Ave Maria Grotto and Natural Bridge

It was a beautiful weekend, in the 80's here in Alabama. And no thunderstorms to wake me up. =) I decided to go on a religious route for this weekend's excursion and made Ave Maria Grotto my first stop. It was about 2 1/2 hours north of me, in Cullman, Alabama.

Ave Maria Grotto is known as "Jerusalem in Miniature." It's maintained by St. Bernard Abbey, a Catholic monastery, founded in 1891 by Benedictine monks. Brother Joseph Zoetle was a monk there who started creating miniatures/shrines as a hobby. He used cold cream bottles, old flashlight, sea shells, and other such everyday items to create miniatures/shrines. Ave Maria Grotto is set in a four-acre park. The entrance fee ($5 for adults, $4 with AAA discount) was nominal.

While there, I stopped to visit the church. It was a bit odd (or awed?) to be walking around an empty church but you do get the sense of serenity.

Then, I had myself some bbq for lunch at Johnny's BBQ. It was soooo good! And the portion (for me) was still a bit much... but I had to have a taste of hush puppies. Not sure what it is still, because I just got fried little balls! But it tasted very good. I ended up not finishing my fries and cole slaws.

Then I moseyed along to Natural Bridge Park. I was rather shocked when I got there, because quite frankly, when I take these excursions, there really are not that many people at the sites. But at Natural Bridge, the entire parking lot was full of motorcycles! And people in leather pants, jackets, headbands, etc., basically your stereotypical bike riders, were walking around every where. I found a place to park near the entrance of the Natural Bridge Park parking lot and meandered down. When I asked what the occasion was, turns out that the folks were Christian Motorcycle Group. They were there for bbq lunch and prayers. Rather threw me for a loop.

Anyway, I got to see the Natural Bridge. It is 60 foot-high, 148 foot-long, naturally made sandstone and iron ore bridge. Supposedly underwater river cut the formation 200 million years ago. According to the factoid, it is the longest bridge east of the rockies. Since I paid $2.50 admission, I figured staring under the bridge for 2 minutes was not worth $2.50 and took a little hike while I was out there. Not much to see on the hike, but it was a nice little walk on a warm Saturday afternoon.

On my way back, I got lost. I mapquested all these directions but mapquest doesn't tell you everything... like the road is being constructed. Fortunately, I was on the phone with my sister who got me back on the right track (and yes, she was helping me with her computer from California). She was frustrated with me because she kept asking where I was and I couldn't tell her! Not much to tell when you are on an endless stretch of road, the name of which you don't know, and you don't know the town's name. Such is my life. I'm thinking of driving back to California after my clerkship, and I'm thinking I probably will need heavy investing in lots of maps. ;)

Until next week!