VACATION!

 

RIVERBOAT CRUISE

Going up the gangplank for a lovely evening on the river!

It was our last night in Savannah...

Louis and I usually take a little trip to celebrate our May 12th anniversary.  But the last couple of years, COVID made things a little difficult with the pandemic and all the travel restrictions.  We like to pick a place we have never been, but also a city where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has built a temple.

In 2020 we decided to go to Nova Scotia.  Every time I had a trip scheduled out of Newark to fly there as a flight attendant for United Airlines, something happened.  We got reassigned.  The flight was cancelled.  We missed our connection.   Always some different reason.  Obviously, I never made it there.  And... there is a temple in Halifax.  Fit our criteria perfectly!

I also told Louis to BUY the tickets. Newark is the only city that United flies from to Nova Scotia, so I wanted to make sure we had seats--NO STANDBY!  He did.  Then he arranged for a hotel, a rental car, and we made plans of where we wanted to go besides the temple.  Going to be a great vacation!

However, about a week before we were supposed to leave, Canada closed its borders.  Most of my trips that spring had been to Canada--Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto--and as flight crews we were able to fly in and out of Canada without any ruckus.  Not so for vacationers.  Not welcome!

We ended up driving to Albuquerque.  We had a nice time, and they didn't have a mandatory face mask mandate at that time.

In 2021 we just went to a brand-new hotel in Boulder and spent a Saturday morning walking around Boulder and going to a Farmers' Market.   Again, we had fun even though both those little anniversary trips were pretty low key.  

By 2022 we were ready for adventure and started looking for someplace other than Canada which still had some restrictions.  Forget that.  We talked a little about Panama.  I had been there for United a few times and always wished Louis were on my layovers because he spent time there in the Army as a Ranger.  Somehow, though, we mis-communicated and struck that off our list.  Next under consideration was Ireland.  We could get there but getting home looked kind of iffy with their travel restrictions.

Louis asked for more suggestions of where I would like to go.  Savannah?  In all my travels for work in Corporate America, and my trips with United, I had never been to the Georgia coast including Savannah.

Savannah it was, then!  And Louis made reservations for us to spend Saturday to Saturday there starting on Memorial Day weekend so he had to take only four vacation days.

We had a terrific vacation, including a quick trip up to Cincinnati for 36 hours for our grand boy's high school graduation!  Visiting a beautiful city and celebrating with family--life doesn't get much better than that!

While in Savannah we went on a trolley tour of the city and were completely pleased to see the beautiful "Squares" like mini parks practically every other block.  These garden-like city blocks were full of historical bits of information about people and events that happened from the establishment of the city.  

One square that was of particular interest to me was one which had a history board about Lowell Mason.  I mused to Louis if this might be the Lowell Mason who wrote some of the hymns in our hymnbook.  It was!  He lived in Savannah for about 15 years and was affiliated with one of the churches there.  The hymn I recognized him for is "Nearer My God to Thee", one of my favorites!  That was a nice little plus for me during the sight-seeing tour.

We also went to a fabulous museum that was on par with the Smithsonian which chronicled the training and combat tours of the 8th Air Force something or other during WWII..  We could have spent three days there and not touched it all.  Also, for me, this museum filled in some of the background for the WWII history that I am so keen about.  

One day we drove up to Hilton Head in South Carolina.  Not even an hour away.  Nice, but very crowded and pretty commercialized.  I thought the Channel Islands in Georgia were much more attractive, like Tybee Island and Jekyll Island which we also visited.  White sand beaches but not so crowded and trim cottages with fresh paint.  Very inviting even for the NON-water/beach person that I am.

The rest of the time we just did some touring on our own with stops at shops and restaurants along the way. And spent a lot of money on little gifts to take home like Georgia Peach Butter.  In fact, everything peachy--like the ice cream--tasted delicious.  UM UM GOOD!  

All too soon, our Southern adventure was almost over.  I was glad we had saved the best for last, an evening riverboat tour complete with buffet dinner.  It was a beautiful evening, warm with a great view of the city's lighted shoreline.  What a memorable cap to a great week!  

Now instead of telling people I had never even been to Georgia until I was 50 years old and had NEVER been to Savannah, now I can tell people I have been there and give an enthusiastic thumbs up as a testimony if you're looking for a great vacation.

THAT'S ALL, Y'ALL!