In the Desert You Can't Remember Your Name

October 8, 2012

After sleeping in quite a bit and eating breakfast, we got ready to begin day 3 of our trip. We started the day at Cafe Du Monde. Everyone who has been to New Orleans recommended we eat at this cafe. As we walked up we noticed an unbelievable line. Jason and I were both hungry at this point because it required a fairly long walk for us to reach it. We decided if the line was this long, it must be worth it. As we waited in line we listened to the jazz band play. Here is a picture of the band and the cafe:

The man in blue had a raspy Lois Armstrong kind of voice and was just wonderful! He was singing "I feel good, I knew that I would now, I feel nice and like sugar spice!" Although there was a long line, it gave us more time to listen to the music. The line actually moved pretty quickly and we soon ended up near a charmingly dressed waitress, showing us to a dirty table. The place was so packed that they had to clean the tables at the same time they seated you. Before leaving for New Orleans many people told us about the cloud of powdered sugar that always hovers at this cafe. I now know what they mean. Powder sugar floated throughout every inch of this cafe. The reason this happens... Beignets:

This is a picture of my hot chocolate and the three beignets covered in powdered sugar. Jason ordered the same thing, just with cafe au lait. Here we are:

After filling up on Beignets, we went to the Cafe Du Monde gift shop. We bought ourselves some coffee we could take home, since Jason loved it so much. Also picked up a voodoo doll that was a magnet for our fridge. We then walked to Jackson Square and listened to more jazz bands behind the square. After walking around Royal street for a while we headed back to the hotel to drop of what we bought. We then walked to Coops. Numerous people say go to Coops when wanting real New Orleans food. Jason's coworker lived there and said it's the place to eat. It took quite a while to reach it, but we decided we'd eat there for dinner later. Since we still had time before dinner, we stopped in a witch shop, and then headed to Rev Zombies voodoo shop. That was probably my favorite store. Since we had walked so far we decided to keep going until we reached Cemetery number 1 in New Orleans. We took pictures and then picked up shells left over from Katrina. The water is so far away from the cemetery, but the sea shells were covering the ground there. Here are some pictures from the cemetery:

 Fun story: this is the second time someone asked if they could take our picture for us! There was a couple there who asked if we could take their picture. We did and then they asked if we wanted one also. We, of course, said sure. This is that picture.

 Another couple saw us looking at this grave... it had XXX written all over it. We thought it may have been related Marie Laveau, but we heard a tour guide say no one knows where she's buried. Anyway... a couple say us and asked us if we wanted our picture taken. We, again, said sure! That makes three times someone asked us if they could take our picture... we didn't even ask! Very kind people here!

Once finishing our walk through the cemetery, we decided to walk back to Rev Zombie's Voodoo Shop to buy spirit orbs. In Salem they were called witch balls. We bought one medium sized one and two small ones to hang in our house. When we checked out, I went to grab the bag but the guy behind the counter pulled it away and then handed it to Jason. He then said "let him hold the ball sack." :^) haha

Once we bought the spirit orbs, we spotted Gelato at a cute little cafe. We stopped in and got pumpkin (Jason's) and Maker's Mark Pecan (mine)! Also we got a root beer. It was abita and it was actual real brewed root beer... sooo good! Once finishing that we walked back to the hotel to drop off our stuff. On the way back to the hotel we saw more street performers:

They were playing the Beatles. We also saw a man dressed all in silver holding a silver trumpet. A woman in front of us went to poke it to see if it was real. The man screamed "it's mine" and scared the lady! We had seen him before so we knew. Really funny:

After dropping off our things at the hotel and relaxing some, we headed off to Coops for some really amazing food. It was really dark in there, so these were the only pictures I managed to get:  

The food was amazing! Fried Cajun chicken with red beans and rice... first time I had ever had rabbit, too. That was fun. We took a picture for Jason's coworker, since he was the main person recommending we eat here. All in all, a very good choice for food! After Coops we walked around the city a little and then headed back to the hotel. When we arrived back at the hotel we had a surprise... There was a water issue. We had a notice that was slipped under our door with a "boil advisory" warning for the water. Apparently there was a power failure, which they were uncertain if it affected the sewage/filtering system. They informed everyone in the French Quarter (among many others) to not drink with, bathe with, brush teeth with, prepare food with, or do anything with the water until it had been boiled. I read the notice more carefully and discovered they were doing this out of "extreme caution," not because they actually saw anything wrong with the water. Still... we did not use the water. The hotel was wonderful about how they handled it. They gave us free bottled water. Jason and I got a ton of bottled water and managed. Wasn't too big a deal until the next day when a shower was needed... oh New Orleans. Still find it ironic that the one place there is always too much water, ends up having no water the week we visited. End of day 3.

