Seeing Savannah

Well, another Nilla Trip is come and gone. And memories were made. Oh yes, memories were made :)!

I flew out on the red-eye on Thursday, the 23rd. My flight left on-time at 11:45 p.m. One of the greatest things about flying on the red-eye is that I sleep for a lot of it. I get antsy when I'm confined in a seat for anything over about 4 hours, whether I'm driving or flying. So it's much better for this impatient Nilla Wafer that I can sleep as much of it away as possible :). And since I always have a full day of work (both jobs), packing (I procrastinate), and other odds and ends on the day I fly out, I am usually pretty beat by the time I board the plane. So I landed in Houston some time around 5 a.m. Houston time. And I only had to walk about 100 feet to get to my next gate, so I had no problem being on time for my next flight! So I sat in the airport reading Dracula until it was time to board again. The 2nd flight found me asleep nearly the entire time. Which made the 2.5 hour flight pass marvelously fast! Note to self: buy a neck pillow before the next Nilla Trip via airplane. Which is, as of now, undetermined. But I'm sure it will happen eventually. I am antsy, after all ;). So I landed in Tampa at about 11:05 in the morning. And Julie was sitting waiting for me when I got off the little tram thing that takes you between the terminal and the gates. Also there to greet me were Alysha and Randi, who is Julie's awesome friend that I met when I was there last October. She is hilarious! So we packed into the van (or truck) and headed to one of our favorite haunts: The Cheesecake Factory! Randi and I split Stuffed Chicken Tortillas (or something like that). Very delicious, but then, everything I've ever had there is :)! And I love the taste of cilantro! And then Randi and I split the chocolate tuxedo cheesecake. Funny happening at this point in the trip (and I include these mostly for my own memory purposes :))... The server asked if we wanted lemon in our water. Julie turned almost immediately and said an emphatic, "NO!" And then the server left and Julie turned and said, "Oh! I didn't mean to order for you guys!" It was funny if you were there. Hard to describe the moment on the blog. I'm sure Julie is chuckling though :).
After the Cheesecake Factory, we drove to Julie's house. On the way there, I mentioned that I had lost between 9 and 11 pounds since I was there last (for the record, I so easily gained 4 of those back on this little trip...). Julie said, "I read that on your blog." I jokingly said to her, "Well, you know, it means more if you notice." And we laughed. And while we laughed -- without missing a beat -- Alysha raised her hand in the back seat and said, "I noticed!" Which only made us laugh harder! That girl is smart as a whip and just as quick! It was hilarious! So we got to Julie's and just relaxed. I was pretty bushed. I didn't plan on napping, but I did. We all needed a nap, and we all took one. But that was okay, because when we got to Julie's, Jon was napping and so was Shayla. So it was a quiet house :). Mostly we just spent Friday evening relaxing. Julie and I went to the Dollar General and got some raisin bran (for me, because I love it) and some graham crackers. Because I was going to make the chocolate toffee bars (aka crack candy). So other than just sitting around and visiting, we didn't do much else. It was nice to relax that first night. We all turned in by 11, and I dropped right off to sleep. I was so tired!

Saturday dawned and I woke up around 9. Julie and I got dressed and ready and decided to hit up the Book Sale at her little library near her house. We did not find much of anything interesting. But Julie did get a visit from a roach while there. Hahaha. Gross! That was probably my first roach spotting in 2 years. I haven't missed them, just so you know. Ewwww! We bought a few snackies at the book sale (because the little old ladies who run the library also did baking and sold those). Then Julie and I ran by a few garage sales, but really there wasn't much to gain. Other than hearing some crazy girls talk about how they have always wanted to go to Alabama. Which is funny. You don't often hear someone talk about how awesome it would be to visit Alabama. People usually talk of New York or California. But Alabama? Hahaha! And from Florida?!? Too funny! We went back to Julie's, and once again napped. Which I always try to avoid, because I end up having a hard time falling asleep at night. But nonetheless, I fell asleep during the afternoon. So when I woke up -- and the rest of us woke up -- we all got ready to go. We went to pick up Randi and went to this restaurant called Latinos y Mas. It's a Spanish restaurant in Ocala, and we ordered the arroz con pollo. It's different from the way my mom makes it, but it was really good. And one of the servers there was totally ogling Alysha. Poor Lysha! Not that we didn't all laugh about it. Hahaha. We started a game... We counted the number of times that guy came over to the table. But we think he sent his friend to go check Lysha out too. Oh to be young and beautiful and ogled by cute guys! Hahah. Meanwhile the other 3 of us are in our 30s (or close enough to it...). But it was a good laugh at the restaurant.

