Moving on to Savannah

We arrived in Florida on Feb. 11. We popped out for a week or so to visit GA and AL. When it was time to go it was the end of March. We enjoyed the mild winter weather. We’d been in Jacksonville for 12 days when it was time to move on. I didn’t want to move. Moving seems like a daunting task- everything needs to go back where it belongs. Plus we were so far from our destination in Washington. But I had calculated the days that it would take to get to WA in time for my little sister’s graduation and my mom’s birthday, so we needed to leave. I felt a little relief putting items back where they belong. Maybe it wasn’t going to be so hard to move. As we drove down the road I felt better about going forward. Jacksonville is nice, but it’s too hot for me. It was one step closer to being home. It would’ve been easier to stay put if Krista was still around, but she was on her honeymoon, so that was good.

Our destination wasn’t too far down the road- Savannah, GA. I know I frequently say we had a good time, but we had a good time in Savannah. I love how the city is laid out with twenty two squares or parks. I enjoyed the trees for their beauty and their shade and the breeze it made the temperatures more tolerable.

We thoroughly enjoyed southern food at Paula Deen’s restaurant sampling collard greens, fried green tomatoes, homemade mac and cheese and banana pudding. We considered going back again for lunch the next day!

We toured Juliette Gordon Lowe’s home. She was the founder of Girl Scouts and quite a character. Faith and I have learned some things about her since we have been in brownies/girl scouts, but she was feisty and pushed the envelope with how women should behave and what they should do. We had a great southern tour guide. I wish I would’ve video taped her.

We stopped in St. John the Baptist cathedral. It was beautiful, just like the cathedrals in Europe. The stained glass was gorgeous.

The following day we toured the First African American Baptist church in the country. This was also the second stop on the underground railroad with Saint Augustine being the first. Below the church there are four feet where slaves hid on their way north to freedom. The church put 22 holes in the floor in a design of an African prayer pattern in many places on the floor. This served as a reminder to the past and provided air holes for the slaves below. The church wasn’t caught helping the slaves and if they were the church probably would’ve been burned down. The church is still active today.

When I searched for things to do in Savannah Bonaventure cemetery came up. It looked interesting so we spent some time there driving around. Gracie is one of the most photographed sites in the cemetery. She was an only child and died just before Easter when she was 6yrs old.

We spent our last day in the area at the beach on Tybee Island with friends we’d met in Hawaii. It wasn’t the warmest day, but it’s always nice to be at the beach. There were dolphins in front of us and a wedding behind us. It started to rain and cut our time short. I told Jessica that “I’d rather be in the rain with friends than in the sun without.”

The last thing I did in Georgia was to buy green boiled peanuts. I have a full-of-life friend named Amber from this area with red hair and a southern drawl. Years ago she couldn’t believe I hadn’t had boiled peanuts. Not only had I not had them, I’d never heard of them. We were at a Creative Memories conference in 2003 and she brought some for us Yankees to try. They didn’t impress me, and I wasn’t sure they would even if they were warm, but I had to try them hot now that I was in Georgia. One bite and I could tell why a peanut is a legume- it tasted similar to a green bean when it’s boiled. It didn't become my favorite thing, but it was ok. Unfortunately Amber was on vacation when I was in the area so I didn’t get to see her, but the boiled peanuts put a smile on my face thinking of her.

St. Augustine

America began in 1565 as St. Augustine became the first continuously occupied city.

The fort that stands there, known as the Castillo, is impressive with walls that are 17 feet deep. The material they used to create them was called coquina (shellstone) and is made up of sand and shells. You can see the seashells and sand just looking at the wall. It crumbles easily in your hand, but proved to be a good material for absorbing cannon fire.

The shape of the fort is a star which eliminated blind spots.

The naked eye can see eight miles away where the ocean meets the sky; their cannons could shoot seven miles away.

The soldiers were an integral part of the fort as they were constantly training and ready for attack. In fifteen sieges, Castillo never lost. The only time it changed hands was by treaty. The fort has withstood three hurricanes and appears today as it would’ve looked at its completion in 1756- impressive!

Jacob spotted dolphins in the water while we were there. It’s always fun to see animals in their natural habitat.

Ponce de Leon discovered the Fountain of Youth in Saint Augustine. We visited the grounds and saw something none of us had seen before- a white peacock.

On the way back to the rv we stopped at Mickler beach because reviews said you can find shark teeth on the beach. It wasn’t the warmest day, but the kids still had fun searching for shells and shark teeth and playing in the fine sand. They found a couple of things that could be shark teeth.

Fun in Florida with Friends

I had an especially great time in Jacksonville, Florida, as one of my best friends was getting married. She had asked me to be in the wedding last summer so I played around with our schedule and made it happen. Our revised schedule had better winter weather than our first route so we were thankful for that too. I met Krista when we were stationed in Italy together. We walked every morning and spent almost every day together. The girls had a fun time with their “auntie” and Jacob enjoyed playing video games with her son. It’s been three years since we’ve seen each other so we had fun catching up. Seeing friends across the country is one of the best benefits of this trip.

Here we are heading out for a walk/run in the Florida heat.

Tuskegee Airmen

We stopped in Tuskegee, AL, to visit the Tuskegee Airmen national historic site. During WWII the military was segregated and this was an experiment in which the instructors, mechanics, crew, etc were black. They worked hard to succeed and proved they were no different than the white airmen.

