Sumptuous Savannah

Josh had Thursday and Friday off this past weekend, so we decided to go to Savannah for a quick weekend getaway. We started our day by heading down to the Savannah River.

This is the statue of the Waving Girl... apparently she would go down everyday to the river and greet the ships as they came in.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this old sign... look familiar?

We had a lot of fun exploring Fort Pulaski, located on Cockspur Island, just off the Georgia coast. It was a US Fort, built by Robert E. Lee, ironically, in the early 1830's. In1861, after South Carolina seceded from the Union, Georgian troops marched into the fort, which was only maintained by two guards, and took over. The Confederacy occupied the fort until April of 1862, when the Union was able to get it back. There is really interesting story regarding the battle and some more history about the fort... but I won't bore you! This picture is taken in the Powder Magazine. Sam is doing his best Ninja pose, to prove that he's not afraid.

In front of Fort Pulaski

Can't resist looking in that cannon. Don't do this at home!

Atop Fort Pulaski, with view of Cockspur Island

Behind prison bars in the fort

Dancing on the fountain in downtown Savannah

I couldn't resist taking a picture of one of these streets. All were lined with Live Oaks, draped in Spanish Moss, with beautiful historical homes on either side.

Sam atop the Tybee Island Lighthouse

Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in downtown Savannah. Absolutely beautiful inside!

The second favorite thing about our trip was dinner at the Pirate House Restaurant located on the Savannah River. It is the oldest building in Savannah dating back to the 1760s, where real pirates used to come and drink rum. You can bet that the owners milked this for every penny!

But the kids' favorite event, by far, was "meeting" Captain Jack Sparrow. Isabel couldn't stop giggling and Sam just gazed up at him with a face full of worshipful adoration.

Traditions

Sunday afternoons at the Nielson home. And the tradition continues.....

A Much Needed Vacation

Exploring the ship, prior to departure

Eating dinner on our lovely cruise ship

Yes, that is me, hanging upside down from a zipline that was hundreds of feet from the floor of the tropical forests in Roatan, Honduras. That's about as crazy as I get.

Descending into the Cenotes (underground caves filled with water). They were a little bit creepy and lots of fun.

All our HOT men in their bat cave

All us ladies in the Cenotes , looking our best.

Riding in the truk in Progresso. And no, that is not a misspelling; it's really called a truk, even though it does not resemble a truck in the least. More like an ancient, rickety mine cart that someone added a canopy to. Yet, I'm not complaining, because I'm just glad I didn't have to walk. (The truks took us to the Cenotes)

Preparing for the Harry Potter Trivia Competition; it was pretty fierce, let me tell ya. Yet even Josh's Superman t-shirt was not enough to pull us through. We lost to a bunch of Harry Potter geeks who have no other life than to be obsessed with Harry Potter and memorize everything in all the books, because they've read them all, like, 12 times.

Watching the Rock Climbing competition onboard the ship. My friend, Jonna, standing next to me, won first place and her toughest competitor was a 70 year old lady. But Jonna kicked her butt. And she is pregnant. (Jonna, not the old lady.) So that's really saying something. Seriously, the old lady was really good.

Humanitarian Mission

A Fine Speciman of Manhood

Yes, Josh is buff. And contrary to whatever else he says, he is secretly delighted that I'm putting this picture of him, in all his manly glory, on my blog.

A Toddler's Take

We all see things differently. The English biologist/politician John Lubbock once wrote, "What we see depends mainly on what we look for". If this is true, then I wonder what that says about a three year old boy named Sam. Here's his interpretation of events that take place in "The Lord of the Rings". The naked man is mean and he bites the fingers of the nice guy and falls into the orange water that's really hot. And the big dragon is really scary and he tries to eat the nice kids. And the elephants are really, REALLY big.