See Ya Later Alligator!

March 31, 2014

I awoke slightly disoriented. Jason was in bed scrolling through Reddit as he usual would on our day off. I was still on my side of the bed, but no cats were at our feet and we certainly were not at home. This was definitely a sign that I was missing our home, which is lucky because today we make the drive back. Jason and I got ready quickly and headed toward the lobby for our free breakfast. We arrived to a slightly dimmer dinning area than usual and noticed only one couple eating breakfast. I assumed Monday mornings were simply less busy than weekends. As we walked up to the buffet we began to understand more fully, however. Breakfast was over. The lights were off, the eggs and bacon were gone, and all that remained was cold cereal. We stood there a little unsure of what to do until a woman emerged from the nearby kitchen. "Oh no, they didn't tell you either!" she said. I guess not... She explained that breakfast was over at 9 on the weekdays. They are open a little later on the weekends only. She was right, they did not tell us. She offered us some cold cereal and bowls. Jason and I glanced at each other and knew immediately that we both preferred something a little better on our last day in Savannah. I thanked her but stated we would just grab a hot breakfast from somewhere else. She reminded us that Waffle House was within walking distance from here. As we left, the couple at the nearby table with their cold cereal looked at us, smiled, and said "They didn't tell us either." We all laughed a little and then we headed to our room.

After grabbing our keys and my purse, we walked over to Waffle House for breakfast. The closer we walked the more I began to get nervous. Previous Waffle House memories invaded my mind... the dirt, the toothless waitresses, the flies.... "I hope this is a good one" I said to Jason. He agreed. We walked in and my nerves vanished immediately. The smell was of fresh waffles with syrup, visibly clean floors, and not one tooth appeared to be lost. We made the right choice. It was delicious!

To the left, a handsome man. To the right, a handsome man with bacon. Win win win!

Above, shows the amazingly simple, yet scrumptious toast that Jason and I shared.

And below, the oatmeal with fruit which I hate happily. Delicious!

After breakfast, we walked back over to the hotel and decided to pack. Technically we didn't have to check out until noon, but home sounded better than a hotel room. We quickly packed, grabbed what we could, and made our way to my car. Shortly after reaching the car, I realized that my purse was inside the hotel which had my car keys. I ran back and grabbed them as poor Jason stood there with all the luggage. No worries, I wasn't too far away. We loaded the car up, checked the room again for everything, and made our way to the lobby to officially check out. Jason grabbed some coffee from the lobby as I settled the room with the guest services attendant. After being handed a receipt, I looked over to find Jason talking to the same woman that had eaten cold cereal this morning. I walked over as she was leaving and asked what had happened. It's rare to find Jason speaking to someone he doesn't know. Turns out she wanted to discuss what happened at breakfast just a little more. Haha. Oh well, I'm glad we ate somewhere else. Waffle House's food was actually far better anyway. 

Once Jason and I were all packed and in the car ready to go, we noticed a family by the hotel swamp. I had seen them the day before in the dinning area. They left the swamp and began walking to Waffle House. I guess they missed breakfast too. We were about to drive off when the husband noticed us in our car and began trying to tell us something as he pointed to the swamp. Eventually I was able to realize what he was trying to say. We got out of the car and he confirmed what I thought. He was, indeed, saying "There's an alligator in the swamp!" We both looked at the swamp and tried to find it. At this point the man's wife and daughter were almost in Waffle House. The man, so excited that we were interested, left his son and began walking closer to us instead. He pointed to the alligator and, sure enough, there he was calmly waiting for his breakfast as well. 

To the left is a picture of the swamp with the alligator in it. He's small (must not be full grown) and is in the center of the swamp. Kind of hard to see him from this picture, but he's there. We zoomed in on the picture at home and it is definitely an alligator.








To the right is a picture of us, super excited and surprised by the alligator!

To the left is a picture of a duck that we watched. He was fishing for something. This is him in mid-dive.

 To the right is a picture of the same duck as above, but this time he's enjoying breakfast...he caught something.










To the left again is the same duck, peacefully sitting in the swamp.

 Jason and I watched the animals for a little while and then decided to be on our way. There were two animals in particular we were very excited to see and they were quite a few hours away.  Poor Peanuts and Fred were so upset when we left. Fred even refused to let us pet him. In order to pet him, he made us follow him as far away from the door as possible, in order to make it difficult for us to leave him. He's so cute! 

We began our road trip very similarly to the way we had a few days ago, by listening to the book Stiff. This time, however, the author was discussing cadavers and car crashes. We both thought that this was an eerie way to begin a long drive, but the book was too good to put away. We made it home safely, too. Win win. This drive was very different than the previous one. It was a very bright and lovely day out and much more traffic. The trip went by quickly though and we were home in no time. Neither one of us felt like eating lunch so we continued to drive. 

Once at home, we checked the mail and immediately said hello to our cats. They missed us so much! We were going to take a picture but forgot. Here is a picture from 2010, right after we were married. They were so little!!

 

After unloading the car, Jason and I sat down and watched our favorite show, Community. We relaxed a bit and then decided to go eat. We ate a little early since we hadn't had lunch. We chose Pita, our new favorite restaurant in town. We got our usual and then decided to take our evening stroll in Ashley Park. Walking felt really wonderful after having been cooped up in a car for so long. The mosquitoes, however, we biting so we ended our walk a tad early. We then made our way to Target and then Ross. Jason was looking for some tea cups and a tea strainer since he recently purchased some exotic teas online. Each tea is named after something in Harry Potter and is really wonderful! So far my favorite is the raspberry chocolate, although I'm not sure what it's called. Delicious!

After shopping, we headed over to see my Mom and Dad. March 31st is my Mom's birthday! We bought her some delicious chocolates and taffy from Riverstreet Sweets! Delicious! We talked to Mom and Dad for a while and heard about their weekend and were able to tell them about our trip as well. So much fun! We were able to stay as long as we normally would have, however, due to being excessively tired from the trip. We said goodbye and made our way home. We blogged the day before and then went to sleep. It's been a wonderful mini-trip! I'm so lucky to have Jason, he's the most caring and adventurous man... life with him is only ever more fun and exciting!