Cemetaries, Mopeds, The Pink House & The Curse of the Whiz Dells Strikes Again

S A V A N N A H

From Virginia, we continue to head south to our next stop - the BEAUTIFUL Savannah, GA.  Aaron had been there a number of times and swoons when he refers to the moss hanging from the trees, the parks, the old homes...and he was so RIGHT!!  But before we got to experience the charm of the city, we needed to get settled into our RV park right outside of town.  As we drove into Savannah, it was POURING down rain and I mean dumping with the largest black cloud hovering overhead.  We had not set up our home away from home yet in the rain so this was going to be interesting.  We pull up to what the internet describes as an southern oasis like no other to what could have just as easily been a drive in movie theater off the local highway with the current RV population being 2.  Activities available at this RV park included one - if you like lawn mowing.  Aaron scratches his head and is thinking thru all of the other options that he had researched prior to the kick off of the trip and deduced that Savannah is not a RV dwellers destination of choice like us...the Griswolds.  So, while sitting in the car waiting for the rain to stop, Priceline here we come.  And, yeah, why not put a bid in at a 3 star hotel right in the historic district for $75?  Bingo, Bango, Bongo, we wait for our results and...the DeSoto Hilton (with rooftop pool) it is!  Now, to park the beast...what to do?  According to McKenna, it took us at least an hour to find a parallel parking spot for the beast and the tahoe which equals about 33 feet...ha!  We finally found one that was not on an hourly meter and the street sweepers weren't scheduled for the next 36 hours so we seemed to be in good shape.   We grab our 8 bags and drag them 8 blocks to our hotel in the 98 degree heat and 98% humidity.  By this time, it is past dinner time so we grab thai to go and went back to chill in the air conditioned hotel room to watch "America's Got Talent" and we agreed with the judges, Professor Splash deserved to go on to the next round.  Our first night of sleep was routinely interrupted by the drunk loud talker/fast talker/laugher until about 2 am and I am not talking about Karie.  :)

Day 2 - Our first stop was the birthplace of Juliet Gordon Low - the originator of Girl Scouts.  From there, we walked to little garden squares and cemetaries that were covered with the most beautiful trees and grounds...on our way to the pier where we watched how Salt Water Taffy was made, browsed through some antique stores, and window shopped.  By this time, it was HOT so we headed back to the hotel for some pool time.

Earlier in the day, we had walked by a Moped rental place and after some sweet talking, Aaron went to pick up our little hog which we rented for the evening and the following morning until 10am.  Aaron and McKenna walked down the street to pick her up and then took her for a spin around the city.  To quote McKenna, "It was awesome and I loved going around corners. My dad was a good driver and now, I would like to have one for my birthday."  From Aaron, "She was a bute...top speed was 39 MPH and I called her my hog for two days straight."  From Sydney "I loved it and had to hold onto daddy so I wouldn't fall off."  Then they came back, we set the kids set up with dinner and a movie and we hopped on the hog and went to Vick's for apps and cocktails.  People kept staring at us while we drove along the main drag at the Pier and we were not sure if it was our big helmets or the fact that we were only going 39 MPH, but we got a lot of laughs and waves.  We headed to Forsyth Park for a little tour and then on to the Pink House for a night cap and to listen to Liberace's apprentice play the piano.  When he ackowledged guests, he shot his finger guns at them and would yell "thanks for coming!" 

From Karie - "Please do not call CPS on us for leaving our girls at the hotel.  They actually did GREAT and they called us about every two minutes just to clarify who was in charge, couldn't get Netflix to work, clarify again who is in charge...and upon our return, McKenna showed us how she had kept a log of all of the things that Sydney did wrong.  What a babysitter!"

And the loud talker/laugher was at it  again until about 3 am. 

Day 3 - The girls were dying to get on the hog one more time before we had to return her so Aaron took Sydney to get breakfast near Forsyth Park.  McKenna was next up and they grabbed breakfast and returned the precious hog back to the the rental place.  Tybee Island was next - on the Atlantic Ocean, beach community, time to play on the beach time!  We found the greatest shack/restaurant that was so good and so cheap we ate there twice.  Holla at Huck-a-poo's!    We met a lady in Savannah who surfs Tybee a lot and she told us to be careful at the main beaches because it is jellyfish mating season so they are very close to shore and they can sting something fierce.  She told us of anotherbeach and so we decided to head there and it was awesome - not too crowded, lots of beach to play in, a nice couple that let us watch them crab, and kite surfers.  We were also told that we might see a dolphin or two but Flipper never showed. 

