Moving to Charleston

Another nice sleep in day. We had rain last night so there was a little bit of interruption of sleep but overall it was a good night. We found that for some reason the kids room is leaking right under Brighton's mattress when it rains so we will have to get that checked out as well as the slide wiring in that room as two of the lights no longer work. The trailer is still under warranty so it should be covered.

We got all packed up and showered and were able to pull out of our campsite around 11:30AM. We were a little sad to leave as it is a nice quiet place and one of the camp host couples was from Yachats, Oregon and had a golden retriever puppy named Dixie. It was nice to chat about home and play with a golden puppy.

The drive today was about 3 hours. The first hour or so was all interstate 95 but then we got on the country highways that are much more to our liking. We listened to two sermons on the way from Substance church which we visited while in Minneapolis. It was a series titled "The Family Circus" and had some good insight into the most important things when it comes to being a healthy family. We are doing OK in some parts and not so great in others so it was good to hear some wisdom in this area.

We did not really hit any rain until we pulled into the campground - perfect timing!  :-)  We got our site and from what we have seen so far we are excited to get to explore the campground here. It is run by the county and has a big dog park, a rock climbing wall, 5 or so miles of trails and the most important thing to the kids - free WIFI.

After getting all setup we had a leisurely afternoon. Ben really wanted to play Donkey Kong on the WII so he and I did that for a bit and then took turns with different kids playing Lego Batman. We were able to finish the game which means now going back to each level and playing as different characters to unlock new secrets we could not find on the first round through.

We tried our Pecan roll that we bought yesterday. I was disappointed as it tasted a little stale to me but others thought it was good. We did pass a couple of boiled peanut signs on the way but at really scary buildings so we decided to hold on that until we don't have the trailer and see one that looks a little less scary.

We are figuring out tonight what days would be good to head out and explore the area while still getting time for work and school. It looks like the weather should be improving towards mid-week so it will be nice to get some more sunshine and a little less rain.

Check out our new page listed at the top of the blog site for new things we have tried or experienced. I wanted to start building a list to keep track of them as we do them.

Historic Savannah

We shamelessly slept in today and it was wonderful. We lazed under the covers until we had to get up and when we started trying to map out where we were going today, I was shocked to see on Brock's tablet screen that it was 10 o'clock! I had planned to make pancakes for breakfast, but since we needed to get going and lots of us needed to go down to the bathrooms for showers, and we knew it would be nearly noon before we got out of the campground, we decided to eat cold cereal. The lack of a sewer hookup at this campground makes me really appreciate all the campsites we've chosen that had it. We have done a good job of conserving though since we made it five nights without having to move the trailer to the dump station. I'm proud of us. We can now just dump on our way out and really appreciate full hookups at our next campground.

Today was one of those times when we really weren't sure what we should try to see in Savannah. We started out by touring the Bonaventure Cemetery. It is a very old and picturesque cemetery where some prominent figures in Georgia's history are buried.

Random grave monument...sunbeams and
spanish moss...
cool in the daytime...
glad we weren't doing the midnight tour.

Grave of Noble Jones, one of Georgia's first colonists who arrived here with James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia. Jones was a leading official in the colony and died here in 1775.

After the graveyard, we were all starving; it seems cold cereal doesn't last very long in your stomach. So, we decided to drive to the "historic Savannah district" and look for someplace to eat lunch. Problem was, we didn't really know where the historic district was. I tried putting "River Walk" into the search on my phone and it started taking us somewhere out towards Tybee Island where we were yesterday, so we eventually figured out that that wasn't right and turned around and started driving towards the river and city center.

Eventually we found the right area and then we were looking for a parking spot and we finally found one. Then we got out of the car and started searching on our phones again for a nearby eatery. We just decided to try one that had decent reviews called Henry's Restaurant. It was basically just American food, but the people were so nice and the food was really good and fresh. We were all able to choose quite varied things. Three of us chose breakfasts and the other three chose hamburgers, fried shrimp and grilled cheese. We were eating already when Brock noticed on the menu that it said they closed at 3 pm and it was already about ten after! We apologized to them, but they were very nice and genuinely seemed not to mind. The rest of the staff did clear out before we finished eating though. We decided to leave them an extra nice tip.

With full bellies, we were much more ready to head out and explore the River Walk area. It is in the Historic District North. It is just a little cobblestone street area right on the river that cars and trolleys can still drive on. There were a few street performers there and some really nice ships and boats. The store fronts along there were all pretty touristy with a disproportionate amount of candy stores, BUT we enjoyed the free samples whenever possible. We had our first taste of pralines and everyone liked it except Sky who is not a fan of nuts. We got the obligatory smashed penny souvenirs at one of the candy stores and also purchased a pecan roll to eat later. We found a sunglass shop that was having an end of season sale where all the glasses were $5 so we all chose a new pair. 

Lots of the buildings on the river had really pretty rock walls.

A World War 2 Veterans' Memorial

We drove around a little bit when we had tired of walking and enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful buildings including the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. There was some scaffolding in front of it and it looked like people were headed in for a mass so we didn't get to take a picture. The streets definitely have a real unique feeling to them with all the live oak branches and spanish moss reaching over them to create a tunnel feel. The city just feels so different from anything you see in Oregon since our history just doesn't go back so far. 

