A Short Footnote

We spent today on the road and ended up in West Virginia after traveling through hours of beautiful desolation. I thought it would be appropriate to finish up our recent travels with a short summation. It’s safe to say that I’ve added a few pounds in the past month and a half, despite efforts to walk off the excess. In fact, for the better part of both trips I’ve felt relatively svelte. That’s because at least 20% of those on the cruise and much higher percentage of those in Florida were morbidly obese. I’ll skip the details, but America does have a big problem and kudos to Michelle Obama for making some noise about it. I talked about the moss-covered trees in the south, only to discover yesterday on our Charleston tour that it’s not actually a moss. Spanish moss does not feed on the giant oaks. Its genus is in fact more closely related to the pineapple plant.

Southerners who of course lost the Civil War still basically hold a grudge. They consider that war a war of Northern Aggression. To compare Savannah and Charleston, I’d have to say that the mansions in Charleston are grander and there are more of them, but Savannah’s multiple green squares makes the two historic districts look and feel very different. You’ve got to see both!

So, tomorrow we’ll be home and back to real life and some dieting. It’s been a blast!

Charleston, South Carolina

The skies had cleared this morning as we left Savannah and headed via Hilton Head for Charleston South Carolina. Hilton Head was just a little jog off our route, but we ended up with very little to look at. The entire island has very little visible commerce, all of it hidden behind the forestation that is Hilton Head. Given its tourism popularity, they’ve done a nice job of keeping an extremely natural look on this island. It’s hard to even get a view of the beach. These places on the water were as close as we got.

On the way into Charleston, we stopped at a tourist office and booked a nice hotel in the old part of Charleston and a horse drawn buggy ride for significantly less than we found when we looked on the internet. As usual, we were too early to check in, so off we went on a buggy ride around Charleston.

We started at the market, which primarily serves the cruise ships that dock 100 metres away.

Our buggy driver was Bobby, our horse was Cooper and they led us on a leisurely stroll around old Charleston. There are numerous buggy companies and the routes they take are determined by lottery. As your buggy hits its launch point, you see the lottery balls churning and dropping to reveal the buggy’s course. We lucked out and went down to the Battery, which is probably the area of the most beautiful of all Charleston mansions. Here are but a few.

Following the tour, we checked into the Days Inn, which had a fabulous location in the old city. We immediately headed out again to see some areas our tour didn’t cover. There is in particular, a row of colourful houses on Bay St. that we wanted to visit.

They also seem to like their ghosts here in Charleston, but not with such fervor as in Savannah. There are some interesting graveyards surrounding the old churches.

One of the main consumer products for tourists are baskets made with rice leaves. There is intensive labour involved here, so I guess it’s understandable that the prices of these bowls are astronomical. We gave them a pass.

This is a very picturesque city, with a variety of beautiful settings.

The Cooper River is another busy river and we actually saw the same container ship we saw leaving Savannah yesterday, now leaving Charleston. I guess it was making its way north up the coast. Also parked in the river was an aircraft carrier, which is definitely one of your larger pieces of real estate on the river.

They have done a nice job of maintaining the historic character of this city, but every once in a while someone paid off someone and ended up with a place like this.

For dinner we walked to 82 Queen St. Our dinner consisted of She Crab soup for Dawn and a chicken chowder for me. Main course was a gigantic jambalaya for Dawn and a deep fried osso bucco for me. Sounds a little bizarre, doesn’t it? With a dessert of peach cobbler, we finished another wonderful meal.

Savannah, Georgia

Following a drive of less than two hours this morning, we found ourselves in the heart of old Savannah. Since we arrived well before lunch, we headed straight for the tourist information office to decide what we should do before we could book into our hotel. Since the weather was once again threatening rain, we opted for a trolley tour, so we’d at least be covered if it started to rain.

The hour and a half tour took us through the old town and around most of its 22 squares. In 1733 General James Oglethorpe and his settlers landed here and founded the colony of Georgia. He named the city after the river, which had an Indian name that sounded like Savannah. He was responsible for laying out the city in a very geometric grid pattern, with green areas (squares) regularly located. These squares later proved very helpful in creating fire blocks after the first fire in 1796 pretty much razed the city. There were two more citywide fires in 1820 and then a war related attempt to eradicate Savannah in 1862.

