Day 34: Driving Day

We woke up to a very gray, drizzly day, which matched the mood in the van.

 Some of my kids handle being sick better than others, and the one in the van with us is not some kids, haha.

Stopped for lunch at Chick-fil-a, which is much less crowded in the south compared to the ones in CA that we've eaten at. It's not quite the same level of craze when there are so many of them, I guess.

We had a lot of driving to do today, and passed through 5 states by the end: Started in GA, then AL and MS, into TN.

We had hoped to spend a few hours in Memphis exploring, but it was late by the time we got there,

and Peanut was feeling well enough to even go out to eat, so we just drove through. Someday we'll come back and go to a jazz club.

And then we crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas where we found a Cracker Barrel in West Memphis to stay for the night. Really hoping that tomorrow is a better day!

Day 32: Savannah, GA

Our spot under these ancient oaks was perfect. There were tours that went by at night, but they stopped before it got too late, and we always use white noise anyway. I got up and went for a walk first thing (needed to use the bathroom back at the grocery store), while the boys woke up. We fixed breakfast, and then I ran to the Mercer house on the other side of the square to get our tickets for a tour.

Once we were all ready for the day, we walked through the park,

and went to the Mercer House to see this beautiful piece of architecture.

Then, we made our way to the riverfront, passing through as many of the squares as we could.

Love all the old trees and houses and parks.

And Spanish moss--can't get enough of it!

Savannah is such a great mix of history and water views.

We walked along the river for awhile,

stopped by the Savannah Candy Kitchen.

Then, we went to the Pirate House for lunch. We have always stopped here for a southern buffet lunch.

The history of this place is interesting--there are tunnels going down towards the river, they think perhaps used to shanghai people to work on the pirate ships.

It's the oldest structure in Georgia.

Besides visiting old favorites, we also explored some new spots. I'm so glad that we discovered the Olde Pink House which was built in 1789.

The bar in the basement is incredibly cozy!

Love the layers of this city. There are still old stairs and 

cobblestone streets down by the river.

We found a Christmas market as we made our way back to the van.

Stopped in a few shops to see the artwork and Christmas decor. Loved this dino Santa and his "reindeer".

More incredible architecture.

There are old houses everywhere you look.

And streets tunneled by old trees.

We were so glad to get to spend a day here. It's been a long time.

And then it was time to retrace our steps a little farther north. We didn't get to stop on the coast in SC on the way down and didn't want to miss another of our favorite cities.

It's hard to believe that we've been on the road for over a month now. In some ways, it feels shorter, and in others, it's been a lot. We've seen so much--history, friends, family, nature. And had some fun times, as well as some challenging ones as we navigate the small space and constant decision making and travel with all that entails. 

 

Day 31: Backtracking

While we were in Florida, we stayed at a KOA campground. It was the perfect homebase for spending time at Universal Studios--pretty close by, showers, laundry facilities, electrical hookups, and even a hot tub which we got to use the first night. It was our most expensive camping situation, but way cheaper than hotels in the area.

But it was time to say goodbye to Florida. We had rushed down there so we could make it to Univeral Studios midweek, but had some stops we wanted to make back up the coast.

Made it back to Georgia! I didn't get a picture, but we saw a bunch of pigs along the freeway, just at the edge of the forest as we drove. Not the wild animal we usually see.

And our stop for the --Savannah!

We had time to walk around a little after we made dinner.

The architecture here is just incredible. 

It's one of our favorite cities.

Stopped by the fountain at Forsyth Park.

And then ran to the grocery store on our way back to the van to grab a couple of things for breakfast. Peanut thought it was funny to find a car that is smaller than he is.

We found a spot right on Monterey Square in Savannah for the night. Only a couple blocks from a grocery store with a bathroom, quiet, and a beautiful location.

Spring Break Road Tripping

We decided that it had been too long since we'd been able to hang out with a couple of the families who we met when we first moved to Charlotte who have since moved on to warmer pastures. So, we decided to take off for the second half of the kids' spring break. (And I'll put a disclaimer out right now--I forgot my camera, so pictures ended up being more of an after thought on this trip. I didn't get as many as I'd like, and wasn't able to be picky with which ones I posted. So there's some blurry, some less flattering, and some that are missing altogether.)

 

 First stop, Georgia, where our former neighbors who first introduced us to our neighborhood, now live. It is always good when we can all be in the same place, and this was no exception. Good food, lots of laughter, and F and I even managed an early morning walk for old times sake.

 

And these kids had a great time playing for hours and hours.

 
 
 
They transformed the basement into some sort of animal habitat using every piece of bedding and furniture they could find. Messy as always, but at least they cleaned up after themselves this time. They're growing up.