Huc-a-poo's

We had to say goodbye to Savannah on day 4 and we were off to the ATL to visit friends.  When we walked back to our car/trailer , we had a ticket on the trailer because we broke the "no RV's in Savannah" rule.  Ooops.  There were no signs!

We arrived in Atlanta with no sweat, literally and figuratively.  Our friends, Cameron, Jen, Iris, and Ava had dinner and drinks waiting for us !  The girls were so excited to swim and see their friends so we all headed to the community pool for some swimming and dive practicing after din-din!  The following day we headed to Lake Lanier for a day of sun, water slides, swimming, and fun.  A question came to me (Karie) as we were there - what do you do when you see someone with a huge long snot-cicle in a pool and you watch him wipe it off of his nose/face region and then put his hand in the water.  Do you walk the other direction hopefully to another part of the pool?  Do you get out all together for a few until the chlorine takes care of it?  Just typing about it is making me kinda gag...I  thinks about wierd things like this...what did I do you ask?  Well, I got out of the water because I was gagging...and it took me about 15 minutes to go back in...my gag reflexes were firing on all cylinders I guess.

We all loved the slides, the company, and to catch up with good friends.  We were royally taken care of.  We went to church that night and we got a little lost on our way until we say what was equivalent to the Tacoma Dome in the distance.  The sanctuary could seat 10,000 but this evening there were about approx. 1000.  The worship choir was 30 color coordinated in black and gray people that were pretty amazing.  One gal in particular rocked the house.  Interesting experience overall but probably not our cup of tea.  We have been sampling all kinds of churches and this definitely added a different experience to the mix for all of us.

From ATL, we looked ahead to our longest stretch of driving yet - to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  About 21 hours. 

Love, us

P.S.  Oh yeah, the curse of the Whiz Dells...well, we hopped in our car to head to Lake Lanier and realized that satan's breath was back!  We got our of the car and noticed a pool of green freon on the driveway.  The steam coming out of Karie's ears and the expletives running thru her head were not something to witness again hopefully.  What to do? 

Sweet Home Virginia

Hi - its McKenna.    I am going to blog about our time in Virginia with my great aunt and uncle.  This was the view from their back porch.

Pretty, huh?  That is my dad in the corner getting ready to do the thing that I loved the most about my time in Virginia...FISHING! 

Before I go into that, when we first got there, it was late and Great Uncle Rick gave me some grape juice and a grilled cheese sandwich and it tasted really good.  It had American cheese on it which my mom does not like at all but I thought it tasted great!

When we woke up in the morning, I woke up to two new faces - Great Aunt Donna and her son, Brian.  He taught me how to fish.  But before that, I found that they had a treadmill so I hopped on and set it to 1.9 and it would make me & Sydney fall off the back if we just stood there.  I called it "the candy machine".  It was really fun and I also did some running to get me ready for soccer.

Back to fishing, Brian got our fishing poles set up and all he said was "Hold this and click the button and when you are ready to release it, just let go."  Now, there was a white bobber with a red stripe that floats on the water.  When you see it go under the water, you know that a fish has taken your bait which was a night crawler or worm.  Here is a picture...

In this pond, there were blue gill, big & small mouth bass, snapping turtles, and lots of bugs.  And there were a million crickets jumping thru the grass.  After about 10 seconds, I caught my first fish - a blue gill.  Then my mom told me to hold it up so she could take a piucture and here it is!

At this point, I had not touched the bait or the fish with my own hands.  Daddy helped me take it off the hook and then put the fish's lips on my back and then my cheek - GROSS!  My dad helped me put bait on again and I kept fishing and I caught 14 fish!  My family said I was the best fisher girl EVER!  But then my dad said that if I wanted to keep fishing, I had to learn how to put the worm on the hook and take the fish off the hook.  And I did  - the fish was less gross than the worms.  I also named some of the fish that I caught like Mr. Seaweed, doing-doing, Jo-Jo, Nemo, Slimy.   Here I am with Slimy!  The top of the fish was spiky so you had to hold it a certain way. 

