a trip south!

It has taken longer than I had hoped to get these pics and stories up…as soon as we got home from our trip, I came down with a nasty cold that has literally knocked me on my butt. I have no energy to do anything – even blog – and you KNOW if I'm too tired to blog, I must not be feeling well! I finally mustered some energy tonight to upload pics and recap our awesome trip…

We are back from our trip to Georgia and we had a fabulous time! I think we can confidently say that we saw just about every little corner of the state, plus a good bit of South Carolina over the six days of our travels.

We got up at 3am (see above!) in favor of a nonstop flight into Atlanta and rented a car to drive to Augusta, Georgia. We met up with the rest of the groom's side of the wedding party (all of Pager's bffs from UNC-Charlotte) for lunch and then headed to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was so fun to see all of those guys – one of whom I hadn't seen since our own wedding, almost three years ago! There wasn't a whole lot to do in the area, so after the rehearsal dinner, we all ended up back at the hotel pool to hang out until the wee hours of the morning. Here are the boys practicing to strut their stuff:

Here's everyone at the rehearsal dinner – the bride and groom with their Xbox cake…

….the boys of k104….

and the first two (soon to be three) members of the k104 Wives Club.

Saturday was wedding day for Page's good friend, Dee, and his wife CJ. We grabbed lunch with the Charlotte gang – plus Matt's parents! – and Page and I both tried our first ever fried green tomato. The verdict? Eh – but at least we can say we tried one, right? I of course took a zillion pictures at the wedding and reception…but they are still on Brent's nice dSLR, so those will have to be posted later once I get my hands on them.

I do love seeing Brent and Page together – certainly the most into clothes of the group, it was an hour-long event watching these two make themselves presentable for the cermony. The wedding was lovely (the church itself was breathtaking) and the party that ensued after was – in short – a success. Hehe. Matt's wife, Amanada, and I made sure to keep the party going on the dance floor! The food was delicious and I tried my second new food of the day – grits – in every shape and form…shrimp and grits, garlic butter grits, ham and cheese grits….am I starting to sound like Bubba from Forrest Gump?

On Sunday, we said goodbye to the gang and took off for the twosome part of our trip to Savannah. We stayed in one of the most amazing hotels we have ever stayed in, and it was much more reasonable than you would expect. The hotel is the Avia, and it's in the heart of downtown Savannah – only a couple of years old, but located in a renovated old building. They have three other locations – one in Texas and two in California – if we are ever in those areas, we will be staying at an Avia hotel! I loved the artwork propped against the wall on either side of the bed to denote a "his" and "hers" side:

For the next three days, we ate some delicious meals (including a stop at Paula Dean's restaurant, The Lady & Sons), went for a massage, took a historical bike tour through the downtown area, and enjoyed a road trip out to the beach at Hilton Head Island. It was so nice to have a few straight days of no work, lots of relaxation, and very little itinerary. We both do really well at just going with the flow and making decisions about what to do right there in the moment. Here we are on one of our bike tour stops – a famous landmark fountain – supposedly THE most photographed spot in Savannah. It was fun to ride around and learn some bits of Savannah history – we visited the exact spot where Tom Hanks sat on the bench in Forrest Gump, saw the church responsible for the creation of the song, "Jingle Bells", and so much more.

Here I am at Paula's restaurant (yay!) and below is Page with his "to go" cup of what I believe was a "Savannah Iced Tea" (similar to a Long Island). We were thrilled to death to learn that it's not only allowed, but ENCOURAGED that you take your cocktail in a "to go" cup as you get on with your sightseeing of Savannah. Any time we would ask for our bill, a server would automatically ask if we wanted to-go cups. We never declined.

Our final day was Wednesday and since our flight home didn't leave until 8:30 in the evening, we got into Atlanta early enough to do some shopping before we headed to the airport. H&M and Nordstrom Rack were at the top of our list, along with a lunch stop at California Pizza Kitchen (all places we don't have at home in Des Moines!). The final day was a success and we had to get a bit strategic with figuring out where to pack all of our purchases and avoid having to ship anything home!

All in all, a fun and memorable trip. We feel lucky to have taken the vacation and to have gone all out – we don't feel like we skipped over or missed out on a thing! It was also the perfect amount of time to be away from the day to day work and home responsibilities without coming back to a HUGE to-do list. 

We are already dreaming up the next few trips we want to take in the coming year or so…but for now, there is plenty of unpacking and laundry to keep us busy.