charlesbreland.com

soooo, i spent the weekend in bham for a volleyball tournament. the team was riding high off our victory in chattanooga (against 18’s teams no less) and looking forward to this tournament. it started off with gena and i stuck in a traffic jam on the way over at like 7:30 in the morning. i got out to investigate and had gotten about a mile down the road when the traffic started to loosen up. this led to me sprinting back down the side of the highway towards gena’s car. after waking up two different truckers along the way, i got back to gena right about the time she was picking up speed. we had a pretty good first day of the tournament and then went to the zoo. these photos and videos are from that zoo trip.

jen and angela taunt some type of exotic fowl before we even get started.

here a druskat has sprouted from jordan’s hair.

and here our girls are seen reading the “don’t feed the giraffes” sign.

um, ok, maybe they weren’t reading the sign, after all.

they don’t tend to follow rules as well as these two who were very careful not to cross the barrier.

and here’s one of our players (ali) with an (ali)gator. i know it’s a terrible joke, but that’s all i got.

soooo, i spent the weekend in bham for a volleyball tournament. the team was riding high off our victory in chattanooga (against 18’s teams no less) and looking forward to this tournament. it started off with gena and i stuck in a traffic jam on the way over at like 7:30 in the morning. i got out to investigate and had gotten about a mile down the road when the traffic started to loosen up. this led to me sprinting back down the side of the highway towards gena’s car. after waking up two different truckers along the way, i got back to gena right about the time she was picking up speed. we had a pretty good first day of the tournament and then went to the zoo. these photos and videos are from that zoo trip.

jen and angela taunt some type of exotic fowl before we even get started.

here a druskat has sprouted from jordan’s hair.

and here our girls are seen reading the “don’t feed the giraffes” sign.

um, ok, maybe they weren’t reading the sign, after all.

they don’t tend to follow rules as well as these two who were very careful not to cross the barrier.

and here’s one of our players (ali) with an (ali)gator. i know it’s a terrible joke, but that’s all i got.

ok, that wasn’t the actual reason. i think it was just more of a compromise location. not as evil as vegas, not as expensive as key west, not as foreign as costa rica. it’s a great city though, and i hadn’t been in forever. i have no pictures of the first night b/c i actually fell asleep in my room and no one called to wake me up. good times!

so, instead, i got up the next morning and wandered around the city taking pictures while everyone else slept. i went to cafe dumond (spelling?) and got some beignets and coffee and just “took a look” at the city. i hadn’t been there in at least 5 years, and just love the way it feels. this was about the only time i had to just wander around with no agenda and enjoy that new orleans attitude. at this point, i made a mental note to come back for jazzfest in the not too distant future.