Later that day, my third cousins came over and I played with the youngest, Josie a lot and we fished together.  Then, my dad, mom, sister, Josie and me decided to walk to the other side of the lake to see if we could catch a bigger fish and that is where the real trouble started.  We came around the corner and dad was leading the pack and he yelled "Youchers" and grabbed his ankle and said that he got bit by something and it hurt very bad.  Then my mom yelled OOOH! and she got bit.  And then my sister started to cry very loud and she got bit too and saw the bug fly off her leg.  It was kinda like the 3 bears - my dad bitten really hard, my mom got bitten and it didn't hurt at all, and my sister got bitten and it hurt and it didn't hurt all at the same time.  Me and Josie started running for our lives because we didn't want to get stung.  We turned around and noticed a bunch of yellow jackets flying out of a hole near the bottom of a tree.  That is what got them!!  We changed our fishing plans and came back to safe territory.  My dad's ankle swelled up really bad and it hurt him for about a week before a huge bruise showed up.  My mom and sister were fine after a day or so.

My sister caught some fish too!

We also took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway and went to a place called Mayberry Mill which had a lot of old buildings and stuff from back in history.  We also went to a farmers market and there was a cute cat there and I ate a yummy nectarine.

Sometimes, I get sick of my mom always taking my picture.

Shout outs to Great Aunt Donna, Great Uncle Rick, all of the people who are reading this blog, Grammy Lynn, and Dawber.

Love, McKenna

NYC Part 3

 

NYC Part 2

 

NYC Part 1

 

Manhattan & Me

We are now in Sedona, Arizona and have so much to catch you up on.  We have stopped in 5 locations since NYC so we are going to try and knock out two postings tonight.  And then maybe one a day for a couple days since we will be in Sedona for a few days.

N E W    Y O R K     C I T Y

As some of you may or may not know, NYC is one of my all time favorite places to visit.  Not that I have been to a lot of places but a fair amount I would say and it stands out for sure.  For me, it is the alive-ness, the knowledge that stuff is happening here, there is so much history, and culture, and I just feel alive as soon as I step foot in the place.  I have done so much there in my 5 or so trips to the city - seen the Versace exhibit at MOMA, Les Miz, David Letterman,  listened to music at a brazilian jazz club, seen a play with Saaaandra from the tv show "227" (do you remember that show?), watched the US Open tennis tournament, saw McCauley Culkin and Isabella Rossilini, and the list goes on.  I just LOVE this place.

Well, this trip was one to remember.  We were driving south from Kennebunkport and stopped about an hour outside of the city to gas up and this nice guy at the gas station asked us where we were going and proceeded to tell us there are some freeways into the city that DO NOT allow campers and guess what?  Our directions were taking us on one of those freeways so we had to change our route.  At this point, it about 102 degrees and no a/c and we are wanting to get there as fast as we can so we gave the guy a high five and knuckles and we were on our way with our fresh directions.  To say we were hot was an understatement.  As a mother of two small children and having experience with dehydration and heat stroke, I was a little nervous and the girls were HOT- pink cheeks, sweaty brows, backs that are wringing wet...so I became a clanging gong..."keep drinking water my loves"  - If I said that once, I said 100 times.  And I am a sweaty person by nature (thanks dad for those genes) so I am wringing wet before we even got started with the day.  We bought bandanas (for reasons I am not clear) at Wal-Mart in Cody, WY and it was the best $2 I ever spent...those suckers were my saving grace for looking somewhat presentable and that was a stretch!  We had to basically drive thru Yonkers and over the George Washington bridge at about 5 miles an hour for about 2 hours to get to our destination.  There were guys walking down the freeway with grocery carts full of cold water bottles and selling them for a buck a piece.  It was crazy!!!  And we are pulling a camper ...Clark Griswold has nothin' on us.