Peanut spent much of our time there dressed like this. When visiting a house full of girls, dress-up options are a little different than what he's used to. He didn't seem to mind.

Peanut loved having the attention of 4 older girls. Wish they still lived down the street because we would have a bunch of babysitters that Peanut actually likes.  And he wasn't the only one impressed with their piano skills. I love hearing kids play who have been taking lessons for a few years--it motivates me to make my kids practice.

 

After a too short visit, we were off for our second stop--Florida and this fabulous family. And once again, these kids picked right up where they left off and after half a second of awkwardness (we hadn't seen them in 2 years), they were playing away, creating their own economy in the backyard. We had to finally drag them in at 10 p.m. that first night because we figured the neighbors might want to go to sleep at some point.

And the little boys were old enough to actually play together this visit. It was fun to see them together and so fun that the ages of all the kids work so well together.

 

On Friday, they took us to Wakulla Springs-one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world. The park was beautiful. We took a boat tour so we could see some of the wildlife up close. I was really missing my camera at that point. Would have made pictures of the animals a little more exciting if I had a telephoto lens.

 

But I think you can still get the overall effect of the landscape. Of course I had to get a Spanish moss picture. I really wish that it grew a few hundred miles farther north so we could have some of this in our own yard.

If you look closely, you can see the alligator in the center of this pic. We saw 5 during the hour ride. There are usually more, but it was mating season and I guess they all had better things to do than hang out on the river. We also missed the manatees because this is the one stretch of the year that they head downstream for new food sources. We'll have to time our trip better next time, but it was still beautiful out there and we saw a lot of birds as well.

Peanut was really getting into hugs and snuggles this trip. It's a long way from just a few months ago when he wanted nothing to do with anyone who wasn't in his immediate family.

Here's Henry, the pole-vaulting fish. They have these mullet fish that were jumping really high, and they're a big enough fish that they make a good splash coming back down. It was fun to watch them.

 

After the boat ride, we went to the swimming area next to the dock. I'll admit that when K first told us that we could go on a boat to see all the alligators and then swim, I thought that sounded like a pretty bad idea. I was picturing dark murky water where who knows what was lurking right beneath the surface. Even though the tour guide kept joking about the alligators knowing not to come past the ropes, it seems a little crazy to knowingly swim in water where there are gators. But they really aren't that aggressive and with how many people were in the water and all the noise, I'm guessing they wouldn't come near it. They've only had one person killed and he wasn't swimming in the swimming area. And the water was so clear that you could see down to the bottom everywhere in the area, so the kids not only waded around, but eventually decided to put on their suits and swam out to the floating dock. And I squelched my protective mom impulse and let them have fun with the other couple dozen people who were there.

 

After that, we headed to St. Mark's Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge. Our first Florida lighthouse. As you can see, Peanut was completely spent by this point. It actually was a hassle getting him to agree to anything, even riding in the backpack (but he refused to walk anywhere, either).

 

But we did force him to go for a ride while we did a short hike between a little pond and the gulf. We saw another alligator, more birds, and these the kids got their feet wet again.

  

The next day was beach day. We drove over to the Destin area to Seaside, where we had spent Thanksgiving 4.5 years ago. It wasn't looking like a very promising beach trip on the way down--dark skies and drizzle most of the way, rain so hard we could barely see the car in front of us just 15 minutes before we got there. It stopped for a few minutes right as we got there so at least we had enough time to park and get all our stuff to the beach entrance before the rain started again.

Then we hung out on this covered patio overlooking the ocean and ate our lunch (and only felt mildly guilty that we weren't actually buying any food at the restaurant that owned it--we weren't the only ones hiding there with our picnics).

 

When it slowed to a light drizzle, we decided to take the kids down and let them play for a little bit in case that was the best we got.

 

And then, it totally cleared up! We ended up with an absolutely gorgeous afternoon at the beach (and a few spots of sunburn on pretty much everyone because the kids were already so sandy by the time we did sunscreen.)

These kids played so hard--digging, building hot tubs and castles, boogie boarding, swimming. They were in and out of the water for hours.

Peanut was mostly happy to stay in the sand, but he has gotten braver at the beach. He did let the waves come up and get his feet a few times and even his running away seemed a little more playful and a little less I'm-running-for-my-life this time around. Progress. . .

 

We had such a great trip and are so glad that we got to see some good friends. Even the long drive back on Sunday could have been worse. A little Curious George goes a long way with Peanut and we were prepared. Coming home, and having to face all of the every day stuff (laundry piles, cooking, grocery shopping, babysitting extra kids, cleaning sand off of everything) made me wish we could do it again. Today.