On the way home, most of us were still full from our 3 o'clock lunch so we decided to skip dinner and hit a little frozen yogurt shop. I think everyone was happy with their choices. 

I think Brynna was conservative in her yogurt
portions because she finished eating first.

Spencer finished his last and was not so conservative
with his portions. ;O)

I think the favorite flavor tonight was "cake batter".

When we got back to the trailer, Brock needed some quiet time and headed into our room to read a magazine. I had a few clean up type things that I'd procrastinated on that I needed to get done before moving day tomorrow. Before too long, it was time for the little boys to be in bed. It was a good day all in all. I know there is LOTS of Savannah that we didn't see, but we enjoyed what we did and are pretty ready to move on. Next stop...Charleston.

Aren't we cool in our new shades?

Fort Pulaski National Monument

Today we finished all our school by lunch time and Brock took a partial day off and we headed to Cockspur Island to see Fort Pulaski. It is a fort that was built as part of a coastal fortification system adopted by James Madison after the War of 1812. It is all built of brick and granite and the walls are 7-11 feet thick. It took 18 years to complete. It was thought to be impenetrable. Just before Georgia seceded from the Union, the Governor moved the state militia troops into the fort and then the troops became Confederate soldiers upon the state's secession. During the important battle that took place there, the Union fired rifled cannons from a nearby island and hit the fort with some 5000 shells. Rifled cannons had been tested in the field, but never against a fortification like this. The Union Commander was confident though and in the end, he was proved right. The shells basically opened up, eventually, gaping holes into the walls large enough to drive a truck through. The Confederate soldiers surrendered after two days and the fort became occupied by the Union.

During our tour, we got to see some really awesome engineering examples. For example, there was a cistern water system that collected the rains and then filtered it through sod and oyster shells before it ran through pipes into several cisterns. We learned about one of the 32-lb cannons named Louisa and how she weighed over 8000 lbs, but could be moved by four men because of the gun carriage system that was engineered. There are two drawbridges and a moat that goes around the fort and is 7-8 feet deep and something like 30-40 feet wide in some places which would make infantry attack quite difficult. Today there were several medium size fish jumping in the moat.

Coming to the entrance to the fort.

Huge doors at the sallyport.

Brighton behind the bars of the prison which
 ended up housing the Confederate prisoners
 of war when the fort changed hands.

Cool granite spiral staircase

Sky was my cooperative "poser" for today.

The kids attempted to do the Junior Ranger booklets which we have at times enjoyed at other national parks. Sometimes they end up being a little stressful. Brighton and Brynna have actually outgrown the program. They can work through the activities just for fun, but they aren't allowed to earn a badge. Skylar was able to complete his program and earned his badge. I think he really enjoyed it. One of his activities was to choose from a large list of animals which ones might live in or around the moat. He was selecting them and came up to white-tailed deer and he decided he wouldn't select that one because while they live in Georgia, they probably didn't live in or around the moat. Wouldn't you know that just around the corner on the outside of the fort, we saw a deer. Skylar hurried to correct his work in his Junior Ranger booklet.

Some of the damage from the rifled shells was left for us to see.
 The brighter brick to the right of the pic shows
 the repair where the big gaping hole was.

Sometimes hard to get my honey to smile for a pic, but isn't he cute?

Spencer doing his thing.

When we had finished up at the fort, we decided to look for some seafood and ended up choosing a little restaurant right on the road back to our campground at Fort McAllister. It is called Fish Tales. It is right on the river and they also have a bait shop right there that sells to local fishermen. We even got to see a large cooler with tons of live fiddler crabs that they use.

We started out our dinner with an order of fried pickles for everyone to share. They were good. I'm glad we split the order because one really only needs to eat a couple. They are very salty. They come with a side of ranch for dipping. Everyone tried them and I think everyone liked them, but I don't think anyone LOVED them. With all our varied tastes it is always interesting to see what people will choose for dinner. Brighton got a huge plate of chicken nachos which wasn't too surprising as that is kind of his standard order wherever we go. Brynna chose a chicken strip basket which came with fries and a couple of hush puppies. Skylar ordered off the kids' menu and got a hot dog and fries which also came with a hush puppy. Spencer ordered "Kids' Crab Cluster" off the kids' menu and I was surprised to see that this was actually a half crab and it wasn't really very well cracked for him so he really had to work for it, but seemed to enjoy it. He chose grits for his side which I was proud of him for, but he did choose to leave most of those on his plate. Brock and I chose two entrees that we both wanted to try and then split them. One was a seafood au gratin. It was very cheesy and had crab, shrimp and scallops mixed in. It was really good with the garlic bread that came with it. The seafood was fresh so the flavor was good; it was very rich and also pretty salty. The other dish was Shrimp n' Grits. Neither Brock nor I had ever tried grits and this was grits with bacon and cheese and shrimp so it seemed like a good way to try them. I'm glad we tried them and the dish was good. We finished it all, but I doubt that we will order grits again either. It was a fun little restaurant decorated very colorfully. I took a picture of the family at our bright blue table, but for some reason it wasn't readable tonight. :o(

When we got back to the trailer, everyone took turns playing a Lego Batman level with Dad and then hit the sack. Tomorrow we plan to explore the city of Savannah. Hooray for Saturday!!