Today, the historic district is a delight of Victorian and turn of the century homes and buildings. We saw many homes featured in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which for a change were not Hollywood props. In fact, this has been the location for many movies, including the Notebook and Forrest Gump. We also saw Paula Deen’s restaurant and as it was Sunday they only served brunch today, which didn’t fit into our time frame.

The most noteworthy statue in town is The Waving Girl, which depicts the story of a girl who waved at every ship entering Savannah, until the ship containing her boyfriend returned.

Savannah has had a very intimate relationship with ghosts. Apparently many houses are so haunted that no one can either live in them or renovate them. The house below is one such house and it has not only been exorcised, but it is a constant curiosity for tourists as can been seen below with people seeking a peek within.

Apparently the house above and many other Savannah locations have been featured on the TV show Ghost Hunters. The haunted house frenzy has also spawned a related industry including hearse/ghost tours in the evening, where you sit up high in the back of an old hearse. Ghostbusters was not filmed here - maybe it should have been.

Our Savannah trolley tour finished at the Museum of History. Outside are the benches that Forrest Gump sat on, where he said, ”Life is like a box of chocolates. You don’t know what you’re getting.”

Following the tour, we finally checked into the Double Tree Hotel on Bay St., right at the edge of the historic district. Our room faced the river so we had a nice view of the suspension bridge leading to Hilton Head. After unloading our bags, we headed out on further exploration.

Our efforts at discovery were short lived as the rain once again came down in torrents. So, enforced slow time at the hotel was ‘de rigueur’. The rain stopped, the sun returned and we hit the streets. We headed down to River St., home of the original cotton mills. They now house restaurants and tourist shops.

In our walk along the river, we discovered that this is a very active and large container port, as several large ships, including this one headed for the ocean. Apparently cruise ships will also soon find a berth here.

Weary from our walk along the river, we retreated to the rooftop bar of the Bohemian Hotel for a local libation. Dawn’s was a Georgia Peach martini, containing Smirnoff Peach vodka, peach schnapps, a splash of OJ and lime. Mine was a Savannah Tea, containing Firefly Sweet Tea vodka, Beefeater gin, Bacardi rum, Patron (tequila) Citronge, a splash of coke and lemon and lime. Woo hoo!

Our waitress at the Bohemian recommended Alligator Soul for dinner, since we said we wanted authentic Savannah fare, so off we went. The restaurant was only a short walk and soon we were ordering – to share – gator croquettes using a combo of gator, scallop and shrimp; an alligator soul salad featuring the most amazing crispy parmesan cheese grit croutons; and the crowning touch, Shrimp and Grits. We got a lesson on their grits. They are stone ground cornmeal, only found in the south. A Hedges Red Mountain blended red wine, from Washington State accompanied dinner and we finished with a Grand Marnier soufflé for Dawn and banana beignets and pecan praline ice cream for me. Our meal was FABULOUS!!

Needless to say, we returned to our hotel, totally impressed with Savannah.

Heading North

Back on the road again! This morning, we did the necessary packing and loading of the van and were on the road by 9:10. Thank God we’re traveling on our own, since with most of Jessie & Chris’ stuff, the minivan is packed full – must be all of the Disney swag. We decided to head straight for the coast, which is Cape Canaveral. Although famous for it’s proximity to the Kennedy Space Centre, the Cape itself is just another slightly tired beach strip. Both Carnival and Disney do dock their monster cruise ships here, but that’s only due to the fact that this is Orlando’s closest harbour. Next, we drove to the Kennedy Space Centre. With the end of NASA shuttles, the future of this site is still a little shaky. Boeing has leased space for the manufacture of a commercial spacecraft, but the if & when questions regarding future space exploration continue to keep most former NASA employees, unemployed. The result is a fairly depressed region, with some really shabby looking housing areas.

We actually did not take the tour at KSC because we weren’t all that interested and the minimum cost of $45 per person was the final blow. We were able to see most of the early rockets without entry and the shuttle Inspiration was in front of the astronaut museum, so we were happy with our little detour.

We continued up the coast on Highway 1 first and then on A1A, which is a historic highway right on the coast. We went through Daytona Beach, which has long expanses of pristine, sandy beach. It’s easy to see why this place is popular.

