The Oldest City in Georgia

I had three days off so we took a quick trip to Savannah since it's only 4 hours away. We arrived in Savannah just in time to get in line for lunch at The Wilkes House. It's southern family style dining at its best. You sit around a big dinner table with 9 other guests and feast on about 30 different dishes that will have you thinking it's Thanksgiving day! It was well worth the 1.5 hour wait! Unfortunately it came a monsoon the  rest of the day so we hung out in our room at the Bed and Breakfast Inn until it was time for dinner. Since it was my birthday, we decided to do something a little special and headed to The Olde Pink House for a southern fine dining experience. The restaurant is an 18th century mansion and you eat in one of the many rooms of the house. There is a piano bar downstairs and supposedly the place is haunted. I love a good ghost story! It was a really fun and special birthday dinner! 

Tuesday, we headed to Tybee Island. On the way, we stopped at Wormsloe plantation where we drove down the mile and a half long driveway lined with towering oak trees. It was breathtaking. Our pictures are beautiful, but they did not do it justice. 

Then, we visited the Bonaventure Cemetery.  I love strolling through old cemeteries and trying to find the oldest tombstone. 

After lunch on Tybee Island we swam and hung out on the beach for a few hours. One of my favorite things we did on our trip was the dolphin tour. The dolphins like to swim behind the shrimp boats to catch free food so Captain Mike started some boat tours that run the same time as the shrimp boats. We saw at least 8 or 9 dolphins including a little baby!! It was so much fun!! I loved the boat ride! 

That night and all day Wednesday we explored Savannah's historic district. We tried to see as many of the squares as we could. It really is a beautiful city. Allan found an old toy store that he liked and we enjoyed Leopold's ice cream not once, but two times! We sat in the park and listened to a guy play the violin. We had the best food at Vic's on River where we were lucky enough to get a window seat. We splurged on warm pralines. We visited the SCAD art museum and said hello to the waving girl by the river. 

Savannah was the perfect location for a weekend get away and I hope we get to go back soon! Happy Summer!!

Year Five

I honestly cannot believe that we have been married for five years! The years have gone by so quickly, they are almost like a blur in my memory! This year especially.. I feel like we just moved to Athens a month ago and we've almost been here for an entire year! 

We've never been on an "anniversary trip" before, so this year we decided to go somewhere to celebrate. Tallulah Falls is less than an hour and a half from Athens and we had been wanting to go for awhile now. We hiked the entire Tallulah Gorge (5.5 miles?) from top to bottom. It was beautiful! Parts of the hike were a little strenuous, but in a fun way (like using your entire body to climb boulders and cross rivers, etc). Once you get to the bottom of the gorge, you can slide off of these huge rocks into a pool of water. A lot of kids were doing it and it looked so appealing, so I went for it even though I didn't have my bathing suit. There was a 90% chance that I was going to slip and get soaked crossing the river (like 3 other people we watched) so I figured I might as well go ahead and get wet doing what I what I wanted. 

That night, we had dinner at our hotel (Lake Rabun Hotel and Restaurant). The chef is a "farm to table" chef, so all of the food comes from local farmers.  The filet mignon was phenomenal.  I can't even tell you how great breakfast was the next morning! We loved our entire experience at Lake Rabun. 

Saturday morning we did an 8-line zipline course. Neither of us had ever done a real zipline before so it was really fun and exciting! I even went upside down on one of the lines! 

Afterwards, we drove through the "German Alpine city" of Helen. It was really cool to see,  but definitely a tourist trap and slightly cheesy. We visited Anna Ruby Falls and got some great pictures of the double waterfalls. We went to the Old Sautee store on the way and looked all of the fun, old stuff and had lunch. We stopped at a farmers' market on the side of the street on our way back to Athens. It was a great little getaway. We've pretty much decided that we will be going back at least once a year while we live here! 

Happy Anniversary to my sweet husband who I love very much and am very proud of!

Down by the Riverside

We have recently discovered trails behind our house that lead to the Oconee River. This has quickly become one of our favorite pastimes. Daisy is in love and acts like a wild animal when we let her off the leash to run free in the woods and tromp around in the water.  Some very nice person hung a hammock for everyone to enjoy. It's the perfect place to get a group of friends together and grill hotdogs and marshmallows as the sun sets.  Now that we have discovered this little gem, we are even more happy with the location of our home! 

Mississippi History

After Craig's graduation in Oxford we headed south to Jackson for a few days. One of the days we took a little trip to Port Gibson with my parents. I've always wanted to see the ruins of Windsor in person ever since I saw photographs of them in Ken Murphy's Mississippi Photography book. Windsor was built in the 1800's and survived the Civil War, but later burned due to an accidental fire. The columns and some ironwork were the only things to survive the fire. The area is completely deserted, but the columns are so beautiful! They really are one of Mississippi's hidden treasures. 

Next, we headed to Rodney, MS (per Julianne's recommendation). Again, another hidden treasure of MS. Isn't it odd that I have never heard of Rodney and it was 3 votes away from being the state capitol of MS?! Today, it is a real ghost town filled with abandoned buildings like this really cool church. 

Can you see the cannon ball stuck in the bricks above the middle window? Seriously, this place is enchanting. After making a huge deal about how cool it was my brother says, "Yeah.. that's where my deer camp is.  I've seen it a million times." Wha??? Share the wealth Danny Boy!!  Read about Rodney here and see what you think!!

http://www.southpoint.com/states/ms/rodney.htm

Craig's Graduation

My youngest brother Craig graduated from Ole Miss with a bachelor's degree in accounting.  We are all very proud of him.  Our entire family got together in Oxford for the occasion.  Graduation, lunch on the Square, and a baseball game.  It was a busy, but fun day of celebrating.  Congratulations, Craig!

Roller Derby

Wanna know a really fun sport to watch?  Ladies roller derby.  Seriously.. most entertaining sport ever.  I could totally see myself doing something like this if I wasn't scared of getting hurt.  Those ladies are hardcore.  It wasn't quiet as violent as I pictured, but there was definitely a lot of pushing, shoving, and falling.  The team in Athens is really good.  They put a whoopin' on the other team.  Fun times!

Double Decker 2013

If there is one weekend of the year that we will definitely make the long drive to Oxford, it is Double Decker weekend.  We LOVE Double Decker.  Art, music, food, and friends all in the best little city in MS- what could be better?  Julianne and Chris came up and we all stayed with Lindsey.  Nate boiled some shrimp and we celebrated Lindsey's birthday.  Saturday was so much fun.  Allan knows just about everybody in Oxford since he grew up there and has lived there his whole life.  It was great running into folks and catching up.  Allan had a painting or two and some new prints at Southside.  We got to see Allan's family and made a few purchases.  This year's loot included hand made letter-press cards that say, "Bless your heart!", two pieces of pottery, a really cute print, and a couple of t-shirts.  We had AJAX for dinner and Bottle Tree for breakfast making it a pretty solid weekend! 

Can't wait til next year!