Hey Y'all

Well, another vacation is over. We've made it home from our Savannah/Tybee adventure. However, unlike some of the other great vacations I've taken in the past couple of years, I really have some mixed feelings about this one. And I hate it! I want so bad to have a great vacation I can tell everyone about but it really wasn't all that.

The trip up on Friday was great. Joe and decided to take the scenic route and we drove all the way up A1A into Jacksonville. There are some beautiful beaches and beach houses on the coast of Florida. Every few houses we were saying, "I want that one." We swung by to see Lindsey and Peyton in Jacksonville for a few and then continued up 95 to Savannah. We arrived at our rental house and were very pleasantly surprised. The house was really nice. It had hard wood floors, an amazing master bathroom, huge master bedroom, an awesome deck and a hot tub overlooking the marsh. It was really nice. We got ourselves settled in for a really nice weekend.

When our other vacation couple arrived we decided to go out to dinner on Tybee. The guest book at the house mentioned great things about a place called Stingray's so we gave it a try. We sat outside and the weather was nice. The gals had margaritas, the guys had beer and we all braved a "sting-shooter". I definitely do not recommend it. It's a beer, hot sauce, and raw oyster combo. Very interesting, very gross. But, we were on vacation and living it up!

After dinner we wanted to go to the grocery store and get a couple essentials for the house; water, snacky things, more beer. We found the only grocery store on the island, the IGA, or as we like to refer to it "the igga". It was our first taste of how backwoods Tybee island is. It was like an old Bodega with old, dusty products and people walking around with no shoes. Some guy was trying to buy 4 beers out of a 6-pack of Old Milwaukee. Very strange. A little "The Hills Have Eyes" kind of place. But we got back to the house, popped a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine and jumped in the hot tub. It was a great start to the weekend.

Then the rains came. Early Saturday morning I'm awoken by flashes of light out the bedroom window followed by booming thunder. It was crazy! The storm must've been sitting on top of the house because the thunder was shaking the building. It was pouring rain and we kept losing power. The power pretty much flickered off and on until 6:30am when it decided to stay off. We layed around hoping for it to come back on and hoping for the rain to stop. When neither happened, we got up and started moving around. Finally, an hour and a half later, the power came back on and we got the bad news. Per the weather channel, Tybee Island and the whole Savannah area was under a flash flood warning and the weather wasn't expected to clear until Monday! Our plans for the weekend were pretty much screwed. But, we tried our damndest to make the best of it.

We drove into Savannah and walked around the river front area. It was very touristy and not the "southern charm" we'd heard/read about. We went in and out of a couple of shops and watched some boats come in. We were getting hungry though and decided to head back towards the island. We passed Uncle Bubba's Oyster House and popped in for an early dinner. Only, they don't serve dinner until 5pm... it was 4pm but they were glad to put us on the list. We decided to sit at the bar and have some beers and eat some steamed oysters while we waited. I was really surprised at the decor of Uncle Bubba's. The name, to me, seemed like we'd be eating on picnic tables overlooking the marsh, very casual. Not so much. There were crystal chandeliers, fabric draped on the walls, and you couldn't even see outside. I think I was really turned off by the atmosphere. Everybody else enjoyed their dinners but I really didn't like my sauteed scallops. I guess I had higher expectations for Paula Deen's brother's restaurant. We spent another night drinking in the hot tub but this time we were watching and listening to the rain.

Sunday morning we woke up and it was still pouring. But, we got up and headed back into Savannah hoping to find something more than we found the day before. Because of the rain, and our lack of umbrellas (the CVS was sold out), we ended up ducking into this Thai restaurant on one of the Savannah streets. It was like we'd all been saved. The place was clean, everyone in there was wearing shoes, and they were actually friendly. The food was really good and recharged us all. We ventured out and actually did find a really cute area of Savannah with nice shops and restaurants and pretty trees. It turned out to be a good trip into the city.

On the advice of a nice man in an antiques shop, we drove back to Tybee and had dinner at a place called AJ's Dockside. It was hidden in a residential neighborhood at the corner of a very narrow street. It was by far the best time we had the whole trip. The rain finally stopped, the sun came out and we got to sit dockside and watch dolphins swim in the marsh and watch the sun go down. We had a great seafood dinner and drank some more beer. It was really, really nice. After that, in the grand tradition of our trip, we went back to the house and jumped back into the hot tub, drank wine and listened to Fergie. "We're flying first class, up in the sky. Poppin' champagne, livin' the life..." It was pretty fun.

We never made it to Paula Deen's restaurant. We drove by and went into the gift shop but we weren't about to stand in that line in the rain. Maybe another time... but I really doubt it. Just from the experience we had at her brother's restaurant, I'm a little scared to try it. But, although our trip definitely wasn't what I expected it to be, we really did have a nice time. I think it just goes to show that it's not where you are but who you're with that makes all the difference.

Enjoy the picture of our final night on Tybee. It's the sunset we watched from our table at AJ's.