In January we had a long weekend and we looked for somewhere to visit. We talked about going to Chattanooga, a place we love and have visited often. Then we started looking at new places. We finally decided to stay close to home and visit Guntersville, Alabama. It’s about an hour and a half from home. We drove up on Saturday morning. On the way we took the scenic route and went Highway 411 to Highway 174 to Interstate 59 north to Gadsden/Attalla. Then we took a VERY, VERY FOGGY Highway 431 thru Attalla and Sardis City and then when we got to Boaz we took Highway 205 to Albertville where we eventually ended up back on Highway 431. We ended up going thru the older downtown areas just to look as we traveled, but we didn’t end up stopping anywhere until we got to Guntersville.

When we got to Guntersville our first stop was to find the cabin where we were going to be staying at the River Rocks Plantation. Then we went on into downtown Guntersville and did some shopping at some of the shops and antique stores and had a delicious lunch at Pizza Ed. We started with their breadsticks with an herb and oil blend. I had a salad and we went with The Meat pizza. It has pepperoni, meatballs and sliced Italian sausage. Everything was delicious.

After lunch it was time to check in to our cabin. It is self check-in. So we got there, got unpacked and settled in.

We then decided to go Eagle Hunting. We drove to Sunset Drive and struck out. We did see what ended up being a crane hunkered down from the cold. It was FREEZING!! So we went back to the room and watched the Kansas City Chiefs game.

After the game we went to Nash’s at City Harbor for dinner. Walked around there and stopped in at Kilwin’s before heading back to the cabin for the night. We didn’t buy anything at Kilwin’s just enjoyed the smell of chocolate!

Sunday morning we opted to eat breakfast at the cabin that we had brought with us. Then we went to Bama Bucks in Sardis City for lunch. They are a steakhouse and wild game restaurant. They have an exotic animal park on the property. I had a steak with grilled vegetables and sweet potato fries. Jeff had bison chili with cornbread and a grilled cheese. Of the two of us, it was different for him to have something out of the ordinary. LOL! We did pay and go out into the animal park. It was FREEZING, there was negative windchills!!! We did not walk across the street where the deer were, but we did go to the edge of the road to take a few pictures of them all together and looking at us.

After lunch we stopped at TJ Maxx in Albertville and then we went to the Guntersville State Park. We probably saw close to 30 deer as we made our way thru the park. They would just be standing in the middle of the road or right next to the road. They would take their time moving and several times we ended up off the road to go around them. We saw several icy spots in the road. We stopped and got out at several places. The wind was blowing so hard off the water that you couldn’t stay out long. The water was moving like it was the ocean with crashing waves.

We went back to the cabin and got warm and watched football. We looked for somewhere for dinner and found that most places in the area are closed on Sunday either for the day or they are open until 2:00. We ended up going to Top of the River. It was one of the few places that was open.

Monday was inauguration day for President Trump. We had breakfast at the cabin and watched parts of it before we left to head home. We left around 11:15 and ended up stopping at Smokey Joe’s BBQ in Albertville. They had the inauguration on the big screen and the entire restaurant stood and removed hats and sang the national anthem when it was played. We’ve never been a part of anything more American in our life. It was something to experience.

We headed home from there to get ready for the week.

Take 2

Jeff’s birthday was the end of February. Again we tossed around places to go, things to do. We ended up doing a take 2 on Guntersville to see if maybe, possibly we’d be able to find the eagles we have heard about.

So he was off on Friday and I left work a little early. We ended up getting there around 5:30. This trip we stayed at the City Harbor Suites. They are above the restaurants there. They are right on the water and we had some amazing sunrises and sunsets. The downside is that they don’t have curtains or blinds over the balcony doors and the sun can be blinding.

The parking is first come/first serve. So we ended up having to park at the back of the parking lot the entire weekend.

Friday night after we got settled into our room we walked downstairs and over to Big Mike’s Steakhouse. We ended up waiting 30 minutes for a table. It was cool, but definitely warmer than our last trip. I had the baseball cut top sirloin, loaded baked potato and salad. That steak was delicious. It was my favorite meal of the weekend. Jeff had the chophouse hamburger steak with baked potato and French fries.

Saturday morning we went back to Sunset Drive to go Eagle hunting again and again we struck out. They just didn’t want us to see them. We went to the Farmer’s Market area where someone said that they saw them a couple weeks ago and nothing. Jeff drove as we went down Sunset Drive and I searched every tree along the way looking for nests and NOTHING!!! Oh well, it just wasn’t meant to be. So then we went looking for the Honeycomb Natural Bridge that we had seen a recent social media post about. We found it, there is a personal residence right beside it. You can look at it, but you can’t walk out to it or to the falls underneath. There were a bunch of cars there, but we only saw people from like two of them. I don’t know if the others were visiting the people that lived there or what. So I snapped some pictures from the car and we headed back to Guntersville. We had lunch reservations at 11:30. When we get back we had a few minutes to spare so we stopped in at The Monkey’s Uncle at the Lake. Found out that the owners had the store in Leeds several years ago.

We had lunch reservations at Rock House Eatery. We were seated right away but ended up waiting for about 30 minutes for our food. Our waitress said that there was a large party that got their order in before ours, but we didn’t see any large party there. Maybe it was a carry out. The couple that came in with us and were seated at the same time were long gone before we ever got our food. The manager came by and apologized for the delay. I had the chicken, bacon, ranch sandwich with pasta salad and Jeff had a black and blue burger with fries. My meal had basically no taste to it at all, didn’t even taste the ranch. Jeff said his was great and was his favorite meal of the weekend. I did enjoy the town punch tea. It was tea with orange juice, lime juice and mint.

After lunch we headed back to the room to rest, but we did stop in at Kilwin’s. The Mint Cookies and Cream shake drew us in. It was not as good as it looked in the picture and ended up being quite messy by the time we got upstairs to our room with it. We had to clean the floor and table where it was so full it dripped everywhere!

For dinner we went back to Pizza Ed. We had the exact same thing as last visit, except that I had them to swap the tomato sauce on the pizza for the white sauce. It was all good, but Jeff said that he preferred the tomato sauce we had last time. They had live music while we were there and they were super busy. Took a few minutes for someone to take our order. But they were slammed. Saw a social media post the next that they are looking to hire servers.

We got up on Sunday and had breakfast at Another Broken Egg downstairs. We then just hung out in the room at bit before we packed up and headed home. We were home before lunch.

Until next time Guntersville!!