I’ve thought about going to the Greek festival for the last few years and the timing just hasn’t worked out. This year we planned ahead and enjoyed the festival. We met Jeff’s brother Michael and his wife Chere there. They have been going for years, so they knew what to do. We got there right after they opened on Saturday morning and the first thing we did was get in line for food.

It was early and they were just getting started. I ordered the Greek Chicken plate and Jeff had the Pastichio. My plate was chicken, with rice pilaf, spanakopita and tiropita. These are filo triangles one was filled with a feta mixture and the other with a spinach and feta mixture. Jeff’s came with the pastichio, green beans and the spanakopita and triopita. I took his green beans and then I ate the 2 filo triangles with spinach and feta and he had the 2 with just the feta mixture. Michael ordered the Dolmathes which are grape leaves filled with seasoned rice and topped with lemon. That was the first time I had those. I got Jeff to try the rice mixture from mine, I knew he was not going to try to grape leaf, but he was not a fan. It was different, but I thought it was good.

After lunch we toured the Holy Trinity – Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The priest was present and available for any questions. Michael asked about the painting on the ceiling. Christ Pantocrater (Christ the Almighty), he explained that it was the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

After touring the Cathedral we went into the building next door where they had the desserts. We started with a slice of Portokalopita (orange cake) and then had the fresh cooked Loukoumathes (Greek donuts with honey and cinnamon).

We enjoyed our first Greek Festival!

We left downtown Birmingham and went to Pinson for the Butterbean festival. We had attended this one before. We found parking and walked through. I bought a couple of outfits for our granddaughter. Some of them had the matching boy outfits, but he’s a picky dresser and we weren’t sure if he’d wear them so we just bought for her. We ended up stopping to grab a drink at the Barking Bee Coffee shop in Pinson. We had a maple brown butter blended drink. I of course had to get a picture with the butter bean mascot. And somehow we missed the Guinness World Record butterbean pot . But my sister-in-law got a picture of it so I grabbed a copy from her.

We did not have any butter beans as we had just eaten at the Greek Festival, but they did have them for sale.

There are all types of festivals in our area the first weekend in October. So if you are looking for a festival check out this date and the area around Birmingham. Really wish that they were spaced out and not all on the same day. Downtown Birmingham has the Greek Festival, Moody has an Oktoberfest, Sumiton has the Frog Festival, Pinson has the Butterbean Festival just to name a few we have been to in the suburbs of Birmingham.,

Any festival or events you’ve been to that we should check out?