Savannah Day 3 - The Trolley Tour

I finally had to go to work this morning, so I woke up early and Ubered over to the Conference hotel for their breakfast, only finding out late this day that my little Ruby heard me leave, got dressed and came down to the breakfast buffet at our hotel so I would not have to eat alone.   I love you Ruby Gooby, and that made me feel special.   If I would have known, I would have stayed at the hotel to eat with you too.   But later when the kids did wake up, they all got breakfast together...except for taking Magan her togo order.   They also ran into Trevor Kakungu's family that was also staying there.   

I wish I had all the stories from the Trolley tour, but I will just speak to all the places they got to visit...They visited Forsyth Park, the Mercer House (where the infamous shooting from "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" captured), Leopold's Ice Cream, the Marshall House (where Magan and I stayed on our 2nd Anniversary), the John the Baptist cathedral, Lafayette Square (just for Ruby), and the Waving Girl statue.   I checked my life 360 a little late, and missed them at the statue by about 15 minutes.   

So I did get that the kids played on this playground calling it the ghost playground, as it was very old compared to the brand new one across the street.   They all loved eating at the Boars Head restaurant on River Street, and were amazed at the size of the cargo ships passing by.   I heard that Ruby fell asleep at one of the crazy art museums.   And they barely made it back to the hotel before the bottom dropped out...as luckily they had a bus driver that just skipped all the other stops to get them back to the first one.   

At my work, it was a pretty calm day at the conference.   One of the vendors put the World Cup game on the big screen that they normally used for advertising.   But after the conference, after coming back to the hotel, we decided to venture out to the Pirate House, since it was Davis's last night in Savannah.   After our dinner, where our waiter mysteriously looked like Corey Feldman (one of the Goonies), we had a tour of the restaurant given by an actual pirate...well she was dressed as one, and took some of our money at the end, so one can assume.   Then we went down to River Street and found the candy shop for some pralines other candy.   Ruby was excited to get home because she had purchased an oyster at the pirate house and got to open it up and get a real pearl for her necklace.   

The Pirate's House...Seven blocks west from where General Oglethorpe landed in 1733, our history begins. Savannah’s World Famous Pirates House is located on one of the most historic spots in Georgia. It was first opened in 1753 as an inn for seafarers, and fast became a meeting point for pirates and sailors from the Seven Seas.  The beloved book "Treasure Island" written by Robert Louis Stevenson, mentioned The Pirates’ House in Savannah and a pirate by the name of Captain John Flint. Captain Flint amassed considerable loot and subsequently buried it on a deserted island. It is said, he died in Savannah from drinking too much rum. His treasure map was given to Billy Bones who helps set the adventure in motion for the main characters. It is said that Stevenson was inspired to write the tale while visiting the Inn and early edition pages can be found in the Treasure Room today.  Since then, The Pirates House has been entertaining visitors with a bounty of delicious food, drink, and rousing good times! 

Savannah Day 2 - Tybee Island

We had Monday to enjoy as a family before I had to start the conference on Tuesday morning, so with alot of rain in the forecast, we planned to visit the Tybee Island Lighthouse in the morning, then make our way to the beach at noon.   The boys will probably remember a handful of beach trips in their entire life, and now with the girls, this is the 4th trip to the beach in 12 months.   Not my favorite place to be, but the girls and Davis seem to love it.   

We climbed all 178 steps to the top of the lighthouse as our first activity of the day, and that was good, because that place was already starting to heat up.   We really had the top all to ourselves, and while it always turns my legs to jelly being up that high, it was a cool lookout.   Magan and I had visited this lighthouse on our 2nd anniversary trip to Savannah in 2003.   Going up was just a pain in your legs and test of your lungs.   The spinning sensation going down was probably why they had puke bags at each major landing.   And while we did not need them, at the bottom, I probably did need some advil for the head spinning.   

The lighthouse also has a really cool museum in the buildings that have been preserved around the area.   It still has the house where the family maintaining the lighthouse would live.   Me and the kids had fun taking some silly pictures with the stuff from the olden days.   And before we left, we had a nice lady take our picture as a family with the lighthouse behind us.   And bless her, I don't understand how some people don't understand how to capture a photo.   So Davis helped us get a timer set up for the first picture below that actually got the lighthouse in it.

We made it to the beach a little before noon, and took awhile to get dressed and get all of the gear onto the wagon to drag out to the beach.   Ruby decided she did not want to use the restroom that had a large hole in the door.   I kept looking at the clouds dreading having to spend a full day at the beach.   And it looked promising for some rain soon, so I was hoping this day could be a little shorter on the beach.   Magan walked off from the van without her water, so asked if I would go back to get it.   And I got the wrong one of course.

Then we finally made it to the ocean, almost, Magan forgot her pool noodle, so I had to go back and get it.   The Beach is a lovely place, and I am sure that I could like it, but it just is hot.   And you get burned.   And you basically sit and sweat all day.   Oh well, I think I have made my point that I did not like the beach, but I did enjoy being with the kids out in the water.   Everyone had a good laugh at my whiteness blinding everyone at the beach.   In the ocean, we saw dolphins swimming about 100 yards from us.   Then we had schools of jumping fish around us, which was pretty cool.   And there was no waves for most of the day, which was kinda nice, but you miss out on the fun wave punching.   

Magan enjoyed her day in the sun underneath towels so that no part of her actually ever saw the sun.   Davis just started randomly digging.   And the girls hung out in the ocean for most of the time.   The new tent Magan bought was very nice to stay out of the sun.   But I must admit that I got a little stir crazy and some of the inner dislike of the beach finally bubbled out, and I think at a good time, we decided to finally pack up from the beach to go get a late lunch at Fannies.   It was also good to leave a little early because we got to go over to the pier and get some ice cream.   

After leaving the beach, we visited the Bonaventure cemetery to see some of the old graves from the 1700s.   Belle called the mausoleums the "dead people boxes", which seems fitting.     But we finally made it back to our hotel for the night.   Ordering a Mellow Mushroom pizza for a late dinner.   We all played a game of Cataan, which was fun, but that game lasts a lot longer that we were all expecting.   Magan and Belle were the winners.   Davis bought a new traveling turtle at the lighthouse, that ended up being in a few pictures.   Ruby was a little deliriously silly on this day with random comments about billboards with a random reference to Mr. Rogers that made us all laugh because we had no idea what she was talking about.   It was a really fun day.   Magan understands my love/hate relationship with the beach, so she helped me through my anxiety.   :)