Savannah, GA - Day 1

We're back from our last-minute vaca in Savannah, Georgia and our little family of three had a fabulous time. The weather was cooler than normal down South, but high 60's/low 70's and sunshine still felt mighty wonderful to us Minnesotans. And guess what? There wasn't a lick of snow on the ground there which made my entire being feel downright giddy.

With Tory along for the ride and non-stop activities during our days, I didn't have much time for blogging, so I didn't recap our days as they were happening like I normally do on vacations. I probably could've found time to write after Tory was asleep but honestly, I felt like snuggling up to my husband and enjoying our time together was more important. I'm still going to document our daily adventures in a series of blog posts though because Andi and I love to re-read and remember our trips this way.

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Savannah, Georgia - Saturday, April 20
Day 1

Bright and early on Saturday morning, Andi and I loaded Tory, her car seat and one big ol' suitcase into the car in route for the airport - and more specifically, Jacksonville, Florida. Earlier in the week when the weather had us feeling so depressed, we decided to book a last-minute weekend vacation to Savannah, Georgia. We had few days to plan our adventure, so Andi took care of the big details like booking a flight and securing lodging and we decided to wing the rest of the trip when we arrived. It was cheaper and direct to fly Minneapolis to Jacksonville so that's what we did, renting a car and driving two hours North to Savannah.

Our flight there was an easy three hour flight. Tory recently dropped down to one nap a day, so she was happily awake during our morning flight and flirted with all the plane passengers around us for most of the ride there. When not playing peek-a-boo with the elderly couple seated behind us, she watched her first of many episodes of Bubble Guppies on the iPad. Thankfully, she's pretty content on airplanes. I always feel strangely proud when people comment on her excellent flying skills as we land at our destination. It's not like I raised her this way, obviously. She just happens to love TV ... and M&Ms. Lots of M&Ms.

My two loves with their iPads

Coincidentally, our drive to Savannah timed perfectly with Tory's nap. She was asleep the minute we hit the interstate and slept for most of our drive. This was Tory's first time visiting the state of Georgia and a little part inside me was squealing with excitement because I get to add another state to her Places book.

Andi booked us a condo for our three nights in Savannah. It was the perfect place for us to stay as a family because it was located across the street from Forsyth Park, had a kitchen, separate living room and bedroom so we had plenty of space to spread out and walking distance to Savannah's historic downtown area. I loved having the park across the street for Tory and on Saturday when we arrived, there was an Earth Day festival taking place in the park with vendors, music and a helicopter for kids.

Bedroom

Picture windows overlooking Forsyth Park

Kitchen

Andi and I went back and forth about sleeping arrangements for Tory. We didn't want her sleeping in bed with us because she's a horrible bed hog and none of us end up getting any shut eye when she's between us but we didn't want to travel with the pack-n-play either. Andi purchased this toddler travel bed which compacts down to a small duffel bag and we stuffed it into our car seat carrier on the flight there since we were checking that bag anyway. I mocked Andi for buying it, saying there was no way Tory would ever lay on an air mattress by herself and sleep through the night, but I ate my words when she actually did. The travel bed fit perfectly into the condo's master bedroom walk-in closet and that ended up being Tory's little bedroom for our trip.

We arrived in Savannah around 3pm-ish, dropped our bags and headed straight to Forsyth Park to catch the last part of the Earth Day festival. Most of the vendors were wrapping up by the time we arrived, but we were able to see the helicopter and let Tory run around in the grass. I have never seen a kid more excited to be outside in the fresh air. She laughed and spun around as she barreled through the lawn and over to the playground. That right there was worth our Minnesotan escape.

Tory at Forsyth Park

Around dinnertime, we walked from Forsyth Park through Savannah's historic downtown squares to explore the area and find some dinner. I instantly loved the old-time feeling of the beautiful squares filled with mature trees and so much history. There were horse-drawn carriage rides happening all throughout downtown and I begged Andi to let us take one while in Savannah. Secretly, I'm a sucker for horse-drawn carriage tours because they give such a unique perspective to a city from the slow-paced, eye level view with a town expert.

Madison Square in downtown Savannah

We stopped at Kayak Kafe for an early dinner. Tory, Andi and I were super hungry by this point because we really hadn't eaten much since breakfast that morning. We sat at an outdoor patio table. I ordered the Mexican Salad, Andi had the Salmon Burger and Tory ate a cheese quesadilla. It turns out the key to getting Tory to sit down nicely at a restaurant is to starve her first. She was such a good little girl at the restaurant, sat down on her chair the entire meal and scarfed down her quesadilla, bites of Andi's salmon burger and pieces of my chicken salad. All of our food was delicious - it felt so good to have meals that were fresh and healthy.

After dinner, we wandered through Savannah's City Market square by many hoppin' bars and restaurants. Savannah has an open-container law meaning you can walk around with an alcoholic beverage in hand anywhere in the historic downtown area. There were many, many people taking advantage of this rule and it was quite boisterous down in this area. Since we had Tory in tow, we passed through and stopped at Cafe GelatOhhh for a sweet treat instead. Neither Andi or I were impressed with our gelato selections - we had a scoop of pistachio and bananas foster and neither were very flavorful. In any case, we ate our ice cream and continued our walk to River Street. This area was beautiful in its own way, with big container ships and riverboats, brick streets and sidewalks.

Strolling along River Street

All the brick streets and sidewalks in downtown Savannah seriously jacked our stroller. The entire wheel base in the front came loose from all the rough terrain. Savannah isn't a very stroller / handicap friendly town - I can't even imagine getting around in a wheelchair around there. To get down to River Street, we took Tory out of the stroller and Andi carried the stroller over his head while carefully maneuvering down a winding brick staircase. Sketchy. There were plenty of kids and families with strollers around though. I liked how welcoming Savannah was to all types of people - young, old, partiers, families, etc. There's definitely something for everyone.

We ended our day with a walk back through Savannah's historic squares and a quick stop by the grocery store for a few Tory snacks, pop and booze. Tory was so exhausted by this point, she dozed off in the stroller while in the grocery store which I don't think I've ever seen her do in her lifetime.

Spanish moss covered most of the trees in Savannah

We arrived back at our condo and quickly changed into pajamas and put Tory to bed. Unfortunately, she'd had just enough sleep in the stroller that it took over an hour to settle her down to sleep in the closet little bedroom on the inflatable toddler bed. Finally, exhausted from a day of travel ourselves, Andi and I caved and brought her to bed with us. Thanks to pint-sized feet dive-bombing my head most of the night, I slept like garbage until about 2:30am when I flipped Tory's body the opposite direction (feet toward Andi, of course) and demanded Andi dig out some ear plugs from the suitcase. I slept much better then but naturally, Andi got very little sleep the second half of the night. Thankfully, the remainder of our nights in Savannah would go much more smoothly.

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Next up: Savannah, Day 2 ... beaches, horses and wildlife adventures.