We had made reservations prior to our departure, at two places - 1) Liberty Harbor RV park (Jersey City, NJ) where the plan was to stay a night and then park the RV & Car, and take the ferry over to Manhattan and 2) stay in a hotel for 2 nights.  Our much documented air conditioning problems changed this plan.   We had found an auto repair shop in Bayonne, New Jersey which is about a 5 mile drive from the RV park so we planned to drop the car off and enjoy the city while it was being fixed.  Sounds great so far, right??  We FINALLY pull into the RV park and notice that about 3 RV's (two are from Washington) are pulling out. Aaron starts talking to one of the guys and he says that there are rolling brown outs through out the city and that the RV park is blowing circuits left and right and so they are asking people to not run their air conditioning while using their RV's/trailers so they were all leaving and heading north so a cooler spot.  We scratch our heads and wonder...what are we going to do ?  It is now 111.  We jump online and get a hotel room for the night - I am thrilled to say the least...I want a shower so bad...

Now, we have to get the car to the shop which closes at 5 pm and it is about 4 pm.  It is 5 miles as the crow flies but it takes us 30 minutes to ge there and thankfully, TONY was waiting for us.  We pull out about 5 bags plus a small cooler with some food  that we are going to take into the city with us and leave the car with him, begging him to figure out what is wrong...Please TONY!  We are in Jersey City and need to get into Manhattan and it is now 5pm on a Friday night.  TONY says to us "Oh, just jump on the bus...it is easy and will take you right to Port Authority."  Thanks Tony so we cross the street and stand at the bus stop in 108 heat with 5 bags, 2 lethargic girls, and 2 adults that are trying to keep it together.  We hop on the bus after waiting there for about 20 minutes only to find that guess what...our bus is not air cond and you can't roll down the windows!  The bandana comes out again and thank the Lord for that piece of pink fabric.  The bus takes about 90 minutes to get to Port Authority in bumper to bumper traffic.  It is now about 6:45 and from Port Authority, we need to jump on the subway to get to our hotel in Chelsea.  It is crowded okay and I am hot and sweaty carrying a bunch of bags and trying to keep the girls spirits up.  And I got us on the wrong subway ok!!  Actually, we were on the right line just going in the wrong direction.  Oooops. So we hop off, have to walk a little ways, and then we are on our way, in the right direction towards Chelsea.  The subway takes about 30 minutes or so  - we are looking at 7:30 or so by the time we walk out from the subway onto the street and it is still H O T!  We have to walk about 5 blocks to our hotel and I am on the verge of tears and when I see the hotel from a distance, it was like a really ugly version of that scene in the movies when two lovebirds are running towards each other on the beach.  That was me with 3 bags and the hotel!! 

We get our stuff settled and it was one of the better night sleeps I have had on this trip.

The next morning, we get packed up and made it over to our originally planned for hotel and from there, we were OFF!  The girls were pretty adament about 4 places - Dylans Candy Bar, FAO Schwartz, American Girl Place, and the Museum of Natural History.  And as they have mentioned, we did all of those things.  But we did and saw some other things as well.

• Had dinner in Battery Park with Brian, Allison, Luna, and Rachel who just moved there and we know them from home.  It was so cool to see an apartment in the city and to hear how things are going with them and what living in the city feels like.  We had a yummy homecooked dinner and then took the girls over to a super fun park that had a long slide that if you pour water onto , you can fly down the sucker!

• Saw the 9/11 site and also the new construction that is going on there - it  still brings tears to my eyes to think about that day.  Our 2nd hotel looked down onto the construction site.  We also got to witness the moving of a girter that was found in the rubble days after the attack that was shaped in a cross and was being moved to the museum.  Rudy G was there and I overheard someone say that Michael Bloomberg was going to be there.  A priest blessed the cross before they moved it, said a prayer and talked about the history of the cross.  Lots of firefighters in attendance and press...it was extremely touching and very memorable for us all.

• Had dinner in Little Italy which was really good but kinda intimidating...we walk in and there are a couple of guys sitting in the corner speaking italian and giving us the once over and we are led to the back of the restaurant ...I felt like I was in an episode of the Soprano's. 
• Took the double decker bus tour around Manhattan and into Harlem a little bit. The history of the city, the cast iron buildings, the projects, it is all so neat in their own ways. 