The airmen spent half the day in class and the other half working out to make sure they were physically fit to fly. They had to recognize Allies from Axis powers and studied flash cards to be able to identify in an instant whether a ship or plane was a friend or foe. They were successful in nearly all of their missions and were highly decorated.

Montgomery, Alabama

We spent an enjoyable afternoon in Montgomery. We stopped at the first Confederate White House- Jefferson Davis’ home. It was a grand home. The rooms were huge and lavish. There were many items of interest upstairs- confederate money, a really old faded flag, a backgammon game, his pipe, the pen that signed Alabama's secession, etc.

Our next stop was Martin Luther King’s home, the Dexter parsonage. He was newly married when he became the pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist church. Later that year Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. MLKjr received many threatening phone calls, but one that shook him was in late January of 1956. He was about to give up the fight, but prayed in his kitchen at midnight after the phone call. He had an epiphany- to stand up for righteousness, justice and truth. A few days later his house was bombed. Coretta and 10wk old Yolanda were inside, but were not hurt.

Our final stop in Montgomery was the Rosa Park’s museum. It didn’t take long to tour, but was full of information about Rosa, her not moving from her seat and the year-long bus boycott that followed. She hadn’t done anything illegal; according to the law she didn’t have to give up her seat because there wasn’t a place for her somewhere else and she was in the middle seats, but rules are not always followed. We learned blacks were ok with segregation, but not with the treatment they received on the bus system. This small act changed everything. This happened on a Thursday evening. One gal decided there should be a bus boycott on Monday so a paragraph about the boycott was mimeographed (three to a page to save money), cut, wrapped and distributed through the city. The city lost thousands of dollars daily as blacks made up 66% of the riders. Churches organized car pools and police watched carefully to make sure money didn’t exchange hands because then they would be acting like taxis and that would be against the law. There were lawsuits back and forth for the next year until the Supreme Court ruled for the buses to be desegregated. This picture you see of Rosa Parks on the bus is the first day with desegregated buses.

Photo from SymonSez website

Atlanta

In Atlanta we headed to The World of Coca Cola. We saw the vault where the secret recipe is hidden, watched commercials from other countries as well as some classics from our own, and had our picture taken with a mascot.

My husband is a die hard Dr. Pepper drinker, but so was his uncle. His aunt and uncle visited The World of Coca Cola and he knows the exact moment in the video that he began to start craving Coke. (That explained why he had Coke and not Dr. Pepper in his frig when we went to visit!) Rick was not converted on our visit. Maybe because we were “ready” for it. He enjoyed his refreshment after our tour.

Centennial Park was a beautiful park right downtown. It’s a nice area with Coke and the aquarium and CNN surrounding it. It was a nice day and people were playing in the fountain.

We went to the CNN building & but we didn’t do the tour. It was fun just wandering around and looking in the gift shops.

In addition to being home to Coke and CNN, this area is known for the birth of Chick-fil-A. We’d hoped to tour the headquarters, but they aren’t set up for daily tours at this time (although it sounds like they might be on the way.) We did enjoy our favorite fast food in its hometown though.

Stone Mountain was something I was looking forward to seeing. I’d never heard of it prior to this trip. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson are carved into the side of the mountain. This is the world's largest bas-relief measuring three acres. The work was started by Borglum in 1923 who left to work on Mt. Rushmore. The project changed hands over time, but was finally completed in 1972.

Martin Luther King, Jr was born in Atlanta. His birth name was Michael, but they began calling him Martin shortly afterward. His house still stands and is part of the national park’s historical site along with the church where he and his father and grandfather preached- Ebenezer Baptist Church. We learned more about him and civil rights during our visit. Faith earned her Jr Ranger badge for Georgia bringing her total to forty!

The Everglades

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Everglades. Our first hike was ranger led on Anhinga trail. We saw a great number of varieties of birds and some gators. The kids were nervous about going to the park thinking we were putting them in danger, but the trail had a raised boardwalk to keep us away from the gators. In addition, since it’s dry season the water level was low so the gators were further from us. The low water level means that the animals congregate in the areas with water. We were thrilled to be able to see so many in one spot. We learned that the Everglades is not a swamp because the water is moving; it doesn’t become stagnant. (Click photos to enlarge)

The Anhinga- the trail's namesake

Gumbo Limbo was our second trail and it was more of a forest. The Gumbo Limbo trees are also called tourist trees because the bark is red and peeling, just like a tourist’s skin!

Saw grass. You can slowly run your fingers up it, but it's still pretty sharp. The Everglades are called a sea of sawgrass

On the Mahogany trail we saw the biggest mahogany tree in the US. There were some photographers there looking to capture a photo of a barred owl. We could hear it but we didn’t see it.

Hammocks appear as little islands in the Everglades. They are created when the material from the decomposing leaves eat away at the limestone creating a moat. This moat keeps the island hammock safe from fires and protects wildlife.

Our last stop of the day was in Flamingo. We immediately saw an osprey on the flag pole ripping apart his fish dinner. We saw several others enjoying their dinner, too. A gator cruised through the water. We were hoping to see a manatee as they’d been spotted here earlier in the day, but no such luck.