HUGASAURUS!

October 7, 2012

Day 2 of our anniversary trip! Today we left Gulf Shores and headed to Nawlins! We ate breakfast which we brought from home (V8 juice and granola bars), drove through Alabama, and stopped at cracker barrel for lunch. We ended up going through Mississippi, which we did not expect. We unfortunately forgot to do a geocache, but we made a pact to do one in the Big Easy! On our way there, we blared Matchbox 20 musics  and sang along... Jason had difficulty with one song in particular. "Wonder what it's like to be a rainmaker..." Jason couldn't quite remember the words to that one, which made it fun :^) We also listed to Outkast and Tupac again... keeps you awake when tired!

Another fun moment during our drive is what happened in this picture:

Jason was on Reddit earlier that day and found a post that said "what if every time you yawn a ghost put's his [stuff] in your mouth." We laughed quite a bit and it turned into a personal joke. While driving Jason yawned and I, of course, made fun of him because he let a ghost do unspeakable things to him. He and I spent the next half hour trying to make each other yawn. We then started making those weird faces you make when you're trying to hold back a yawn, which caused Jason to laugh... that's the moment I took a picture of him laughing :^)

Although we were having a wonderful time, something horrible did happen on the road trip... the tunnel of death. Jason and I were leaving Alabama and had to go through this unbelievably scary tunnel. The tunnel was really long, fully enclosed by white brick and was in a deep valley. The road began to dip down and the next thing we knew we were in this really small tunnel. I hate small spaces like this! Jason helped by saying "I wonder if we're under water?" Jason laughed at me because I immediately freaked... not wanting to be in a small tunnel with no escape, completely surrounded by brick and water. Eventually it ended though and sunlight was seen again... oh how Jason loves to freak me out!

Once out of the death tunnel, we came across a billboard for gambling at a casino. It was encouraging people to come and gamble; however, at the bottom of the billboard we saw "If you have a gambling addiction call [some number]." Interesting way to have a billboard, we thought!

After all these fun adventures on the road, we finally made it to New Orleans! The hotel was right in the middle of every place we wanted to go! We had to drop the car of for valet parking... I had never done that before! There was no other way to park the car, so we had to do it. The guy took all out luggage quickly and told us to leave it for someone to bring it to our room. Again, east point comes to mind and we wonder if our luggage is going to be okay. Everything happened so quickly we had no choice but to trust them. We then checked in and headed for the elevators. This truly was a fancy hotel! You couldn't just press an up or down button, you had to actually type in the floor number you wanted and then the screen would tell you which elevator to get on (A, B, C, D, E, or F). Crazy! We were very confused at first, but then found it fun to watch other people try to figure it out, too! Weird to get on an elevator and see almost zero buttons on the inside. Once we made it to the room we unpacked and took our very first picture together in New Orleans:

After unpacking we decided to go walking around the city. We turned left on Canal st and started walking toward the Cemetery. Luckily, Jason's got a good eye for dangerous spots and we had been warned by people we know who have lived in LA to be careful where you go. As we headed down Canal street Jason told me we needed to turn around because it was beginning to get a little sketchy. It looked more like a rough part of New York than what we originally thought New Orleans would look like. We decided just to head back to the hotel and plan out the best ways to get around. As we went inside the hotel we noticed fancy fruit water. Fancy fruit water is when the Marriott hotel puts whole pineapple, strawberries, and oranges in giant tubs of water for you to drink... soo good! We grabbed our water, figured out the elevator again, and went upstairs. Both Jason and I were slightly stressed because this was not exactly what we thought it would be like in New Orleans. We didn't see any jazz music, cute little cafes, or anything like that. I found a map of New Orleans and Jason and began figuring out where to go. We then left the hotel and tried our new plan out. We learned Canal street is not the street you want to go down. The best way to get places is to go down Decatur St, which leads to Jackson Square. As we passed Jackson square we heard the jazz music, saw street performers, and the cute little cafes. We also came across Crescent City Brewhouse, which is where we popped in for dinner! Here are pictures:

