~Savannah, Georgia~

Today we spent the day in Savannah, Georgia.   What a nice city with lots of old historical buildings, squares and cobblestone streets.

And of course......more oak trees with Spanish moss.

We started off by doing the River walk.

This is the River Street Market Place.

A lovely warm, sunny day.

World War II Memorial.

A nice tall ship.

Cobblestone streets.

We had such a great time going in and out of all the stores along the riverfront.  We especially enjoyed the "Peanut Shop" and the "River Street Sweets" where we were "treated" to still warm "pralines" and MANY samples!!  Y U M !!!!!

Then off to Tybee Island.  Just a short drive from Savannah.

First stop - "The Crab Shack" where they have a "Gator Lagoon" that you can walk around and see the 78 alligators enjoying the sun.

Look at them all !!

You definitely would NOT want to fall in!!!   I almost dropped my camera - that would have been the end of all my photos!!

They also had an exotic bird section.  The birds were incredible and many could sing, dance and even talk !!!!   This is Gilbert.   When you said his name he actually repeated it back to you - so funny!!

This is the beautiful beach and pier.   This beach has been voted in the top 10 beaches in the USA.

There were lots of waves and surfers.   Not too many on the beach today as although it was sunny, the wind was still quite strong and chilly.

This is the Tybee Island Light Station.   The lighthouse is Georgia's tallest and oldest.

While we were on our walk down the river there were many people making these amazing creations out of palm leaves.  This sweet lady gave each of the girls a rose........

and the boys were given swords - they were all so pumped!

Another great day!

~Savannah Wildlife Refuge, SC~

We had such a fantastic day yesterday.   In the afternoon we visited Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.  We were hoping once again to find some alligators.  We drove the 4 mile loop around the park and got out several times to walk some of the trails.

There are piles of fire ants everywhere you go in South Carolina.    OUCH - Brad stepped in a pile today - fortunately not for too long, but he did get a few red marks on his ankles.

We were not disappointed with the amount of gators we saw - 20 in all !!!!   On one of the trails we had the canal on both sides of the dyke and the gators could come right up where we walked.   We actually were a bit nervous about it all.  We had only just started our walk and saw this nice big one "sunning himself" on the sand.  They look like they are dead and just blink every now and then - quite amazing.

This is the path we were walking along - we saw this black shadow and as we got closer we realized it was another one - we chose to turn around and go back to the car as the first one we saw could have easily come up onto the dyke and then we would have been stuck in the middle of them!!!

Some were swimming......

some were just babies.

The place was FULL of incredible birds and wildlife.

Lots of beautiful oak trees on our drive.

He's in there - taking a dip!!

It was such a lovely, warm day and we enjoyed "searching" for the gators while walking on the trails and driving through the refuge.

~Happy Reunion!!!!~

AT LAST!!!   YAY!!   We got to see the Golden Family again !!!   What a wonderful last 2 days we have shared with them.  Thanks SO much friends!   Looking forward to having LOTS more fun adventures together over the next few months.

We were "treated" to a wonderful lunch........

played many games together at the lodge.............

and spent many hours "catching up".

The kids all get along so well together and take turns "playing" with each other.

The campground that we were staying at had 3 ponds.  Two large alligators and four babies were "somewhere" - we just had to find them.    Off we went one morning in search of them........once again ......NO luck!     But then.........a few hours later we decided to try again and see if we could find them......and there on the bank in the sun was one of the large "gators" !!!!   W     O   W   !!!!  All SOOO exciting and a bit scary too!    VERY cool !!

Game time!!

"Nail time" for the girls.

And football and "mini sticks" for the others.

~Charleston, South Carolina~

We have just finished visiting beautiful Charleston, South Carolina.   This is the view coming into the waterfront, downtown area.

We have had SO much rain the last few days and it was high tide as well so there was water flooding over all the roads.

We started off at Waterfront Park which is right along the Charleston Harbour entry.  The park has fountains, lawns, walking and jogging paths and a lovely pier with wooden swings!!

We were able to see Fort Sumter from the end of the pier.   It was from here that the first shots of the Civil War were fired.   We could also see the USS Yorktown - World War II aircraft carrier.

You can see how the water is coming over the edge of the path.

Look at those roads!!

We visited the Old City Market which is one of the nation's oldest public makets (1804).  LOTS of tourists enjoying all the crafts, souvenirs and "southern favourites" - sweet grass baskets, grits, etc...

Everywhere you go are these beautiful and sometimes quite creepy (depending on where you are) large oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from them.

A lot of people enjoy carriage rides which take them around the historic part of the city.

"Rainbow Row" is what this street is called as it has a series of colourful historic houses.

Then off to Battery Park and White Point Gardens.   This stretches along the shores of the Charleston Peninsula and is bordered by the Cooper and Ashley rivers.

Then we took a drive to James Island and  famous "Folly Beach".   Another lovely white, sandy beach with a long fishing pier (second longest on the east coast).  The pier stretches 1 045 feet into the Atlantic Ocean.   Once again due to the cold weather the beach was empty.

We then drove to the end of the island where we parked the van at the Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve and walked down to the ocean.   There were so many beautiful birds and lovely scenery!

Then on the way back "home" we stopped off at the Caw Caw Interpretive Centre.   We SO desperately wanted to see an alligator.  We did several of the walks around the park - all so interesting with the swamps, oak trees, ferns, birds, old rice plantations etc.....BUT.....NO gators!!!   Ahhhhhh !!!  Too cold "they" said!

It is a different world "out east" - all SO interesting to see.

Another GREAT day!