of the shops in Midtown. you have to keep an eye on the weather because the springtime also means tornado season and thunderstorms. We just ran some errands together that I’ve been needing to do, but was waiting to do with my parents. We also went on the River walk, and it was great we roughly walked about a mile and a half. I highly suggest doing this walk with your family because it’s a beautiful scenic walk, and it’s super easy. Our sorority had planned a cocktail Friday night, so we went home around 4:00 p.m. and started To get ready for the event. Don’t fret if you aren’t in Greek life and your parents are still coming there are still a handful of things you could do with them. so we got ready around 4:00 p.m. and we had dinner reservations at the new hotel Alimite at the steakhouse Forte at 7 PM. This hotel recently just opened up and it is so nice. I highly recommend dining at their steakhouse or at least sitting at the bar and enjoying a drink with your family. Our sorority rented out Druid City Music Hall on the strip, it was cocktail attire, and we had a band. We all had so much fun. If you don’t have an event I would suggest still getting dinner with your family at Forte then going across the street to Catch and grab a cocktail with them after dinner. Catch is a very casual bar where there is seating inside and outside. Saturday morning we woke up and went to Five for their jazz brunch. We sat outside and listened to jazz music it was a perfect day. I got the five burrito and my parents both got avocado toast. After brunch, we went to the baseball game. The baseball game is a great option for you and your family, it’s free and good to support our team. After the game we went to Gallette’s on the strip and met up with our other girlfriends and their families. This bar is a great place because there is seating and indoors and outdoors. We went to dinner at Mellow Mushroom after that event. The pizza was amazing it didn’t take us too long to get our food. To end the night we went to Innisfree the Irish pub downtown. My friends and I often go to that bar so of course we wanted to show our families what it’s like. Saturday was a pretty eventful and long day so my parents and I were exhausted after it all. Sunday morning we went to River for breakfast and the food was great. Wherever you take your parent I suggest making reservations long in advance. There were so many people in town, and it would’ve been difficult if we didn’t have any reservations. Whatever you do with your family you’ll have a great time no matter what. Good luck and have so much fun with your parents! Don’t forget to tune into our live stream Wednesday, March 8th. See y’all then!