These were the four little beers Jason ordered. They were really good! Jason also got a huge hamburger and I got a salad. We had a fun waiter who had a curly ponytail, too. I love pubs and breweries! Always good food and drinks. It was really neat to watch the bartender fill up these huge glasses of beer. At the bar there were golden taps, that would fill each glass with a cherry colored beer, leaving two inches of foam at the top. There's just something handsome about three or four beer glasses on a black serving tray. Jason and I enjoyed listening to everyone and watching the beer come and go. After finishing our meal we decided to head back to the hotel to relax. On our way back we came across a two year old who stood in the middle of the sidewalk. His parents weren't far, but he was by himself on the sidewalk. We watched him stand there with a weird scowl on his face as the couple in front of us passed by him. They raised their hands, which they were holding, as though to raise a bridge for the boy to pass underneath. Because the sidewalks were small, Jason and I also had to figure out how to get around him. He must of thought it was fun to watch other people find a way around him because he began to smile. As we got nearer, I went to the kid's left and Jason to his right. It was extremely funny, but probably one of those things you had to be there for. All I can say is that this kid looked like a small Shrek with curly red hair. It was really funny how proud he was of himself. 

Once back at the hotel Jason and I watched some television. We found a show called "Breaking Amish," that we watched before turning in for bed. I was extremely hungry not long after dinner because all I had was a salad. I guess to make me forget about the hunger, Jason raised his arm to wrap me up in a huge hug and said "RAAAAWR HUGASAURAS!!!" I love the randomness that is Jason :^) We will end day one with the red-headed hugasauras :^)

Tree, Tree, Everywhere a Tree

October 6, 2012

Jason and I have been married now for two years! This is our second anniversary together and we were able to get away for a vacation again to celebrate! Over the past year we've had even more to adjust to! Although I've adjusted to my job finally, Jason began working as a Linux Administrator and has moved away from Windows. It's his dream job and so far he's loving it! Along with this transition, we also moved again... this time into our own home! We bought a house! Here it is, our first home:

Other than these two main events, we also got Fred declawed, started taking yoga classes together, joined Habitat for Humanity, had to say goodbye to my brother (he moved to LA), and we had a close friend of ours moved back to Ga! We've been busy but it's been wonderful :^) To celebrate this past year of our married life, we left on the 6th of October for our vacation together!

Today was the day we left for Gulf Shores. We were actually headed to New Orleans, but we couldn't leave right away. My coworker hooked us up with a friend of hers who gets really amazing discounts on hotels. She reserved the Marriott in New Orleans on Canal St for only 59 a night! However, she couldn't get it for the exact days we wanted, so we decided to just leave when we wanted to and go to the beach.

Before leaving, we wanted to say goodbye to our cats. Freddy wouldn't stop meowing at us and peanuts refused to let us go near him, as if we wouldn't leave if we couldn't catch him. Luckily, he's a fat cat so we were able to get him and say goodbye. Once in the car we picked out what type of  music to listen to. Jason made CDs of good 90s music the night before. Our collection consisted of Matchbox 20, Outkast, Tupac, the guys who created the song "closing time," and the blues travelers. We also, of course, had Beirut. As we entered into Alabama "the beautiful," we noticed zero towns. For a while there we only saw trees and began to get a little worried we would never reach civilization.

After a few hours we found a place and were able to eat at a Panera, which we love! In fact, our first meal on our Honeymoon was at a Panera. We had potato soup and Jason was wise enough to get the pumpkin bagel as well. We ate at a small table next to the glass wall which overlooked the parking lot. A small group of children in boy scout uniforms began forming right outside the window as we were eating. Jason looked out the window just as a small boy scout began to press his forehead into the window to see what was inside. To his surprise Jason was staring directly at him! With Jason sitting and boy standing, they were directly across from each other's faces! The boy took a second, realized what just happened, and quickly turned and walked a way. Not long after two other kids did the same exact thing. Then, an adult man pressed his face into the window, unfortunately his face was a good three feet higher than the boys... Jason was unable to freak him out. It was really funny to us... we're weird.

After 6ish hours of driving, we made it to gulf shores! I hadn't been to Gulf Shores since I was a really small kid with my family  I remember walking into a store shaped like a giant whale, stopping at a specific store in Orange Beach to get sand shovels, and eating at restaurants on the beach. This time around there was no giant Whale, though. My dad said the store had been changed to a giant squid... we didn't see it though. That one store where we bought our beach supplies was still there though! Looked exactly the same! Also, all the good restaurants I remember we gone. However, we did find a place that my dad recommended called Tacky Jacks. Here's a picture!

