Southbound

Tybee Island, GA, just outside of Savannah.  Our first stop--
and not our best.  Grace fell in the ocean and cried until we
took her back to the hotel to get changed.  The whole
moving water thing totally through her off.  She got better. :)

        As our time in the east begins to wind down, my frantic need to cross every possible state border has reached an all-time high.  Add that to a dreary, gray, cold, never-ending winter in Columbus, and we have a recipe for southern exploration.

     We decided on Savannah, GA, and Charleston, SC, as our southern cities of choice and I don't think we could have done better.  Wow.

     All I needed was some sun and two more states to cross off my list (it's all about quantity here, folks), but these two cities were all that and more.  Savannah is a beautiful, old city with a little landscaped park every few blocks (they call them squares, but they are much like the plazas that dot every Latin American city I've ever been to---
I kept having mission flashbacks).

   The best way to describe Charleston, I think, is a big, small town.  There are no skyscrapers, just lots and lots of well-kept, beautiful old buildings.  And the houses, oh, the houses.  States number 30 and 31, you have exceeded my expectations.    

SAVANNAH, GA

After Tybee Island, we headed to downtown Savannah--starting with a picnic in Forsyth Park. It was a hit.

 

So, apparently St. Patrick's Day is really big
in Savannah.  A local told us that it's "their Mardi Gras."
So, aside from having to leave the beach early Saturday night
for obvious reasons, we also got to enjoy green fountains.

After Forsyth Square, we rode the free bus that runs through Savannah (doesn't get any better than free!) down to the river.  There's also a free ferry service across the river that we, obviously, couldn't resist.  While on the ferry, we saw this ginormous boat:  

Our camera couldn't even fit the whole thing!

And then we saw this sailboat:

...which Spencer has decided we will own someday.  Our new retirement plan is to acquire a very large and homey sailboat, and sail from port to port.  Perhaps selling spices. :)

 The only good thing that came
out of the pirate-themed restaurant we
went to---Pirate Grace.  

     

The Savnnah Belles Ferry---loud, but free!  

       

Luke's first sucker.  Love at first lick.

 

The Owens-Thomas House in Oglethorpe Square.  Had a bridge between the two floors.  And, apparently, indoor plumbing before the White House.   My favorite part was the pink man cave.

Chillin' in the stroller.  All day.  

Everyday.

CHARLESTON, SC

  The first day in Charleston, we went straight to Fort Sumter.  It's located on its own little island in Charleston Harbor and the only way to get there is by ferry.  Totally worth it.  We had some interesting teaching moments with Grace as we tried to explain slavery and the civil war en route.  I told her that a slave was someone you could buy that had to do whatever you wanted and that you didn't have to treat nicely.  We talked about why that was wrong, but I could see the little wheels in her head spinning.  She seemed a little too interested in the "they have to do whatever you want" aspect...  Oh, my little dictator.  Perhaps I should have taken a different angle...

     

    The ferry we rode on.  We saw dolphins jumping about in the water on the way to Fort Sumter.  So cool.

  The fort.  It was three stories high back in its heyday.  The first shots of the Civil War were fired from the Charleston coast at Fort Sumter (held briefly by the Union at the beginning of the war).  Those Charlestonians...first to secede, first to fire a shot.

 A very accurate picture pairing.  These gulls (with black heads... weird) followed our ferry the whole return trip.  And Luke LOVED it.  I've never seen him quite so enthralled with anything.  They might have even topped the angry bird.  At any rate, he is now into full blown bird obsession mode.  We may or may not have spent a considerable amount of time watching bird videos on YouTube once we got home...

Inside the fort.

FOLLY BEACH, SC

  

 Folly Beach is the closest beach to downtown Charleston.  When we were researching it online before heading there (we had first planned on going to Myrtle Beach, but decided crazy, drunken, spring-breaking college student land wasn't exactly what we wanted for our family vacation...), we found a website that described it as one of the last "shabby" beaches out there.

Yeah, still not sure what they meant by that.