Then we jumped back on the I-95 to make a little better time and stopped shortly after 3:00 p.m. at a Holiday Inn Express in Yulee Florida, which is just north of Jacksonville. The weather forecast for today called for a rainy day, but we didn’t actually hit the rain until Jacksonville. So after some slow time at the hotel, we set out to explore Fernandina on Amelia Island, which was about ten miles away. We drove to the historic part of this town and right to the waterfront where we found a restaurant recommended by our hotel, called Brett’s Waterway Café. We sat on the porch overlooking the marina and had a fabulous meal, with a starter of local shrimp, followed by a wedge salad, both of which we shared. Then Dawn had the catch of the day, which was snapper on a bed of barley risotto while I had the pub style fish (cod) and chips.

As the rain started to fall again we drove through the downtown admiring the various 18th century wood-clad homes, many of them with two story porches and ancient moss covered trees. I think we were starting to get a glimpse of what we’ll see over the next few days.

Final Day at Sandy Ridge

Today started early as do all days with Ella and Sadie, but we didn’t get up to speed until we departed with a loaded car for the airport at 10:00 a.m. I suspect traffic in and around Orlando can get pretty gnarly, but so far we’ve totally dodged the bullet and if there’s been a traffic problem, it’s been going the other direction. So, after about 25 minutes we’d delivered the Whites to the airport and bid farewell and bon voyage. Their flight went without a hitch and I’m sure the little girls were happy to be back in their own rooms and beds. We spent some time at the Orlando Premium Outlet Mall before returning to Sandy Ridge for some quiet time and pre-packing before returning to Downtown Disney. By mid-afternoon, the thunderstorms had returned with more ferocity than yesterday and this time the showers remained for pretty much the rest of the day.

We’ve been very pleased with our Florida rental choice. It has been very convenient to Disney and has a good supermarket three minutes away. It was definitely larger than we needed, but we loved the pool and well appointed interior. At $1000 per week, the price was also right. So, we got to discover Downtown Disney in the evening. Despite the drizzle and impending deluge, the place was hopping. The World of Disney Store was packed as usual and instead of the parking lot clearing out, it was quickly filling up. We took in the 6:00 p.m. performance of La Nouba by the Cirque de Soleil. This is a first for us and it did not disappoint. The aerial acrobatics for which Cirque de Soleil are famous were amazing but there was much, much more, including a trio of little girls doing a routine with ropes and a wooden spool. I’m sorry I can’t describe this act any better. They were incredible!

Following the show, the rain continued but we had only a short walk to Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant for dinner. The crowds continued to descend on the Downtown, undaunted by the weather and the cacophony in the restaurant was deafening. The food was, however, great. With dinner over, so was the rain and we had an enjoyable stroll back to our car.

We’re pretty much packed, but will load the car in the morning and head off to the Atlantic coast as we begin our trek northward.

A Final Visit to the Magic Kingdom

Rather than visiting the fourth park today, which would be Epcot, we opted to return to the Magic Kingdom since it had much more to offer to little ones the ages of Sadie & Ella. As well, there were many attractions we didn’t get to on the first day, so clearing them from our list was our mission.

We took the matching sisters with us today.

While I once again picked up some fast passes, the rest started the day with It’s a Small World – always a hit with the little ones. Gee, I’m really sorry I missed that one! Then we watched the 3D movie called Mickey’s Philharmagic, featuring the misadventures of Donald Duck and some of Disney’s best movie music.

Then we embarked on a Jungle Cruise. This ride now pales a little in comparison to Disney’s live Animal Kingdom safari, but the children still enjoy it. Following some time in Adventureland, we met our last Disney princess, Tiana, featured in the Princess and the Frog movie. She was very animated and had the girls totally captivated.

By this point we had pretty much seen what we had come to see - that would be in Ella & Sadie’s comfort zone - so we boarded the Walt Disney World Railroad featuring a steam locomotive and did a circuit of the park.

We left Disney shortly after lunch and returned to Sandy Ridge for a quiet afternoon. The girls opted for some more shopping time while Chris and I manned the fort during naptime – a tough job but somebody’s got to do it. We discovered yet another of the creatures that inhabit the wildlife area upon which the house backs. A large and beautiful hawk stopped for a brief rest on the roof of the pool lanai.

As the afternoon progressed, the monsoon descended and the long-awaited Florida rain finally came. Hopefully it snuffed some fires. In any case, the temperature did not fall, so when naptime was finally over and the ladies returned from shopping the pool was in full swing. This was a great finish to the Florida vacation for the White family.