Jason and I had a time trying to get to this place... you have to go to Orange Beach to find it. Apparently you have to pay a $3.50 toll fee to get to Orange beach. Costs 7 bucks just to see the Ocean... things like that should be free. Oh well! We made it to dinner and had a really fun time! We had a waitress who I think was British, but we had a hard time telling. Jason got these amazing fish tacos and I got a baked potato and a salad. It was right on the Ocean and very windy! After dinner we drove to the actual Ocean and got to walk around. It was right at sunset and lovely!

 This picture has a fun memory attached to it. A lady in a leopard print dress saw us trying to take a picture together and wanted to help. She was actually watching us from the top of a deck and decided to walk down to see us. We randomly heard "hey! Hey!" We turned around and discovered she was talking to us. She asked if she could take our picture for us! Jason and I both immediately went into East Point mode and began worrying she would take our camera. Haha. She didn't... she just took our picture and wished us a good time :^) Sometimes people are just awesome!

Jason and I walked along the beach for three hours and collected some shells to take home. This was the first time we had ever been to the beach together. We both have gone separately with our families, but never had we gone with each other. It was wonderful! After walking on the beach we went back to the hotel and relaxed. So far, it was the perfect way to start off our anniversary!

Riverstreet Sweets

October 9, 2011

I have to admit, I am writing day three of our Savannah adventure a year later than it occurred. I forgot to finish writing about this day; however, I remember the bulk of what we did and how it was. This, of course, is the most important day of the trip because it is our anniversary! Jason and I, as we usually do on vacation, slept in to day. After waking up, we realized we missed breakfast and are more into the "brunch" period of the day. We decided to go for a walk and find some food. We headed down the Riverstreet front to find a place we hadn't eaten at yet. This was not very difficult because there are so many places to eat here. We walked quite a ways until we reached "Rocks on the River." This was a really wonderful place to eat because it had some really wonderful food and amazing art, which was created out of driftwood and other things from the river. Here is a lovely picture:

 The food was obviously good because Jason has eaten almost everything and he is scowling because he wants more :^)

I thought this was amazing! This was the only thing I cared to take a picture of because I thought it spoke enough of the amazing artwork in the restaurant. Just beautiful!

After Jason and I ate brunch, we did what we usually do... we walked. We spent most of the day just walking around town, enjoying the sights and people. The fact that Jason loves to walk is one of my all-time favorite things about him. Not only do we walk for health reasons, but it also gives us time to talk. We did this a lot when dating and we do it even in the middle of a busy work week. I think if more people took time out of their day to walk outside together, they would enjoy life more and have a healthier marriage. I always feel closer to Jason after walking because I learn new things about him and what he thinks each time we do it. Anyway, side note over :^) We walked for quite a long time, went in a few shops, and began thinking of other things to do. After a couple of hours we realized we were getting a little exhausted and probably needed a break. We went back to the hotel and Jason and I gave each other foot massages. Jason and I also opened a bottle of Champagne. Jason and I already started a tradition of drinking champagne on October 9th. We had it the night of our wedding and planed to bring it for this trip also. It was very relaxing and wonderful!

Later that night we picked a special place for our anniversary dinner, Kevin Barry's Irish Pub. It was beautiful! I didn't take any of my own pictures of the pub, but here are a few from the website:

We had such a great time there! Couldn't beat their potato soup and, of course, the whiskey chocolate cake! So good! We got there at a perfect time because it wasn't packed at all, it was dark outside and slightly rainy, and the musicians were already there setting up and practicing. It was really wonderful music and it had that "Irish" sound too it. It was a group of people playing. They actually were sitting down, eating, and occasionally would just start playing an instrument and singing in between bites of their meal. Our waitress was also really nice. I felt so bad for her... she had to take care of the musicians and was the waitress for the entire side of the bar downstairs! She was so busy. It worked out for us though that she was busy... we were able to relax, not worry about the time, and enjoy the music without feeling rushed. It was perfect! Just the type of place we like. It was a really old building with brick and stone, dark woods, and dim lighting. Perfect dinner :^) After a while we realized we probably needed to head back because it was really picking up outside and we didn't want to get soaked. Here are a few pictures of us from before we left for dinner:

Hehe! One last thing... I'm not sure when we did this, but we did actually stop at Riverstreet Sweets for a candy apple. For some reason I always want a candy apple around October, so we got one! Here it is:

The next day we ventured home to Palmetto, Ga. We got gifts for all our family at Riverstreet Sweets, packed up, and headed home. All I remember is stopping at Burger King. Then we were home. Good trip!

