Southern Belles: Drive, Beach, and Explore

 We were up and ready by 8 the next morning.  Natali’s throat was really bugging her so we stopped for some cough drops.  She must have caught Emma’s cold because she was sick the rest of the trip.  It slowed her down a lot and was a bit of a bummer – just glad she wasn’t sick for the amusement park days; head colds and rides don’t mix. 

Four and a half hours later we were at the beach. We did a tricky change in the car and headed to the sand. Within minutes we spotted dolphins right off the shore.  There was a whole group of them breaching so close.  They swam around right in front of us for about 20 minutes.  We made video after video trying to catch them out of the water as evidence to send to the fam.  We hadn’t expected that, so it really made our day.  (we got lots of videos but no good pics). The dolphins moved on while we soaked up the sun till the heat became too much- relieved by a dip in the cold water. 

The murky water was impossible to see through.  I was a bit weirded out when I stepped on something strangely smooth and round.  Later a fisherman caught two Horseshoe Crabs solving my mystery steppingstone.  These animals are ancient and fascinating.  We watched them dig and crawl back to the water when the man released them.  Pelicans swam in groups near the shore, and we found a beautiful jellyfish on the beach.  This trip wasn’t meant to be an animal trip, but we scored- amazing animals and an incredible beach.

 

We walked down the beach till our meter ran out.  We drove into Savannah and checked into our hotel, The 17hundren90 Inn.  It was a fabulous old building famed to be haunted.  After we both showered the foggy mirror revealed a secret message, “I see you”.  I was cracking up; Natali was fast asleep, so she missed it.  The building was originally a single-family dwelling but was turned into a boarding house in the 1900’s so they but hallways on the outside of the building and created rooms accessed by the hallway.  Thus, some of the rooms have windows to the hallway; we had the privilege of such a room.  So quirky.

We found a uniqe Cat Cafe - you pay a fee to come in and pet adoptable cats while you drink your coffee.  The place was closed for the day but through the window we could see several cats sleeping and wandering around.  We had to send a video to the kids.

We walked around, exploring the city and river front on our way to our dinner at the Ordinary Pub which was far from ordinary.  We had to try fried green tomatoes, pork belly on donuts, and the waffle gyro.  Everything was tasty but dessert wasn’t tempting so we stopped for some pecan pie on the way home.  On our way out of the restaurant I felt a cold sore coming, so we stopped at a drug stop and I found some miracle medicine that kept my cold sore at bay.  Natali was pretty exhausted so went home and read till bedtime.

Southern Belles: Universal Again, Water Rides, Simpsons and Goodbye

Natali and I woke early the next morning, skipped breakfast and hoped on the shuttle.  Natali got right in line to enter the park and I went to Voodoo Donuts to get us some tasty breakfast.  I sat down outside the Hogwarts castle and ate my enormous apple fritter until Natali joined me and we got on the Hogwarts Express to the other park. 

 

Keeley and Natali headed for the big rides while I rode ET, and Woody the Woodpecker rides with the littles. 

 

We met back up in Simpson’s land to take some pics for the boys and eat lunch.  

 

We tried to ride the MIB ride all together to end the day but halfway through the line they closed the ride.  We said goodbye to the Dames so they could get home before bedtime and Natali and I headed through Diagon Alley for the last time and even checked out Olivander’s Wand shop. Then we jumped back on the Hogwarts Express to go cool off on the other water rides.

We decided that Dudley DoRight’s was a great ride but poorly named.  We got pretty wet but not as bad as the first day.  

 

Natali managed to ride rides till the place closed again and then we ate at this Mexican restaurant.  Let me tell you – this corn dip, esquites, was so delicious.  By far the best dish we had on the whole trip.  

After two days in the park our feet were absolutely exhausted; we had walked nearly a marathon.  And after three full days of wearing masks, we were ready for mellow mask-free day.

Southern Belles: Universal, Walkers, and Loving on Cousins

Our New York trip was canceled last year due to covid, so our plane tickets were ready to be used.  New York didn’t seem like much fun, so Natali decided to go to Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina (She only has three states left now!).  We got to Orlando, rented the car and met the Dame’s at our hotel.  I have missed those cute little faces and we felt privileged to be the first members of the family to meet Winston in person.  

 

We got up early and used our early entrance passes to get Natali on the Hagrid’s Ride.  Natali rode rides with Keeley while I wandered with Spencer and the kids (neither of us do rides).  It was fun to go on some of the little rides with Kenzie – she would laugh at me being nervous about getting sick.  I loved the Doctor Seuss area with their wonky palm trees (Spencer said they had them shipped in from over seas after their growth was permanently damaged due to a hurricane - so cool).  Winston had to eat in silence and Keeley had to pump every three hours, so Natali and I still had lots of time together seeing the intricacies of Harry Potter World and actually meeting up with the Walker family.  

 

We jumped in line with them – shhh- for the Hagrid’s Ride.  It was Natali’s favorite ride, so I decided to be brave and try it.  I rode with Heather and she laughed through the whole thing; I think the laughing took the edge off.  I made it without headache or nausea (could be that the herbal patches actually helped) but I couldn’t do any other rides for quite a while.  But after that I was more willing to try rides.  I learned I didn’t love the ones with screens, but I could always close my eyes or take off the 3D glasses if they got too intense.

 

We had a fabulous Greek lunch, enjoyed frozen and hot butterbeer (hot is definitely best) and had my personal favorite, pumpkin juice.  We also stopped for milkshakes at the cholate emporium – oh yummy – good thing we shared that.  

 

As the day warmed up, we decided to cool off by trying one of the water rides.  Well, the Popeye ride looked fun, so we hopped on expecting to get a little wet; when the ride was over we were absolutely drenched head to toe.  We felt bad that Keeley was wearing tennis shoes.  My overalls were so full of water they were 3 or more inches longer than previously.  It took us hours, but we did finally dry off; consequently, we weren’t ever hot again that day.

We stayed till closing time and then enjoyed an Italian dinner and our feet thanked us when we finally got off of them for the night.

Prom

Prom snuck up on us during Spring Break.  It hadn’t been on my radar by the time I heard it was less than two weeks away.  I told Mack if he was going to ask anyone, he needed to do it the next day.  We brainstormed and he finally decided to do fortune cookies.  I made them and he wrote the clues.  He never put his name but clues like:  Your lucky number is 8401 (address), 10-4-03 (bday), the date for prom, his jersey number, his phone number, and one that asked her to prom.  Luckily, Lindsey knew enough about Mack to figure out it was him.  She expanded on the Chinese theme by leaving a Chinese food take away box and chopsticks on the porch with all these lights.  

 

She even included a Panda Express gift card in the box.  She didn’t know that was his favorite restaurant, but it made his night.

 

They asked Greg to take pics but unfortunately, the wind was fierce and cold.  The girls’ hair was blowing all over and they looked rather chilly, so we didn’t take too many pics.  My favorite pic is of the boys being silly.  Mack really has fun with those guys.  I’m glad he has someone to laugh with.