• Went to the big flea market near times square which was a feast for the eyes.  The girls didn't seem too overwhlemed by it but I do know that Syd hung onto my dress the whole time and McK hung onto a strap of the backpack Aaron was wearing.   We stuck together like glue. 
• Walked thru Washington Square and saw some guys breakdancing for a big crowd that were not good if I must say so myself.  And the people watching were eating it up! 
• Saw two famous people, Martina Hingis (retired tennis player) and Rudy Giuliani.
• And finally, ate a hot dog from a street vendor.  oh yeah, baby!

We decided post-NYC that for kids, they would have just as much fun at a great water park for example then to see the sights in the city.  It is really fantastic if it is not 111, you are not on a budget, and can't go out at night and stay out. Regardless, we had a lot of fun and we ALL want to go back again.  Our poor little car did not get fixed in NJ - couldn't get the parts in and was going to cost us $600 so we decided that we would go to our next stop to see if we could get it cheaper there. 

From New York, we headed south to Galax, Virginia where Aaron's Uncle Rick and Aunt Donna live. 

NYC, we will meet again. 

Karie

P.S.  I have finished two more books, and have started the next one in the stack.  I finished "State of Wonder" (excellent) and "The Dogs of Babel" (not so excellent - a little wierd I must say) and I am starting "The Help" today hopefully.

Welcome to the Museum of National Stuffed Animals by McKenna

Hi friends -

This is McKenna and I want to tell you about my experience in New York City.

My favorite things about the city were:

• FAO Schwartz (3rd place) - They had tons of Harry Potter stuff and Indiana Jones built out of legos which was super cool.  I was looking so froward to dancing on the big piano but it wasn't that great because there were so many people on the piano and I couldn't hear myself play. 

Griffindorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

• The American Girl store (2nd place) - They had lots of fun and cool books to read that I got to look at.  We went up to the salon where you could have your doll's hair done and people were actually paying for it and my dad said it was ridiculous.  I thought it was neat.
• Double decker bus (1st place) - I liked this because there were lots of things to see and I learned that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492 and that New York City was once our nation's capital.  It was so hot when we were there - they were having a heat wave and whenever the bus stopped, people would jump on the bus and sell water bottles for $1.  One time, they put the water bottle in a light bulb pole so we could reach it from where we were sitting.  Sometimes, the tree branches hung really low so we all had to duck at certain spots so we wouldn't get hit. 

Times Square

"Anyone want water for $1 ?"

My least favorite things were:

• Dylan's Candy Bar (3rd place) - I thought that Dylans Candy Bar was going otbe as big as Bellevue Square...I thought the first floor would be hard candies, 2nd floor would be sweet tarts, and on and on.  It was not like that at all.  It was not that big.  It was 3 stories high but there were more barbie and ken things than candy.  The music that was playing in the background was all about candy.
• Carrying bags (2nd place) - we had to carry our bags from the bus station at Port Authority to the subway to the first hotel.  And then we had to carry them again from our first hotel to our second hotel.  It was so heavy and Sydney would not carry any bags because they " were so heavy for me" and it was 104 degrees oiutside.  Not fun.

"I'm hot!!!!!"

• Museum of Natural History (1st place) - I had seen the movie "Night at the Museum" and I had lots of expectations about what it would look like and things they would have.  When you go in, all you see is a dinosaur, not Rexy, just a plain old dinosaur.  Then we go in and I am so excited - and then I realize that in order to see the dinosaur, frog, or space exhibit, you have to pay extra - BOO HOO!  We didn't see any of those things - we went into the main museum and it is just a bunch of stuffed dead animals that I had seen in real life at other places.  BOO HOO HOO!

Overall, I decided that I need  to be older to really like the city and have lots of money.  I would definitely go back when it was cooler outside and when I could get the whole city to myself!

Shout outs to Emmy, Riley, My new soccer team, all of the people who are famous that live in NYC, Dawber, Uncle Rick & Aunt Donna, Emma, Jessi, Anika, Katie A, Clyde & Nancy, and all of you who are reading the blog.

Peace out - McKenna