Caleb Crawdad, Forrest Gump, and a Hagrid

October 8th, 2011 was day two of our anniversary weekend in Savannah. Because Jason and I slept late for our second day there, we were super hungry when we woke up. Therefore, we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast at Clary's cafe. Clary's is the famous dinner in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. We had an easy time finding it thanks to a man we met the day before. We randomly heard some guy saying "Abercorn! Abercorn! Abercorn!" to some lady he was with... apparently he really needed to get to Abercorn street. Well, because we heard the name over and over again, we found the street Abercorn... easier to avoid crazy people if you know where they're headed :^) Come to find out, Clary's Cafe is on Abercorn! We walked for a very long time until finally reaching the Cafe. We walked in and met the hostess. She told us it would be a while and we could wait outside until a table opened up. As soon as we sat down to wait, the woman came outside and said she had a table ready... awesome! We ordered regular breakfast food: bacon, biscuits, hash browns, ect. Everything was wonderful, until... the power went out. It had started raining once we had a seat inside and the next thing we knew, we were sitting in darkness.  Luckily we had our food by then and were just waiting for the check. The check never came. Thirty minutes later our waitress came by and asked if we were paying with cash or card. We said card and then she took off. Another few minutes went by and she then said we could pay at the front. The lady at the front wrote down our information (since there was still no power), promised to shred it the moment the power came back on, and then sent us on our way. The poor lady announced that she had forgotten to write down what type of card everyone was paying with (visa, mastercard, etc). Luckily she wrote ours down, but she spelled my name wrong. Jason said he wouldn't be surprised if they never charged the card (because of how many things went weirdly that day)... we were charged. Oh well! This is a picture of Clary's Cafe.

Because it was a rainy day, we decided walking wouldn't be the best idea. Therefore, we decided to pay for a trolley ride tour. I love these things! They're a fun way to see a city! We purchased two tickets at the Riverstreet shop and then waited for the bus. We were able to get two really good seats in the back. We had a lovely British "chap" named Michael. I was super happy because A) I love British people and B) British people have an awesome sense of humor. We had a wonderful time! He drove around and around each Savannah square and told us a bunch of historical facts about the place. We saw where Tom Hanks sat in the movie Forrest Gump; where the girl scouts began; the "pink" house (no matter how many different colors they try to paint it... it always ends up pink); and the house where Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil took place. There was also a statue of John Wesley that we saw. However, underneath the statue there was something more entertaining to me... a middle-aged man with golden hair, a giant mustache, a cane, and a very, very white suit. He looked like he was from the late 1800s. As Jason and I passed the man, we said in our most southern Michael Scott accent "I do declare!!!! My little heart could barely take it no more!" Gotta love the office :^) Almost every time we passed something that was interesting or heard someone very southern, Jason and I would announce "I do declare!"

After a while, Jason and I went back to the hotel to rest some and get out of the rain. We turned on the tv only to discover that Savannah does not understand good television. Everything we saw was either fishing, news, or food related.... where's the Office, Walking Dead, or Dr. Who when you need it! We then snuck down to the Marriott store and bought ice creams. We decided to browse the shops on Riverstreet after a while. As we walked by the River, we came across a very creepy cat. This cat looked super thin, meowed a ton, and wouldn't stop following me... I seriously was terrified of this cat! I kept thinking it was going to attack me. Jason apparently thought this was funny. I did not. After a great deal of browsing, walking, and sight-seeing, we decided we should eat dinner. We picked the Cotton Exchange. Best tea ever!!!! They put honey in it . . . Mmmmmmm. Here are a few pictures of it/us:

Part of the reason we have weird facial expressions is probably because of the Hashers... ugh. Right across from us sat a group of Hashers... these are people who go from city to city running races. They were very loud, extremely drunk, and incredibly rude. We didn't get a picture, but imagine a man with a horrible coyboy hat, no shirt, and two to three other females who probably needed more clothing as well. The guy kept staring out the window next to him, screaming at passersby. At one point, probably after his 200th beer, he decided to inform the girl next to him that she has amazing boobs... the whole restaurant could probably hear that. She didn't seemed bothered at all. In fact, she then complemented the girl across from her on her boobs, too. Actually, they did more than just complement each other.. they decided to show each other how great their boobs were. Holy crap! Jason and I have learned that all of our friends who liked Savannah, surely must have been drunk while there... No one else has stories like this but us. We were sober.

