I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned here on the blog that I am a graduate from the University of Alabama. I graduated back in 2012 with a degree in Biology, and loved every minute I spent at the university. My brother is there now, finishing up his Ph.D. after already receiving his undergrad and masters! Alabama is also where I met my best friend Heather while working together on campus. Heather’s birthday is this month, and we haven’t been back to campus together since 2015! We thought it would be perfect to celebrate together, with the boys, in Tuscaloosa for A-Day weekend.
It was a packed out weekend with fun, food, friends, and football! Check out our A-Day Weekend 2022 experience!
What’s A-Day Weekend
A-Day is Alabama’s Spring practice game that is an exciting weekend in the football loving town of Tuscaloosa. When I was in school, I remember the week prior to A-Day always being energetic with getting campus looking amazing for all of the visitors. Now, as a graduate, it was such a fun experience to get to go back and visit after so many years. Back when Jared graduated with his undergrad, I bought him a brick to go on the Promenade of campus. This weekend was the very first time we hunted the brick down and got to take pictures!
A-Day is geared to be centered around getting the Alabama football community excited about the upcoming year’s team. I would say it was extremely successful in that mission! The stadium was packed out with fans of all ages and the energy was electric. It might be another 5 months until the first kickoff of the season, but you would have thought we were playing for the SEC Championship on Saturday!
Here are some pictures of us walking around campus & on The Quad. As you can see, we had a blast!
Where We Stayed
There are lots of great places to stay in Tuscaloosa, and a ton more have been built since the last time I was in town. When Jared graduated with his undergrad back in 2018, I think we stayed at a Hilton hotel off of McFarland Drive (the main road running through town). This time, I started by looking at Air B&B’s we could rent that were closer to the stadium. I ended up finding a new condo complex called WestGate Luxury Condo’s built literally right next to Bryant Denny! As soon as I found they had available rooms to rent for the weekend, I snatched one up.
The condo complex is mostly all privately owned, but they do keep a few condos available for rent. The condo we stayed in is a 3 bedroom, 3 bath with lots of open floor space and a beautiful modern theme. Heather, her husband Keith, Aubrey, and I were all able to spread out and have plenty of room. Heather and I were also able to drink our coffee out on the balcony with the stadium as our backdrop. It doesn’t get much more Alabama Football than that!
A couple of other pluses are that with renting a condo here you get parking passes and access to the rooftop tailgate before any home game! We took advantage of spending some time on the roof before heading down to the rest of the tailgates.
Here are some pictures we took at the condo:
Where We Ate/Drank
Restaurants
There are a handful of restaurants in Tuscaloosa that are super nostalgic for Heather and I. Places we used to visit all the time as students like Baumhower’s, Mugshots, and Buffalo Phil’s. We didn’t have enough time to visit all of our favorites, but we did stop by some great places!
Friday
On Friday, we got to the condo around 5:30 and had a little bit of time to get settled before dinner. We wanted to go somewhere to start celebrating Heather’s birthday right, so we chose Mugshots. Mugshots is a super fun burger restaurant not far from the main strip of campus. It’s a college town restaurant with the perfect birthday celebration vibe! After dinner we went back to the condo and enjoyed cake ordered from the local Publix and quality time with each other. As a side note, if you’ve never ordered or had a birthday cake from Publix they are amazing!
Saturday
Saturday we woke up so excited for the game! We had to watch the weather to keep up with the chance of rain, and decided to do breakfast at the local Brick and Spoon. This is a chain restaurant, but they always have a local vibe. We all loved what we had and were stuffed by the time we left!
Because the rain did end up coming in right in time for the game, we chose to watch and listen to it from our condo. Since we were right on top of the stadium, it still felt like we were there! Afterwards, we went more casual with dinner and ended up at Whataburger. As a side note: Aubrey and I love Whataburger but don’t get to have it very often because there isn’t one within 3 hours of us in Little Rock. There was no chance we were going to let that opportunity go while in Tuscaloosa!
Sunday
Sunday, before heading home, we went down the strip to a place called Cravings for breakfast. According to Jared, this is a newer option where you can also purchase from a huge selection of wine and beer! They had lots of homemade breakfast options, and we each ended up with something a little different. After finishing up breakfast we gave hugs, shed a few tears, and then headed our separate ways towards home.
Bars
Way back when I was in college, there were a couple of bars that were staples for us on the weekends. I thought it would be so much fun to go back to a couple of those bars while we were in town. A couple of favorites are 4th & 23rd, The Houndstooth, and Gallette’s. These 3 bars are all downtown, and you can throw a rock from Houndstooth and hit Gallette’s. They all certainly have a different feel to them, but are all such a blast!
Another fun side note: Aubrey and I have a rule that if we’re in a bar that serves Rumplemintz we have to take a shot. This weekend, we got Jared involved and unfortunately had to take a handful of shots throughout the night. While Aubrey doesn’t mind one bit and loves Rumplemintz, Jared and I were struggling.
Here are the few pictures I got while we were out.
Final Thoughts
Anytime you get friends and family together in a place you love, it’s bound to be a good time. This weekend exceeded expectations and was ultimately way too short! It was so great to be back in Tuscaloosa after so long. Getting to experience campus with Jared was a blast, and having Aubrey and Keith there to see where Heather and I went to college was awesome! Keep an eye out for us Tuscaloosa, we’ll be back soon!
If you’re interested in any of my state-side travel posts you can check them out from the list down below!