2013 Vacation- Days 5 & 6

Day 5 found us waking up in Savannah, Georgia.  We actually had rooms just down the hallway, but were able to get adjoining rooms for the nights after that.  The rooms were nice and again this hotel had complimentary breakfast and a pool.  It also had a coin operated laundry room for guests, which was used often by us. 

We weren't real sure of what Savannah had to offer.  Remember the guys planned this trip, so everything was an unknown.  : )  This was Sunday, so we were able to park at the visitor's center for free.  We grabbed up a handful of brochures and asked about certain places we were interested in.  We grabbed a map and headed back to the van to figure out our plan for the rest of that day.  It was a cloudy day, but the rain held off until later on.  Phil wanted to check out a jewish synogogue, so we followed his lead and started walking through the city to find it.  What a beautiful city!  It was nice that the city was so beautiful making the walk enjoyable.  We put in some good walking that day.  We did finally manage to find the synogogue, but it was closed.  We took note of when it was open, so we could come back.  Upon arriving at the synogogue, my flip flop broke.   It's the reason we ended up walking all over the city.  I'll finish that story after you see some pictures.  

The city of Savannah is scattered with these square parks.  Every few blocks one is located.  It makes the city have such a peaceful and relaxed feel.  The large trees, the fountains, the benches, the light posts, and people just sitting enjoying the day or walking leisurely through really make this a welcoming area. 

 

This is the entry way into a house.  The way the houses line the streets have a beauty of its own.  So, my flip flop breaks, and I am walking barefoot through Savannah.  On our way to the synogogue I notice a couple blocks away a real pretty park, so we head that direction.  It happens to be one of the parks that we had read about and were wanting to visit.  We decided it would be the perfect place for our family pictures later on during our trip.  There was a special event going on, so there were lots of people around.  By then we were all pretty hungry, and after we watched the event going on, it started to rain quite nicely, so we headed in to the cafe that was there to get some food.  Still barefoot, Jonathon decides that he should find a place where I can get my feet covered again.  It really wasn't a big deal to me.  But after getting directions to the nearest Kroger, we set out to find some flip flops.  Well, after heading to a rough area of town and me feeling uneasy, we realized that Jonathon was leading us the wrong way.  So, Casie took the map and turned us around so we could find it.  No flip flops at Kroger.  But they gave us directions to a Family  Dollar across the park where we had already been and down a few more blocks.  So, we headed back that direction.  Still raining and barefoot, we finally made it there.  Another bad part of town, but I got some sandals and made it out with no injury to my feet.  Everything happens for a reason, but I'm still trying to figure out why all of that happened.  Well, at least we got some good exercise in. 

Back to the hotel for the kiddos to swim and relax before the next full day. 

Day 6 was full of adventures.  After reading through some of our material from the visitor's center, we decided on a few things that we all really wanted to do.  The first stop was to be the Tybee Lighthouse on Tybee Island.  It was sprinkling again this day, but at least we were able to be inside.   

We all made the steps (I forget how many) to the very top to see out over the ocean and view the island. 

Benaiah sat on this step of one of the houses on the grounds of the lighthouse because he wanted to watch the guy mowing the lawn.  That was his highlight of that stop.  : )

From the lighthouse we walked across the street to where an old fort was.  This was also part of the tour, so the children got to see some interesting things that went along with that as well.

This was taken from on top of the fort.  Alegra thought the lighthouse would look neat from that view. 

The lighthouse ended up being one of our children's favorite stops.  It was worth our time.  We were all getting hungry, so we set out to find a kid friendly restaurant.  We were suggested a couple places from the volunteer at the lighthouse, so Casie checked out reviews of those places.  We were actually in the parking lot of one of them, but after seeing the prices, we decided to try something else.  She found another restaurant that was located on our way off of the island, so we decided to give that one a try. 

Coco's was a typical restaurant on the water.  Located along the canal, it was brightly colored and decorated with tropical/fish decor.  We were greeted and seated in an empty restaurant and by a waitress who was not happy that we were there.  There were a few people in the bar area, but in the actual restaurant area, we were the only ones in there.  It was nice for our large group, but it caused us to wonder why our waitress was a little short with us upon realizing that there were 9 children and 4 adults.  After getting seated we decided that we needed to leave one of our Almond Joy candy bars with her, because she clearly needed a little joy added to her life.     

We had good food and the children all behaved well.  The service was okay, but we could tell that our waitress just wasn't okay with us there.  By the end she asked us one of the usual questions, "Are these all yours?"  Why, yes they are.  : )  Then one of us asked her if she had children.  Her answer was quite interesting, "No, I steer clear of children".  What?????  Well, no wonder she wasn't excited about our 9 children coming in for her to serve.  : )  In the above picture you can see them coloring on pages.  They all decided to color their pages for "Tiffany" our waitress.  So, when we left, we put all of the coloring pages, complete with written notes from some of the children, an Almond Joy candy bar, and some extra tip on the table where Elli and Alegra sat.  It was full of goodies for our waitress.  We watched as she came across her gifts and she smiled with surprise.  There's more to this story, but you'll have to wait for days 7 and 8 post.    We did want the children to understand that just because someone is having a bad day and doesn't treat us kindly, doesn't mean that we can be rude back to them.  We should spread some joy to them because they may be in need of that.  Please do read the rest of the story coming up in a few days when I get that post done. 

So, we were all full and left the restaurant.  Not having any other plans we decided to stop at this little parking lot that had a trail that lead to the water.  We thought we would just check it out for a short bit.

We ended up finding fiddler crabs along one of the banks.  They were everywhere, poking their heads in and out of the mucky ground.  Phil decided that he was going to get down there and try to catch one.  He did, then put it up on the cement for the children to see.  It eventually just ran off the cement and fell back down into the water.  But was very interesting for the children to see.

Those things look slow, but boy oh boy can they run fast on dry ground.  Watch out for those pinchers. 

After that stop I suggested a state park that wasn't too far away.  So, we headed that direction.  It was later so the nature center was closed, but we were able to walk on one of the trails, which is where we learned some interesting facts about the spanish moss trees.  The children enjoyed the walk too, looking out for snakes, birds, seeing more fiddler crabs, seeing hermit crabs and their tracks, and just enjoying a lovely walk.

We finished up here and headed back to the hotel.  Of course there was swimming to be done by the children.  I knew that swimming was a big part of their trip, so I thought I better get some pictures.  But the pool room steamed up my lens on my camera, so I wasn't able to get very good pictures there.  Did get a few though. 

I think it might have been that night that we had a late night Applebees run for food too since we ate a little bit earlier, and because someone was craving a cheeseburger.  Hmmmm.......

Another full day on our trip, fun had by all, and some good learning experiences, historically, in the science world and in the area of human relations.