After the cotton exchange, we then headed back to the Riverstreet bus stop to wait for the ghost tour. Here is a picture of our ghost bus...

The girl who led the tour was crazy!! Very VERY southern accent. Extremely dramatic. And completely gullible apparently. We began our tour with a man in a car yelling at us... scared the shit out of me! Once we started the tour, we learned a great deal about how Savannah is truly the most haunted place ever... NOT! The first story we heard was about a man who was on the river. Apparently, the man's hand was chopped off and trapped in a random door which overlooked the river. The man made it out alive; however, his hand continues to knock on the door, desperately trying to find it's master... OOOooooooo! I sorry... the man is alive but his hand is a ghost? That's totally legit...

As our tour continued, we learned that it is apparently possible for this to happen: two little girls grew up in a house where lots of parties were thrown. As kids, they would sneak downstairs regularly to play with a ball while their parents threw numerous parties. They grew up and eventually left the house; however, sometimes people say they can still hear children playing ball when a party is being thrown there..... Again, how is it possible for a Ghost to show up when the kids moved out and were alive?

Let's just say there were more stories like this, and we believed none of them. Jason would like me to write about the very end of our tour, however. Unexpectedly, our tour guide told us to get out of the trolley at a random stop by the river. I was not happy. In fact, I told Jason I really really didn't want to do a tour unless I could be in a safe place with wheels or a horse attached. I don't do well with getting freaked out, and tours like this like taking cheap shots. Jerkfaces. Anyway... we went into this broken down building to hear a story. I went to the left. I've learned that most people go to their right when entering a store or a building. Therefore, I figured whatever was scary would be at the right. So, I went to the left and stood in a corner so I could see the room. Our tour guide enters and stands in the center of the room. She begins telling us of a story about a little girl who died at sea and was placed in a coffin. She then said her coffin was moved to this building. She then points directly at me and says "and there's the coffin!" Dammit!!! I specifically tried to avoid this! I turn around and right behind me is the coffin. I'm so glad they didn't have someone's hand come out of it and try and get me... jerks! Jason laughed a lot at me and I have now vowed never to return to a ghost tour again. Well... it's not over. After we finished the coffin story, our tour guide said we were going to the back room. I'm sorry... I know what happens in back rooms and I don't do that. "Back room" is code for the place you are going to die! Me, another girl, and a seven year old refused to go into the back room. My husband, the other girl's guy, and the little girl's parents convinced us to go. Dammit. We take a seat on random boxes in the room as our tour guide stands at the front. She says "Everyone comfy? Good..." Then she walks to the door and slams it shut with a loud bang! Then the lights go out and my first thought is "This is exactly why you do NOT EVER go into a "back room" willingly!! The little girl next to me screams and then cries for the remainder of the tour. I kept my eyes closed for the remainder of the story-telling. I don't like cheap scares. I have no clue what the scary story was... all I remember was there was an old hag, rain, and somehow Hagrid from Harry Potter showed up. Jason said I heard it wrong and he said "hag ridden." He's wrong. Hagrid was totally there. After a man randomly showed up to tell us about Hags and a Hagrid, the lights went out and a loud bang occurred right behind me... I, of course, picked the seat with a surprise door right behind it... always carry a flashlight people! Lesson learned. Luckily the door was stuck and our tour guide couldn't scare me by jumping through it... she just made a bunch of noise and then swore because it didn't open.

I have to say though, if you like stuff like this... this would be a good tour for you. During part of the story telling in the back room, they mentioned that it was "a rainy night" and then all of a sudden I start feeling raindrops on my head. They were good with detail. Still jerks but they were good with details.

Moral of the story: do not go in "back rooms," always have a flashlight, and never EVER stand by a coffin. Also... drinking may help when visiting Savannah. The end of day two.

Midnight in the garden of Drunkards and oddballs...

