Fall Break: Day 4 Savannah, GA

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Savannah, GA

Since Charleston and Savannah are so close, we decided to take a quick trip down to go 'ol Savannah before we headed home. Daniel and I have been here together once before around our 2nd anniversary. We had literally found out only a couple weeks before that trip I was pregnant with Will. So it was kinda neat to come back here with our 10-year-old little boy. And 3 more! Get ready for picture overload. We did a lot of walking and saw a lot of things.

 First up: Lady & Sons restaurant. We were unable to eat here on our first trip (I believe b/c it was Mother's Day weekend) so I said I definitely wanted to make it happen this time. Since we arrived around lunch time, it was perfect. Got early check-in at the hotel, dropped off our stuff and car then walked on over. We also walked through the city market on the way there and back.

We all thought the food was very good and we didn't have to wait long to be seated. Though, given the off season, I was surprised there was a wait at all. Next up, Chippewa Square. Because this, my friends, is where Forrest Gump's bench scenes were filled. And yes, we came here on our first trip as well. It was a little lost on the kids b/c they haven't seen the movie. On our first trip I learned the bench was a movie prop- added for the movie and then removed- still, I wish they had left it.

 Beautiful little girl! Below, more paved streets and the famous Forsyth Park fountain. I love famous things, in case you can't tell. ;) There was a playground inside the Park, so we let the kids play for a little while. We have been doing lots of exploring and cultural/learning stuff. 

 We hit most of the highlights in the downtown area, so we headed to the waterfront. On our way, a lady was standing outside of her shop and invited us in for some cookies. We were such an easy target... We did learn here, however, that most everything in the city was shut down b/c the storms hitting the gulf coast. Explains the minimal crowds- fewer than expected even in the off season.  Private tour of Savannah, thank you.

We walked along the waterfront, stopped in a couple shops, all the way to the waving girl monument at the end. By this time, the kids were all getting hungry so we headed toward the hotel with plans to grab dinner on our way back. I saw Leopold's Ice Cream and wanted to stop in but we decided dinner but after we finished, there was a line into the street so we did not get ice cream.

Once we returned to the hotel, I realized why that name sounded familiar: it was on my list of things to do! It's apparently a famous Ice Cream Parlor in Savannah and well, you know. ;) We had a great day, saw lots of things and all enjoyed ourselves. Great last day!

Fall Break: Day 3 - Charleston

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

South Carolina Aquarium

Today was set aside for the aquarium in Charleston as it was supposed to be the most likely day to rain according to the forecast. We were fortunate the other two days the rain held out until we finished our activities. I was glad we picked today for the indoor fun because it did rain off and on.

 We started at the stingrays because we got passes to feed them- a pretty cool experience for kids in my opinion. I took a few pics and a video then my camera died! So I had to resort to my cell phone. I know, I'm one of those weird people who prefer taking photos on my big camera.

 They had Legos all over the place. This pineapple fountain was cool and the kids loved climbing all over the shark below. Directly below is a real bald eagle, not a Lego version. :)

My silly husband. We spent several hours here then had a late lunch a place call Black Magic Cafe in Folly Beach. Name kinda crazy but the food was really good. I had the most delicious croissant french toast with fruit that I sadly could not finish but I stuffed as much as I could!

After lunch we stopped at a souvenir shop where Will finally found something he wanted. Then we hung out at our place for a couple hours, took a walk around the condo area and to the dock until it was time to get ready for dinner at Daniel's friend/co-worker's house. They provided us with oysters (I only had one) and pizza, which was delicious. The kids all had fun playing together. Another fun day filled lots of great adventures. It'll be sad to say goodbye to Charleston tomorrow!

Fall Break: Day 2 - Charleston

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Patriot's Point

On the roster for today was a visit to Fort Sumter. I didn't know exactly how long the tour would take, but expected it to take a good chunk of the day, so nothing else touristy was planned for this day. Daniel really wanted to go kayaking as a family- and his friend/co-worker in the area even offered to give us a tour- but the water was really too rough and choppy to make this happen. Good thing anyway, we ended up with a full day at Patriot's Point!

We arrived about 30 minutes after a tour departed to Fort Sumter and the next was in a couple hours. I should've done my research better on this one as I just assumed they'd have tours departing every 30 minutes. Turns out we could get tickets for the USS Yorktown which included a visit to the destroyer ship and submarine. This tickets were about the same price as the Sumter tours, so really a better deal. We started with the destroyer.

We were inside the the fire room in the first picture watching a video about how the men aboard the USS Laffey survived a Kamikaze attack and managed to get the ship back to port. It was really neat. Then Lenny, the guy pictured above and who started the film for us, ended up basically giving us a private tour around the destroyer because he served on it years ago! We really could've spent a lot more time there, but the kids were getting hungry and we had to feed them before heading to the Fort Sumter tour. So we went aboard the USS Yorktown, walked around a tiny bit on our way to the only food place onboard. It was not the best lunch ever, but filled bellies. 

After we returned, we took some time on the USS Yorktown and then went into the submarine, which was really cool, probably my favorite part.

I thought it was weird and seemed kind of random that a space module would be on exhibit on a Navy ship. Turns out the Yorktown picked up the Apollo 8 in the middle of the ocean after they returned stateside. Super cool!

We pretty much stayed until they were shutting the place down. What a great day! We got so much more than we bargained for and so much history. Honestly, I could've skipped Fort Sumter. Obviously, that was the reason we even came to this place, but it was my least favorite mostly because we only had an hour at the fort itself- the roundtrip boat ride was just as long or longer than time spent there. Plus it was in the middle of everything else- but that was due to lack of planning on my part. I enjoyed seeing Fort Sumter for its place in history; however, if I'd known going in, I would've been just as happy spending the whole day at Patriot's Point. And the rain held out just long enough again!