But, we liked it.  :)  We went there three different times (once in the early evening, once in the morning, and once in the late afternoon), and loved it each time.  Except for Luke.  Who mostly hated it all three times.  These pictures are from all three beach expeditions.

 











What's a trip to the beach without at least one buried kid?  We tried to bury Luke, but it was all I could do to get him to sit on a towel above the sand.  It freaked him out.  I eventually got him to calm down and play but he still wouldn't really touch the sand.  He knocked down my sand castles with a cup.

Luckily, Grace did eventually figure out the ocean, though
she frequently slipped and called it the river:)  We spent
a good long time playing tag with the Atlantic. 

Getting their feet stuck in the  sand.
It required some very appealing
twisting. :)

  

Grace was an excellent and thorough beach comber.  We spent at least two hours
one morning scouring the beach for cool shells.  She was in heaven.

 BOONE HALL PLANTATION

  What's a visit to the south without a plantation tour?  Luke was a little monster on each and every fancy house tour we took.  Grace, however, was completely won over by us billing them as places that "American Princesses" used to live.  Ha!  The highlight of Boone Hall was the drive in, hands down.  The "Avenue of Oaks" was everything I'd hope it would be.  Gotta love all that Spanish moss. :)  The only bummer was that since the house is still a "living" plantation (meaning people actually live there), we could only see three rooms.  Memo to self for next plantation house tour: find a dead one.

   Oh! And we saw a real, live alligator in the wild when we toured the plantation grounds via wagon.  Score!

Avenue of the Oaks in the background. A pitiful likeness.

 DOWNTOWN CHARLESTON

         Why oh why did we not spend more time here?  We only went into Charleston proper our last morning just before heading back.  If I'd only had an inkling of how awesome it would be...

Yeah, this is Charleston.  It's for real.  Totally stole this picture from a website.
We ate lunch really close to the statue and walked along this boardwalk.
BEST PICNIC EVER.

Us by the first big house after the statue.

A smattering of the amazing houses we saw while walking along "the battery."  

I'm a sucker for fancy entryways.  A little pomp and circumstance never hurt any doorway. 

Long live the south!

A Year of Luke

Oh little Luke---the days are long, but the years are short.  

And...my favorite outtake.  Most of our photo sessions ended more or less this way.

 We celebrated this little guy's special day in the usual fashion---lots of last minute scrambling, cleaning, cooking, and a fairly pathetic (and fruitless) attempt at decorating.  But, little Luke is well worth celebrating.

He dug right in to his cake, but was much cleaner than Grace was.  At this age, Grace had a lovely habit of  running her fingers through her hair while eating which made for some messy cake eating.  Luckily, Luke has not followed in her footsteps.  He was, of course, very willing to share with anyone who walked near him.  Such a generous soul... :)

His cake-eating fan club.

Not my best work. 

The only shot of the party decor.  Thank you, Grace.  

And here is the present that Spencer got himself (ahem, I mean Luke) for Luke's birthday.  Do you see that gigantic, helium-filled angry bird?  Yeah, it's remote controlled.  It flies all over our house.  I thought Luke would be terrified of it but he love, love, loves it.  The best thing is that the remote is so simple that Luke can pretty much fly it by himself.  And boy does he ever want to.  All. day. long.

That kid loves a good flying gadget.  He is his father's son.

We have affectionately began to refer to "angry bird" as our pet.   He follows us around all day, thanks to the air currents in our house.  One night, Spencer and I went upstairs to go to bed and within minutes, our angry bird had followed us up the stairs, made its way into our bedroom, and backed into our closet. If that's not pet material, I don't know what is.

 If you can get past the lurking and the overall creepiness of his size and  face,
he'd make a great addition to any family. :)

As does Luke.  Who is not lurkish or creepy.  We have been so happy to have him with us this past year.  He's a grumpy, excitable, little handful, but we love, love, love him.  He adores broccoli, bread, bananas, gigantic remote controlled angry bird balloons, playing with his sister, "sniffing," cuddling, balls, and waking up far too early.  He has irresistible chubby cheeks, the sweetest smile I've ever seen, and a silly side that comes out when he's tired.  He's everything we hoped he'd be.