For those that are wondering why on Earth I would visit this place, it was for a business trip.
For those that don’t even know where Alabama is: it’s a southern, rather obscure US state meme’d because of incest. It’s one of the poorest states in the country and doesn’t have many well-known tourist spots, so it tends to rank near the bottom of the list of places to visit in the US. AKA a place that basically no one goes to for travelling.
Forest
This was the first time in a very long time where I visited a somewhat low-latitude area during summer. The climate and environment are very different from what I’m used to up north. Vegetation is much more lush; the grass is a very bright green whereas the north is much darker. The whole state felt like a big subtropical rainforest with dense forests, damp and fertile soil, and lots of fauna.
Ocean
Alabama’s proximity to a warm ocean and its subtropical climate means high humidity and rapid evapouration.
Basically, summers gets really hot and humid, rains often, and dries fast.
Rainfall is intense (and the following thunderstorms even more), and it seemed to get noticeably stronger the further south I went.
I stayed in Birmingham, a city in northern Alabama, but visited the Gulf Shores beaches, which is right by the Gulf of America Mexico.
It’s a 4.5 hour drive, one way.
The air by the shore is much hotter and more humid, even walking out at night felt like a hot humid afternoon.
Sloss Furnaces
One tourist attraction in Birmingham is an old steel mill called Sloss Furnaces. It was preserved and repurposed into a free-to-enter museum, showcasing how steel was made a century ago.
