Savannah, Georgia

April 15, 2024

We stuck to the Coastal Georgia theme again this week as we headed north to Savannah. This location promised to be another fun destination because we had another round of visitors--this time two of our kids, Audrey and Alan.

Leaving Jekyll Island

We were fortunate to have clear sunny skies on our travel day because it was the day of the much-hyped solar eclipse. We rolled in to Skidaway Island State Park just in time for the peak of the eclipse, which in the Savannah area was about 75% of totality (better than we expected). We had actually seen the total eclipse in 2017 which was amazing, but it was still fun to experience a partial one this time around.

After check-in, we quickly made a makeshift "pin hole camera" to view the eclipse (the moon-like thing in the center of this photo)

The sunlight through the trees cast a bunch of crescent shapes on the ground--how fun!

During the eclipse--fun crescent shapes

After the eclipse--just regular shadows

Decent campsite at Skidaway Island State Park

Skidaway Island seems to be mostly privately owned with fancy golf-course neighborhoods, but fortunately someone decided to squeeze in a state park for us to stay at--lucky us! We rode our bikes in the state park and surrounding area one day.

Hoping for some free samples, we took a little detour

Looks like we are a few decades too late for any samples 😉

Out of the state park and onto a very nice pathway that was probably private. We must have managed to blend in well enough with the wealthy retirees, as no one stopped us.

If only all strip malls looked like this. You can't actually see the Publix from the street. You can barely see it when you are parked directly in front of it.

We've decided that Georgia has lots of turtles. Half of them scurried into the water before Julie could take this picture.

We are not golf people, but if we were, this would be the place to live for sure

You can't see it well here, but someone had a robotic golf bag--it just followed you

So idyllic!

On Friday morning, we picked up Audrey and Alan at the airport and took them to a beach on Tybee Island for a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day.  For some reason, Julie didn't take any pictures of the beach, but it was quite nice, and the water was less brown than at Jekyll Island. 

After lunch, we headed to the quaint little Savannah Arboretum.

Didn't see any snakes on the forested trail...

...but Julie almost stepped on this one on a more formal walk

A copperhead --good thing she didn't step on it!

A lot more photos were taken than are shown in the blog 😀

In the morning of the next day, we strolled around the trails near the campground and checked out the nature center.

Alan warming up for the afternoon's activity and nearly ejecting himself from the "rowing machine" in the campground fitness park

We had no idea giant sloths were this big

After lunch, we rented a couple of canoes and paddled on Ebenezer Creek, about an hour away from our campground.

We passed a giant globe along the way that started life as a natural gas tank, and is now part of a Starbuck's drive-through

Canoeing on Ebenezer Creek

The guy who rented us the canoes warned of paddling under branches, as snakes might drop into your canoe. Fortunately, that did not happen to us.

"I thought you were supposed to be steering!"

Fortunately, Rick paid attention to steering the parents' canoe, as Julie was too busy taking pictures

After dinner at the campsite, we took a sunset walk to a nearby observation tower overlooking the tidal marsh.

Unfortunately, the top level of the tower no longer had stairs going up to it

Guess dinner didn't sit well?

Next day was Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist and a day in historic Savannah.

Cathedral-Basilica of St. John the Baptist

Breakfast at Clany's There was memorabilia from the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", which was set in Savannah

One of the many beautiful squares in Savannah After a while, Julie lost track of which was which, so she didn't bother trying to label them here

Jones Street

The Mercer House

Can't say we've ever seen a hog fountain

Forsythe Park

The Fragrance Garden within Forsythe Park

Poor sundial couldn't keep time anymore (too shady)

Random skeleton sighting (with eyeballs, no less)

Colonial Park Cemetery

Even the bus stops are charming here

The family was starting to loose steam

After several of hours of wandering about, Julie noticed the family was starting to walk in a dazed stupor. So, it was time to head to Leopold's for some ice cream, and then go about the task of finding the car. Afterwards, we relaxed at camp and commissioned Audrey to make us some dough for deep dish pizza that night.

Monday was the day to take the kids back to the airport, and it happened to coincide with moving day for Rick and Julie. Not wanting to actually drive through an airport with the camper in tow, Rick found a convenient place on the side of the road adjacent to long term parking where we pushed the kids out the airlock stopped to let the kids out at a place that looked like it wouldn't be too far for them to walk to the terminal. It all worked out fine, and the kids made it back to St. Paul where the trees had no leaves, but at least it wasn't snowing.

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