Tuesday and Wednesday in Mobile

On Tuesday we were to meet with Regular E and Sara for sushi at lunchtime. I love sushi, but no one else in my family likes it as much. Actually Archie does like some things, so I can take him, but he gets the same thing every time. Unfortunately, right now, I shouldn't eat anything not fully cooked while pregnant. I have a strong preference for the uncooked sushi, so I took a chance. The spicy tuna and yellowtail were excellent. It's fun getting sushi with a bunch of folks because you can try different ones by sharing.

After lunch, Mom, Dad, Archie and I went downtown. I love the downtown area during azalea time and Archie loves feeding the squirrels in Bienville Square. So we parked, grabbed some 'squirrel peanuts' for the critters, good peanuts for us and headed to the square. It was really strange...there was not a squirrel or a pigeon in sight! At all! I have never, ever been down there and not been nearly attacked by the overweight pigeons and squirrels!

As we were walking away, we finally figured out why there were no squirrels to be found in Bienville. A hawk!!!! It swooped down and grabbed a squirrel out of a tree and perched on the ground to nibble at it's prey. Since I almost always have my handy-dandy camera ready, I took some pictures! I was afraid to get too close...I certainly didn't want to get in the way of a bird of prey and it's food, so I had to enlarge these after the fact on my camera. So they might be a little grainy and pixelated.

And here is my favourite shot. Check out this guy's legs!!! I was hoping for a little more guts and gore, but again, getting too close probably wouldn't have been a good idea.

What was interesting was the very loud, lively debate among the people gawkers. There was an old man who was trying to save the squirrel by running at the bird to scare him off. All the homeless folks around were yelling at the old man to "Let that bird eat! How would you like it if someone took your food away from you?" So the old man is running at the bird, while people were yelling at him to quit. The bird would temporarily drop the squirrel, then pick him up again. The squirrel obviously wasn't feeling too perky, so the guy should've probably let the hawk finish him off in a timely manner rather than let the squirrel suffer an agonizingly slow death all night long. You know...circle of life and all. Survival of the fittest!

We left the area, then had to turn around and retrieve Archie's jacket he left on the park bench. I went back alone and found the hawk happily flying the re-captured squirrel out of the old man's reach and onto a tree branch. It looked really cool flying around carrying that squirrel!

So with our peanut bags still full, (now we knew why there were no squirrels or pigeons about!)we decided to walk down to the Battlehouse to see how it looks in there since they did all the work on it. It was just gorgeous! I love all the arches and beautiful carvings! Here are Archie and I taking a quick break on one of the colourful couches.

I really liked the lobby view from upstairs. Kind of an artsy look to it.

After we had explored to our satisfaction, we headed back across Bienville Square toward the car. And whaddya know??? The squirrels were back out in full force! I could almost hear them breathing a collective sigh of relief, "Whew, glad that was him and not me!" It was neat how they all knew that the hawk had his dinner and it was safe to come out again. So we got to toss some peanuts to the squirrels after all. Normally we can get them to take peanuts from our hand, but right now they were understandably a little on the bashful side.

We went back to my parents' house for a little rest, then off to Phillip's parents' house. Lily would be there and Archie was very much looking forward to playing with her. Again, I was exhausted and slept pretty well for not being in my own bed.

On Wednesday, I went out to visit Janis and then the minister of our Mobile church. Archie stayed at my parents' house to play with the boy next door. It was great to see Janis again. We missed her last visit so I was glad to be able to see her this time around. I almost forget how nice it is to have a female friend to chat with, since I don't have any here in Cincy! After her house, I caught up on all the church news with Paul and enjoyed seeing him as well. Wednesday evening, Archie and I went back to my in-laws to have a last visit before our return to Cincy on Thursday morning.

It was a very busy week. We had a blast, but I was ready to get home to Phillip. And to rid myself of this ridiculous rental car! Archie still wasn't ready to go back. He was a little upset about leaving. I comforted him with the fact that we would be seeing Reemie and Bumpa during the camping trip in Huntsville in the next several days.