A STAYCATION ON THE WATER: A BEACH DAY AND KAYAKING

As you may have read earlier, last week was Wes' birthday.  He likes to spend his free time outside so we had a beach day planned out with his mother as well as a morning kayaking trip out on Wilmington Island.  We've never rented kayaks in all of the time we have lived in Savannah, so Wes's birthday seemed like the perfect time to try that out. 

The weather was perfect for our beach day on Saturday and there weren't too many people at North Beach.  We usually spend our time on the opposite end of Tybee when we go out so it was a nice change of pace and good to find a new spot.  I like getting to hang out down by the lighthouse.

The next morning we got up bright and early to head out on our kayaking adventure over at HOGAN'S MARINA just across the bridge on Wilmington Island.  After a Saturday at the beach less than 24 hours prior, we came prepared with plenty of sunscreen and water.  It gets bright and hot very fast down here; that's for sure.  We sorted out the heat pretty quickly by taking cover under docks when we needed a break. The area was absolutely gorgeous and so peaceful in the early morning; boats were only starting to head out when we were finishing up.  Wes and I are excited to head out to different areas to kayak and explore this summer. It's really nice to get a view from the other side every once in a while to remind me of the beauty.

BIKES IN BEAUFORT

Over the weekend, Wes and I decided to take a ride out at Skidaway State Park.  We had never been before and heard good things from people in town.  We threw the bikes in the car and headed over to check it out.  After speaking with one of the worlds nicest park rangers, we parked the car and headed over to the Old Ferry Trail.  If you know Wes and I, you know that we don't ride mountain bikes.  We ride fixed gear road bikes.  The trail we decided to check out was actually a bit of a pine straw trail with roots sticking out of the ground.  Figuring out how to maneuver without going down hard was a complete blast.  By the end of the ride, the only thing that was really sore was my face from having a smile plastered on it the entire time.  Serious throwback to being a kid and having the best time taking your bike off road.  I need a mountain bike ASAP.  I highly suggest to anyone struggling with the harsh realities of adulthood to go ride a bike in the woods.  It will brighten your day.

All in all, Skidaway was really gorgeous if a bit small.  We hadn't fulfilled our want to ride for the day so rather than ride around Savannah we decided to continue the park theme and head up to Beaufort and go ride on Hunting Island. 

We made the hour drive and had a lot of fun biking through Forrest Gump's Vietnam.  I haven't been out to Hunting in close to a decade so it was nice to go back on a very calm day.  

Being that we were in Beaufort and knew that there was no food back in our fridge in Savannah, we invited ourselves over to Mom and Larry's house for dinner.  Dinner and a movie quickly translated into 'Louisa is too lazy and tired to drive home - let's spend the night!'

On Sunday morning we woke up to another gorgeous day of warm weather.  We decided to take the new Spanish Moss Rail Trail downtown for lunch and then plan out a ride from there.  We had a standard lunch down at Luther's, took the obligatory bike photos by the water, and decided to ride the loop over both the Wood's Memorial Bridge and the Mcteer Bridge back to the house.

Once we got back to the house, we all hung out outside by the new pool.  By "hung out" I mean that Wes and I lounged our sore bodies by the pool, Mom screamed at Ellie and Pita for making attempts to roll in something gross in the yard, Larry taped off a door to be painted, and two hawks feasted on some sad roadkill up in the trees while looking down at the silly humans struggling to function.  I don't have a picture of the screaming mother, taping step father, rolling dogs, or even the hawks, but I think I painted a pretty good picture.  We had a great time hanging out with the family for an impromptu visit and making the most of the warm weekend.  

EARTH DAY AT FORSYTH PARK

One thing Savannians know how to do is have a good hangout at Forsyth Park.  And why wouldn't they?  It's an absolutely beautiful park that offers something for just about everyone.  In celebration of Earth Day there were tents all over the park offering up advice on helping to do your part in preserving our collective home.  The Savannah Bicycle Campaign had their bike valet set up to offer a safe place to park your bike and enjoy the festivities as well as hosting their 8th annual Earth Day Wheelie afterward.  It was a really fun ride that ended over at Blowin' Smoke Cantina for food and drinks.  Earth Day gets me excited for the season's bike events; I feel like it's the starter event to send us into the season of hanging out with the Bike Campaign which is always a great time.  Make sure you click on the bike campaign's link above in the bold black writing to see what events are coming up and how you can get involved!