October 7, 2012

October 9, 2011 was my one year wedding anniversary to the most amazing man I've ever known. The past year has been filled with many changes: both of us began new jobs/careers; we moved into a house, we've adjusted to waking up at 4:30 (5:30 for Jason); and, the most wonderful change of all, getting used to the fact that I get to come home to the man I love. It's been a very stressful year, but one that I wouldn't trade for anything. I've heard most people say that the first year is the hardest. If that's true... Jason and I are going to have a great life together. With all the changes, stress, and difficulty that occurred this year... In the midst of all the chaos, I knew Jason would be there. We rarely argued or fought. One of my favorite things about Jason is how he fights... quietly and with an open ear. This year has been a hard year, but not at all because we were adjusting to married life. I've never adjusted to anything easier. Of all the things I've ever been proud of, I take the most pride in knowing Jason and I have a very strong and loving marriage. I look forward to many years of laughing, quiet fighting, sock races, fall days, weird accents, random songs, walks in the park, and candlelit dinners.

Having said all I loved about this past year, I would like to write how we celebrated our first year of marriage together. On October 7th, 2011 we planned to leave for Savannah, Ga to spend our anniversary at the Marriott Riverfront.  The night before we left, we spent a great deal of time baking a cake to take with us. Jason's mom makes the best coconut cream cake I've ever had. Jason and I loved it so much, we asked his mom to bake it for our wedding cake. The first thing we ever bought for our wedding, was the cake topper. It was Linus holding his blue blanket and Sally kissing him on the cheek (Charlie brown characters, if you didn't know). Well, I left the cake topper at our apartment and we were unable to use it at our wedding. Therefore, Jason and I decided to bake our wedding cake and place Linus and Sally on it for our one year anniversary. Well... that was the plan anyway. Although we wrote out the recipe, followed the instructions, and baked it to the best of our ability... the cake still collapsed and tasted nothing like it did the day we were married. I'm still not quite sure what on earth we did to it. After realizing the cake wasn't going to come with us, we decided to just buy a cake once we arrived in Savannah. Unfortunately... I forgot Linus and Sally again. For someone who loves Charlie Brown as much as I do, I certainly have a hard time remembering the Charlie Brown cake topper. Oh well! 

How could I forget something this cute? I don't know. Oh well, moving on...

The next morning, October 7th, we left for Savannah. As we traveled, we listened to Beirut and 90s music. Amazingly, Jason had his Ipod and the same playlist he made for our wedding. We also had a bit of entertainment on the way there.... here are two picture that caused a great deal of laughter.

 I'm sorry... what kind of company calls themselves that?!? This one...

Never bored on road trips! Not with things like this near us :^) Hours later, after we stopped at Quiznos for lunch and drove many miles later, we arrived in Savannah. We knew immediately that this was going to be a very interesting place. As we were driving into downtown Savannah, we noticed a young man on a bike. "On" a bike... not riding a bike. I don't think there are any words to describe this guy. He rolled past our car, slammed sideways into a bus, pushed himself off and continued rolling. We never actually saw the guy try to use the bike pedals. It was as though he only knew how to make the bike go by pushing it off of something he eventually would crash into. Gee! It was as though a grown man was trying to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels for the first time. He would have been a lot wiser to have learned in a deserted area instead of in the middle of a busy intersection! 

Once having weaved in and out of traffic for a while, we made it to our hotel. The hotel was lovely! Right on the river and within walking distance of almost everything. We checked in and went up to our room and unpacked a little. If you were to look out our room's window, you would see the hotel lobby, the swimming pool, and all the balconies of everyone else's rooms. Jason and I began looking around and noticed something very strange. On the same floor, directly across from us were two or three rooms completely covered in white tarps/plastic. I don't know about anyone else, but my first thought was... does Dexter stay in Marriott hotels often? Very creepy. After seeing that, we decided to leave the hotel and explore the streets of Savannah a little. As we were leaving the room, a man in all black with headset wires running down his shirt came swiftly into view. He walked very quickly and headed to the side of the hotel with all the plastic... hmm. Jason said he thinks they were just remodeling and that guy was just a regular employee picking up room service or doing maintenance... I still suspect Dexter was in town.

Here are a few pictures from different places we explored for a few hours that day. It truly is a very beautiful place.  

