Sunday 25th June

Today, we waved goodbye to Florida…

…and said hello to our next state – the Peach state of Georgia!

Before we did that we took a short visit to St Augustine. Which was beautiful and a great change of pace. The main attraction was Castillo de San Marcos National Monument with a live cannon firing at 10:30am!

We found Nate’s shop!

The main attraction

We are now monument photographing, canon-explosion viewing, gecko searching, immense bridge crossing, ye olde Spanish town exploring tourists!

What was incredible was the surrounding walls were built of shell stone. Pictures don’t really do it justice

We also found a friend!

We left the cannons and headed north to meet Daddy’s friend Alan, at a swanky, fancy and amazing, private beach club called Serenata.

We spent the afternoon together in the pool, the boys playing with everything the beach club had to offer, while Mummy and Daddy enjoyed the sun, food and live music!

We were very thankful to Alan, who left us to pick his brother up from Jacksonville Airport, who said we could stay at the beach club for as long as we wanted.

Purple and Yellow flags. Purple means dangerous sea creatures and yellow means choppy waters/strong currents…or it could mean surfing sharks, who knows?!

We hit the road for a long 2.5hr drive to Savannah, we saw a semi truck blow out one of his 12 back tires on the way. It all seemed to happen in slow motion but something that big and wobbly wasn’t something we wanted to drive alongside for long! We made it to the next hotel. Elliott has read two Minecraft books and Nate spend the entire time building Lego in the car.

Monday 26th June

This is how we started Monday

After that, we headed to the historic town of Savannah, Georgia. Lots to see, super hot and many of new experiences. First stop was Forsyth Park.

10 acres of beautiful trees and park to explore, Spanish moss and Cypress trees everywhere.

Because boys will be boys, the main attraction was stripping off to their pants and walking into the fountains. Mainly shooting their bums!

There was also a huge intricately designed fountain, that the local residents had chipped in to save and restore a few years back

The next stop was ice cream at the world famous Leopold’s which has been serving since 1919. Daddy tried an ice cream soda, still made the same way with seltzer. The boys had ice cream each and shared Mummy’s ice cream cookie sandwich…shared is a generous word.

We headed off in search of the Savannah ferries that were free and took us along the river. Only problem was the amount of construction happening in the town – fine if you’re in a car, but walking this added 20+ minutes to get to the ferry port. Hot sun, sweaty boys…

…but we’ll worth the trek!

As we had three 1hr plus drives coming up, we left Savannah and headed to the first stop – the Old Sheldon Church Ruins.

Things to note, Nate got bitten by a mosquito, cue him running back to the car, screaming, saying they would bite and kill him…and Daddy had a tick on the back of his leg.

The next stop was a loooong way out of the way, but an influencers dream!

Botany Bay is an amazing driftwood (boneyard) beach. Mummy sent us to the wrong part of the beach, which was lovely but didn’t have any driftwood. As we got there later at 17:00 we had the beach to ourselves.

We started hunting the best photo spots. Nate wouldn’t comply so we shoved him up and got this shot.

We had to drag the boys away and we could have honestly spent the whole afternoon here. We were so glad that we didn’t skip the beach

As the site is protected, you are not allowed to remove anything from the beach. We saw an amazing array of colours and shells and previous visitors have left the best ones on the skeleton trees for others to enjoy!

Classic Mummy jumping photos

We left Botany Bay and headed off for the 10min walk back to the car. On the way, Daddy noticed that Elliott had left his sunglasses on the beach! Mummy took one for the team and walked back across the swamp to get them

Mummy was convinced she saw croc prints on the way back

We made it to Daddy’s friend Lindsey’s house, where we will be staying for a few days. The house and area is gorgeous and we will be exploring Charleston tomorrow!

Tuesday 27th June

After a super late night we woke up in Lindsey’s gorgeous house, we are living the American dream. Every house is picture perfect and Daddy has seen so many men outside cutting the grass. We also have a friend called Mr Lynx

After a spot of breakfast, our first spot was a short drive The Angel Oak Tree – over 400 years old and one of the most impressive trees we have ever seen. Daddy reversed into a tree turning to do a 3 point turn, luckily it wasn’t one that was protected by US law.

After a short stop in the gift shop, and a quick chill the classic outside southern rocking chairs…

…we set off for our destination – the historic Charleston. First impressions, cleaner and more colourful than Savannah, but just as hot – 34° today!

Elliott got a free ring from a lady’s stall after talking to her for so long. I think it was partly to move him along and stop asking questions. We also found swordfish sword, swords!

So much to read, so much to see

We took the boys to the Old Slave Market museum for an afternoon of hard to swallow history, but the boys took things in and were really well behaved

Overheard as Daddy was waiting for Kate and Elliott, “No-one is going to come to an event without catering in Charleston, maybe in Salt Lake City!” – we also saw an interesting array of cars, from Aston Martins to Ford trucks and these two.

We stopped at Lewis BBQ for lunch (thanks to Lindsey for the recommendation) and had some amazing brisket nachos that were served in a small dustbin lid

We stopped at Harris Teeter to stock up

The neighbourhood also has an amazing communal pool and play area, which is open until 8:30pm each night. We are living the dream!

Wednesday 28th June

Early start, why? Kayaking!

Our expert local guide Lindsey, had suggested Flipper Finders as a great 2hr (3 mile) kayak with kids down the river. We knew we had picked the right place after “Big John” had told Elliott he could pee in the river if he needed to!

Some how Nate managed to find a dog.

Our guide Audrey welcomed us and got us paired into teams. Elliott & Daddy vs Nate & Mummy, not a competition…of course 😏

As we paddled out, we began to see the huge amount of amazing wildlife which lives here. First we saw starfish on the mudbanks

Nate with a starfish on his paddle

Audrey said this was the muddiest she had ever been on a tour.

Kate joined in with some “war stripes” that actually have the same protection as SPF 40

This kid!

Next we saw scuttling crabs and oyster catchers out for a morning snack

Once they got in the swing of things, Daddy and Elliott were like a well oiled machine!

Audrey mentioned we were making good time and could complete the longer loop. This meant one thing…we might be able to see some dolphins in the wild! It was almost 11:30am, time to finish the tour, as we rounded the lady creek’s corner, Mummy saw a small fin next to the muddy, oyster covered

ank

bank

Then it happened! Truly once in a lifetime experience. The dolphin followed us for a while!

We didn’t think we could top seeing the dolphin, but what was the boys favourite moment? Getting to use the hoses to wash the muddy kayaks! 🤦🏼‍♀️

We stopped for a bite to eat at the Lost Dog Cafe which had some some great artwork and some southern twists (fried green tomatoes BLT sandwich)

We decided to head to Folly Beach for the rest of the day. We had been told that if you are lucky you can find sharks teeth on the beach

Driving into Folly Beach had an array of colourful beach houses.

The boys spent the next two hours being boys! Throwing mud at the tide, trying to jump over the tide, crawling in sand and hitting shells to see if they were real.

We ended the day with another quick swim in the pool, we spoke to a neighbour who was annoyed that the wild deer were eating all her flowers! We also spotted a red bird (maybe a cardinal) on the way home.

We grabbed a quick pizza and started packing as we are leaving in the morning for a short 6hr drive to Pisgah! We did just have enough time for the boys new favourite book