Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Savannah Trip - Thursday

Okay, I guess I have been busy lately. To finish out our Savannah Trip in next couple of posts.
On Thursday was the first day that we went to the Historic Downtown Savannah. We drove to the visitors center and got some maps and made our way in the direction of Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room for lunch, a bit of info about this place. The locals call it the Boarding House or Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House, I don't know why but that is how we found out about this place. They are only opened for lunch from 11 til 2. We heard about it from the Fort McAllister park ranger. You wait outside til you can be seated and they have tables that hold 10 people and they fill them up! We had the bad luck on going on a day when they were also serving to a private tour bus group so even thought we got there around 10:40 we had over an hour wait. The kids did great given that they are kids plus I had emergency suckers on me and they both had one that kept them good for a bit. The food was fantastic! There had to have been about 27-28 different good ole' southern dishes there and it was all family style so you got as much of what ever you wanted. It was funny because all the kids ate was: chicken, rice, mac&cheese, potatoes, & bread.
After the 'I can't button my pants' lunch we drove closer to the Savannah River boardwalk area to park for our Boat Tour. After driving around for about 20 minutes and finding nothing we called the Tour company and were able to park on Hutchinson Island where the boat was. (Between GA & SC). The boat ride was great, we did see some dolphins and even got them on camera, but we weren't able to go out and around the Tybee Island area due to rough water. Both the kids enjoyed the boat ride as well.
After the boat ride we walked around the Savannah River board walk then took a ferry ride back to get the car. We drove around the squares a little and went to see what all the talk about the Mercer House was all about (now having read Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil I wish that we had gone earlier so I could have gone on the tour of the house). The Main house is the museum and the carriage house is a store that runs the tour guides as well. But hey I have a picture:).
After all that excitement we headed back to the teepee for a light dinner and the kids played on the playground till it was time for s'mores and then bed.
Here are the photos:
Madelyn outside the Boarding House waiting to get to eat....The bridge to Hutchinson Island...Brian & Madelyn on the Dolphin Magic Tour Boat...The two photos of the dolphins that I got...(you have to look really hard)Pelicans....This boat is used to remove silt on the bottom of the Savannah River so the big freighter ships can make it up and down the river.Our Tour Boat...Brendan by one of the Freighter ships....Brendan watching as the ship went by...The Mercer House...

Friday, April 11, 2008

Madelyn's 2 Year Old Photo's

I finally did Madelyn's 2 year old photos today. They are on the business web site under client gallery #4. Here is a direct link: Madelyn's Photos

Here are a couple of the photos for a sneak peek.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Savannah Trip - Wednesday

On Wednesday we packed up our back-packing camp site a hiked our stuff out (Brian again had 2 trips, while I had 1 going with the kids-which is easier?) and drove to Skidaway Island State Park. It has a draw-bridge (very small one) that you have to go over to get to the Island. The only time we saw it up was on our first trip going out there. We set up camp - I will tell you what, that TeePee makes us the most visited people in the whole campground. Normally when you go camping people don't talk to other people too much, we had people coming over and talking with us sometimes even a couple of times. I like that much better. Anyway, after we set up we went to see a Snake Information Program that they had for the campers at the Interpretive Center. The center also had a skeleton of a prehistoric giant beaver, the size of a small elephant easily.
We went out for dinner and got more food for the cooler & car and drove around Skidaway Island a little bit.
Here are some of the pictures from Wednesday:
Our TeePee at the new camp ground.Our camping spot being super close to the playground.At the end of the island by one of the rivers-I think the Wilmington River.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Savannah Trip...Tuesday

Monday we hiked in, set up camp, ate our backpack dinner (which was really good -Chicken & Rice- & the kids ate quite a lot of it) and went to bed.
Tuesday we woke up and had breakfast. Now we had tried giving the kids plain oatmeal at home and Brendan tried it and didn't like it and Madelyn didn't try it and just cried. So we brought in bagels & pop tarts for them while Brian & I had the instant oatmeal. I should say right now I have never had oatmeal before, I had the apples & cinnamon, it was great I am now hooked on the stuff.

Anyway, Tuesday we hiked out and drove to visit the Wormsloe State Historic Site. When Oglethorpe first arrived at Georgia in 1733 the land where Wormsloe sits is on the Isle of Hope. Noble Jones built the house out of lime, sand, shell & water. It took over 6 years to build the house and was twice the required size of a contemporary Savannah house in those times. It had 5 rooms. All that remains of the original house are some of the outer most walls. The Jones' descendants still have a second home build in 1828 on the land and in 1972 donated 822 acres for the Nature Conservancy who then gave it to GA.
Here are some of the photos:
The drive way - was 1 1/2 miles long with 400 live oaks planted in the early 1890s.What remains of the house.The Archway to the estate from the road. 1733 was the year Jones arrived in Savannah, 1913 marks when the arch was put up.
Also we went to visit the McAllister Fort where we were camping at.
Fort McAllister is a sand & mud earthworks fort - with a center bombproof that housed a hospital as well as supply area. It is said that after an attack the fort could be rebuilt overnight by moving the mud & earth back into place. Fort McAllister is one of the forts that was designed to stop ships from entering the rivers to head up toward Savannah. It also had a 'Hot shot Cannon', cannon balls would be heated in the furnance before fired upon the wooded ships to then catch them on fire. The fort was attacked 7 times by ship and did not fail. But was captured by Sherman at the end of his 'March to the Sea' in 1864.
Here are the photos:
Brendan in the Fort.Brian and the kids by the hot shot Cannon.The hospital.Brendan & myself...if you look closely, Madelyn is pitching a fit on the ground between the two mound of earth on Brendan's side.