After a few hours of walking, we decided to get dinner. We stumbled across Moon River Brewing Company and decided to try it out. They had really good hamburgers and, according to Jason, good beer. Speaking of beer... Jason and I have many weird, unforgettable stories from Savannah and I attribute most of that to the beer-drinking citizens. While walking around, Jason and I heard a very loud woman screaming, "There's beer over here!!! Beer over here!!" I don't think she needed any more beer, to be honest. On the same street to the left, we saw another intoxicated woman. She apparently had so much to drink that she decided she couldn't walk any more... she slowly began to sink toward the sidewalk floor. Luckily, her friends (also drunk) saw her and picked her up before she fully sat down on the busy sidewalk. Oh boy! A few streets up, we saw a man in a wheelchair pushing himself with his feet up the sidewalk... did I mention he pushed himself backwards up the sidewalk? Really man! What happened there? As we quickly moved away from all these fun people, we turned a corner to see a woman coming out of bank with a giant, round, cloth bag in one hand. I mean... if you were to draw a "$" symbol on it, it would have looked just like a cartoon money bag. Can you say "Rob me please!" All of this happened in about five minutes, by the way.

As we walked through Savannah, we finally arrived at the cemetery. Jason and I love cemeteries. We love how historical they are. I also love seeing the old dates and names of people from the past. Not to mention, cemeteries are usually very quite and peaceful . . . also, not a lot of loud, drunk people. We began wandering around the cemetery and came across a small family. We heard the man say the gate of the cemetery was locked. We began listening to them and realized that we might actually be locked inside the cemetery. Immediately we began looking at the exits... sure enough, almost every gate was locked. We told the family where we entered and then we all headed that way. Thank goodness we checked... it was the only door open. We were not locked in! How creepy would that have been! And, it wouldn't have been long before it was dark out, too. After a while, we decided to head back to the hotel and get some sleep. We hoped tomorrow would be free of drunk people and random Dexter-like scenes. 

The Sock Racing Extravaganza

December 7th, 2010

Since Thanksgiving, Jason and I have been super busy!  The Friday after Thanksgiving we had an amazing date night!  We went to the movies and saw the 7th Harry Potter film!  Jason has never seem any of them in a movie theater . . . it was spectacular!!  We are currently reading the  5th book together and can't wait to finish it!!  It's getting so interesting and Jason has never read anything past this... can't wait to see what he thinks about the ending.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove down to see my family for our annual "get your Christmas tree while going on a hayride and getting hot apple sider" day... we need to work on the title for that...?  This was the first year I have ever bought my own tree, and it is extra special because I get to do it with Jason!!  We picked the perfect size tree... just slightly taller than me.  My parents ended up buying two trees... one for inside and one for the deck.  They, of course, are gynormous and beautiful. We had our hot apple sider (after the hayride... Jason learned not to do that before... it spills).  We then all went to Partners Pizza, which was scrumptious.  Amazingly enough... Jason and I were actually able to fit our entire tree in my tiny car.  (P.S. an entire tree is waaaaay better than one of those little fake tree air fresheners... although, slightly more inconvenient.)  We took it home and put it up... it was leaning for quite a long time until we were able to buy sand.  It is now completely, somewhat, straight and has a beautiful silver star and one ornament on it.  Our cats really love the tree... they keep batting at the bottom of it and drinking it's water.  They haven't knocked it over yet, so, that's a good sign.

The week after Thanksgiving must not have been too eventful because we can't recall most of it... we remember we cleaned up a lot and worked a lot.  I guess that's about it.  We received our beautiful wedding pictures!!!  So excited about that :^) They are unbelievably wonderful and amazing.  I'm so thankful for all our photographers did.  Now I just need to print them and frame them.

Our family night group exchanged names for Christmas gifts.  Jason and I got Lisa and Daniel.  We're both super excited about their gifts.  Travis and Anna had our names.  They got Jason a gift card to radio shack (perfect!) and I received a truly lovely wine decanter and goblets.  They gave amazing gifts.  Last Saturday we went with the family night group to go get everyone else's tree at Minter's farm (the place we got ours).  I went last year with Lisa and Daniel, but no one else went.  Everyone got great trees and had fun hanging out at Popeyes.

Best part of my week:  Jason and I had a sock sliding contest in our kitchen.  I so SO won!  He didn't, no matter what he says.  Our cats thought us very strange and kept watching us running back and forth.  I think they think we're crazy.

Best thing I've purchased:  Alfred the penguin.  Possibly the most amazing cookie jar I have ever seem.  Jason and I picked it out together while Christmas shopping.

I just want to say to Jason that I really love you and I have enjoyed decorating and preparing for Christmas with you in our home.  There is no one else I'd rather share life with.  I love you Jerkface.