Picturesque riverfront drinking at the SandBAR

Yesterday evening, a few girlfriends and I checked out the SandBAR, an (incredibly) welcome addition to Montgomery's Riverfront Park.  I can't think of a better way to spend a beautiful Friday evening in May. 

SandBAR is located on High Red Bluff, overlooking the ampitheater and the Alabama River. To get there, just go through the "Riverfront Park" gate and head into the park via the tunnel underneath the railroad tracks.  Then hang a right and hike up the steps to the bluff (look for cylindrical white silos; you can't miss 'em). 

If Riverfront Park is an oasis in the middle of Montgomery, SandBAR is an oasis within an oasis.  SandBAR offers cold beverages, live music, corn hole, plenty of seating, and even a real-life sand bar for the kids to play in. 

There's also plenty of history to take in.  From the SandBAR Facebook page: "Also called Hostile Bluff or Thirteen Mile Bluff, this spot located in a deep bend of the Alabama River was once the key to the Southeast and a strategic point in Colonial days. The first steamboat, the Harriet, arrived at this point in 1821, and the first railroad came in 1880, making Montgomery a transportation hub for people and commerce. When cotton was king, millions of bales were shipped from the wharf here by steam boat to Mobile and thence to the mills of England. The tunnel under the railroad tracks was built in 1879 so that horse-drawn wagons of cotton could be brought to wharf without crossing the tracks."

This time of year, the breeze is already warm and fragrant and the days are getting longer and longer.  As my friends and I celebrated the end of a very long week with generous pours of crisp, white wine, the sun sank lazily over the river into a bed of scattered clouds. 

Enjoy the photos, and do yourself a favor - visit the SandBAR ASAP!  I'll be back today, for Jubilee CityFest!