So far, So good

I wanted to write sooner but I was trying to wait until Todd got something he said he needed to upload the pictures off the camera so I could add them in too. He is supposed to do that this afternoon, but I can give you a brief overview of things up to this point.

All our travels to Savannah went very smoothly. We had a good laugh at the airport because while we were going through screening they took Josh's backpack after it went through the machine thing and they told him they were going to have to run it through again. They opened it and took two things out to put them in a different bin to run through separately from the backpack. We got a kick out of the fact that the two things laying in the bin were his Bible and his poker chips.

We got our car at the Savannah airport, checked in at our hotel, and got out to start exploring the city. We ate dinner and then had a carriage ride around the historic district. I'll post some photos later. My general feeling about Savannah was that it is not as charming as Charleston and not as walkable either. My favorite part of the city was the way it was laid out with squares that look like courtyards every two blocks or so. The city was built with 24 squares and I think there are 22 still remaining. It operates like a traffic circle and all the (very old) houses/buildings around the square face inward creating a very cozy community and neighborly feeling. The squares are lush and shaded with huge oak trees dripping with Spanish moss which creates a visual panorama that is quite a novelty to see. These squares were my favorite parts of the city.

On Saturday afternoon we headed out of Savannah and drove east to Tybee Island. We climbed up 178 stairs to the top of Tybee Lighthouse (Luke ran all the way up so now I owe him a dollar) and we toured the lighthouse keepers house. At one point Tybee Lighthouse was the tallest structure in America. At the top of the lighthouse Anna Kate saw the beach and there was no turning back after that. Once we got back down we pulled bathing suits out of our suitcases and walked across the boardwalk to the ocean. As I was sitting in a beach chair watching the kids play in the waves and the sand, I was thinking how funny it was that we were here...when we woke up that morning I never would have guessed that that afternoon we would be sitting on a beach and playing in the ocean. And that is exactly how I hoped this vacation would be -- filled with spontaneity and surprises. I was very proud of myself because rather than worry about how we were going to cleaned up (in the public restroom -- yuck!) and if the car was going to get sandy (it did), I truly just enjoyed the magic of the moment and relished the fact that the kids had such a great time. We left straight from the beach at about 6:30pm, went to Quizno's to get the kids food to eat in the car, and hit the road headed for Charleston.

The drive to Charleston was a little less than 2 hours. We are staying in a condo that Scott and Kali have been living in for the past two weeks. They sold their house and had to be out on the 15th so they rented this condo right in the middle of the historic district to spend their last bit of time here. I had a hotel room reserved but we were all going to be in one room and here we have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, etc. It has a loft-type feel and is very big, and it works out to be cheaper per night than the hotel room. After we got settled in last night the kids just wanted to shower and watch a movie (since they had eaten Quizno's) but Todd and I had not eaten yet so we took the opportunity to go out on a date. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants here that serves Thai food which worked out perfectly since the kids would not have ever wanted to go there. Today we went for a late brunch then took the kids to see the 400-year-old Angel Oak Tree. I'll post pictures later. We drove by Scott and Kali's old house, we shopped up and down King street and we are now cooling off at the condo.

Here are few interesting things I'm learning about traveling with teenagers: 1) They are hungry. All. The. Time. Todd and I are only hungry about every third meal they eat. Food is by far going to be the most expensive part of this trip. 2) They are lazy. How did we get from begging our kids to let us sleep a little longer, to begging them to get up and get their shower so we can go do something. And walking in the heat is torturous for them. A little wimpy if you ask me. 3) The things they want to do are things they could do at home. Right now we are getting ready to go to a cute park we saw so we can play tennis (Luke brought all the gear), and Josh and Todd went to buy a football, basketball and frisbee. Part of me starts to be annoyed by the fact that they want to do that when we could do all those things in Tulsa, but then I remember what I really wanted from this trip more than anything else -- laughter, sillyness and family bonding time. Besides, even though we COULD do all those things in Tulsa, the real question is WOULD we be doing those things in Tulsa? And when you're on a 17-day trip, you can't really be touring every minute anyway. So, we're off to the park. Look for pictures soon.