The Forsyth Farmer's Market was also out in full force with some really great produce and samples to try.  The farmer's market is out every Saturday from 9:00 to 1:00 with great vendors and amazing foods.  It's a great way to spend a Saturday morning supporting something local.  Here are just a few snaps of our day at the park, hope you enjoy!

SUPER MUSEUM SUNDAY: JOGGING THROUGH ART, HISTORY, AND THE SEA

I know this is an extremely late post, and for that I am sorry.  I really am trying to get better at posting more often and I'm sure that one day I may come close to succeeding at that.  Until then, let's go back in time a couple weeks to when Wes and I decided to take part in Super Museum Sunday.
 For those of you not living in and around the Savannah area, Super Museum Sunday is a glorious day of free admission to all of the museums in town.  I'm assuming the "Super" is a play on the Super Bowl as it takes place around the same time every year.  

I had big dreams of hitting a crazy amount of places in the short 4 hour window that you have to check everything out.  I think I had a list of 26 places that I wanted to see.  On Saturday after showing my charts and maps to Wes, he explained that we should probably highlight the places we really wanted to go as 26 locations was a total pipe dream.  If I had done the math earlier, I would have come to the realization myself that a museum every 9.23 minutes including travel time was a bit unrealistic.  Regardless, after my dreams were shattered and then quickly put back together due to time constraints, we set out on our adventure.  

In total, we made it to nine locations.  I know, I know. You're thinking, "Louisa, that's pathetic.  I could have at least rounded out and gotten ten." And I will tell you, "Fine reader.  Do ten and see if I care.  My feet hurt!  I'll have you know I could have done ten but the museum around the corner from Flannery O'Connor's house locked their gate at 3:55!  There was nothing I could do to stop them."  First up, here are a few photos from the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium, Wormsloe Historic Site, and Flannery O'Connor's living room.  

 Ships of the Sea Museum courtyard

 A ship -gasp- at the Ships of the Sea Museum

 Lion fish at the UGA Aquarium

A contemplative seahorse at the aquarium

 A school of tiger-zebra hybrid fish at the aquarium (don't quote me on the name, but that's what they look like)

 The 'blue steel' turtle at the aquarium

 The view from the aquarium.  The low country really isn't that bad

A very inquisitive raccoon outside of the aquarium

 Wormsloe Historic Site

Flannery O'Connor's living room.  

We saw more, but like I said before it was 3:55 and we were rushing, there were attempts at taking pictures while running, but I will spare you.  I'll have a second post up later this week with the rest of what we got to check out that super Super Sunday.  If you're in the area, I really would suggest checking out some of the museums and historic places Savannah has on deck.  

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

If you live in Savannah you probably know that last Sunday was Super Museum Sunday in our fair city.  We love any excuse to staycate (that's a term now, right?) so we were really pumped to make a full day out of exploring the museums of our home at the low price of $0.00.  I spent plenty of time building an intricate minute by minute plan to get us into 24 museums in 4 hours and we decided to start down south with the Savannah Ogeechee Canal Museum and Nature Center.

I will go further into the breakdown of how my feet couldn't actually handle 24 locations in 4 hours later, but for now I thought I would show you some of my favorite shots from the Canal.  

If you're in the area I've got to tell you to go.  It's not a crazy hike, just a very mellow walking trail that has some pretty spectacular nature to enjoy.  I also spotted some fresh salty oysters and shrimp being sold from someone's house and if you're anything like me that's reason enough to make the trip down 95.

 I take pride in the fact that I even took this picture.  It's not particularly special, but there was a family of skinks running around on this birdhouse.  Ask my mother, other than her wrath there is nothing that scares me more than skinks.  Wes was quick to point out that they could do me zero harm from such a distance but let's be honest, he is insane and skinks are the most terrifying thing ever.

   

The canal meets the Ogeechee River.