Final Day

A Girl Scout pilgrimage

Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House served us our best Savannah meal -we certainly left town on a good note.

Paradise found

We have landed in Savannah -last vacation stop for our big trip.
Our first full day in Savannah involved much needed R&R at Tybee Beach. We took a Southern Living recommendation and ate breakfast at the Breakfast Club (yum) and then walked down the sidewalk to the beach. We lucked onto a great beach, complete with rental umbrellas, clean sand, waves, diet coke, and hot dogs :)
I think it is required that you bury at least one person in the sand while at the beach.

No wave machine required.

Annalee and I ended our day with a little shopping and coffee on a stormy Georgia afternoon -lovely.

Delayed gratification

We showed up at Pearson's waterfall Monday afternoon -the waterfall is closed on Mondays. So, we opted to eat pizza and crash in North Carolina so we could see the falls Tuesday morning.
Beautiful scenery and an opportunity to play "pooh sticks" more than justified our delay.

I think waterfalls are my favorite slice of nature.

Blue Ridge beauty

We started our Blue Ridge Parkway expedition with a trip to Mabry Mills.

Mabry Mills, Appalachian culture, and mountain music :)

We ate dinner and picked up breakfast supplies in Meadows of Dan.

ice cream is always a welcome treat.

In anticipation of fall.

Our Rocky Knob Cabin retreat.
A peaceful retreat with only minor threats. Anyone know what "Mountain Mice" are. I found the quotations particularly frightening -my imagination conjured up all sorts of things that could be refered to as "Mountain Mice".

Fortunately, the "Mountain Mice" stayed away and we had a very peaceful visit at Rocky Knob.

We left Rocky Knob happy and full -thanks to a homecooked breakfast and lots of fresh mountain air.

Fashion update

Grandparents contributed to our back to school shopping expedition in New York (and Boston). So here are a few pictures to show off the finery purchased for the beginning of school.

Oasis

We arrived at Oma and Opa's house four hours later than planned and very happy to have finally landed.

A very restful night re-energized us for a wonderful day. Annalee and I even managed to visit Givens (a very cool bookstore in Lynchburg) for a little bookstore bliss and coffee. "Food all over the place" for breakfast and paella and sangria for dinner -yum :) In honor of Miriam's birthday, there was also pizza. and cake. We even got Victor to help us sing happy birthday.
Now we are ready to continue our grand adventure!

Thanks Oma and Opa for welcoming our whirlwind visit.

Gallery showing

Sophie's owl

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore

Maybe the great and powerful wizard will help us get to Oma and "Ompa's" house.

Yin and Yang

Bumper to bumper traffic from Boston to Virginia.

A cosmic way to balance our final day of luxury and relaxation in Boston?

Bob

A picture is worth a thousand words...

A perfect day

Sleeping in
120 Lindt chocolates time to draw boats

water play at the public gardens

balloon animals

Other perks of the day: a visit to China town (very close to the hotel), amazing Chinese food for lunch, room service coffee and hot chocolate chip cookies, and sending the girls to a movie at the theater next door.

Rest

A beautiful start to a day of rest and relaxation :)

Change in plans

We are 2/3's of the way through our big trip and we are all a little road weary, so we made an executive decision to spend one more day letting the nice staff at the Ritz take care of us. Annalee and I celebrated our decision to spend a day relaxing at the hotel with a lumpy bumpy bar from Trader Joe's and a diet coke. If you have never had a lumpy bumpy bar you should find one immediately and devour it!

Although it is never good to be frustrated, I will leave you with this comment born of frustration, but guaranteed to make you smile.

"Mom I am just so frustrated. I want to use Dado's words, the bad ones -the 'F' word." -Matthew