Then we were off to the movie theatre where we were going to see the owl movie called... I don't remember. The Legend of the Guardians. It was a 3-D movie. The first I've ever seen. So that was cool enough, but the movie -- not so much. Not my thing. And I wasn't so impressed. But we still had fun! Most especially when we were paying for our tickets! At one point, Alysha looked at the 3 of us and said, "You guys are embarassing. Seriously." Poor Lysha! But Julie has this card for the cinemas that you can get points when you buy tickets, etc. So they swipe it. But Julie's is broken in half and was just barely taped together. She told us she would pass us the card when we paid for ours. And Randi said, "Yeah and the person at the register isn't going to notice that it's the same broken card!" We laughed so hard!!! So anyway, we get up there to pay. Turns out I had free tickets for the very theatre we were going to! So I just had to pay the difference between the regular price (which was free) and the 3D price. So I saw this movie for $3.50. And I was happy for that, considering I didn't like it. So then Julie pays and asks about military discounts. She gets up there and says, "I'm military and she's 14 (pointing to Lysha)." Which Alysha hated. And then Julie hands over the swipey card to get points and the guy is struggling to swipe it because it's broken! And Julie says, "Yeah, do you have tape back there to tape that?" And he says no. And we are laughing! And this is when Alysha declares we are embarassing. But we get our tickets and we get inside. And then we decide to chronicle this adventure by taking a picture with all of us looking super-cool in our 3D glasses :).

Like I said... The movie was not that great. But we laughed and had fun. And that's what matters most. Randi is a trip! After the movie, we swung into Starbucks and I got my favorite Vanilla Bean Frappuccino. Alysha and Julie split a white chocolate mocha, and Julie explained that she used her tongue to find the hole to drink out of. Alysha was less-than-impressed and dubbed Julie "licker." That Alysha has a quick wit. She's a blast. Then we dropped off Randi and headed to Julie's. Where I took this picture of me in the glasses. Super nerdy? Maybe so.

Sunday morning I woke up around 9:15. Julie and I got ready to head out to Savannah and were on the road by 10:15!!! We stopped by Dunkin' Donuts (which they don't have near me in Washington) and I got 50 munchkins (or midgets, depending on what you want to call them ;)). See here's the thing... 25 of them cost $5.99. For an extra dollar, you get twice as many. Which is more bang for the buck! Do I need 50? No. Did I buy them anyway? Yes. Did I eat most of them? Yes. Hence the 4 pounds. But as Sue told me today, "At least it was a fun four pounds!" Wise words. So we gabbed and laughed the whole way to Savannah. Which was about 4.5 hours of driving. But it didn't really feel that long. We found our hotel without incident and got checked in, though we did have to circle the block a couple times just to find parking so we could register. You have to pay to park everywhere in Historic Savannah. Which is annoying. But I guess you just accept it when you want to go somewhere like that. Even the hotel charged for overnight parking. Which I think is truly absurd, because we were paying for the hotel! So anyway, here is our hotel room. We were on the 2nd floor. Which will be an important detail in a little bit.

So Julie and I dropped off our stuff and decided to make the most of our afternoon remaining. Here we are... ready to head out for some walking. Aren't we lovely? The best of friends.

The first thing we did was ask the concierge about a good place to eat that was close by. She suggested a place called City Cafe (in City Market). So we headed there. And outside of that restaurant was this Marilyn Monroe statue. And you know I love to take pictures with random statues. So I did :). I think my pose was less intriguing ;). Haha. We went into the Cafe, and we were unimpressed with their menu. So we left saying we'd come back when the dinner menu was being served. And we started walking. They had these horses and carriages all over. And the horses were stanky! Phew! We found one of the candy shops. And they give out free samples of pecan pralines. Oh my! What deliciousness! As it would turn out, Julie and I would make mulitiple return trips to the candy store. And spend the bulk of our money there. And get mulitiple samples. Just FYI. So if you go to Savannah, definitely go to the Savannah Candy Kitchen.

While we were walking around the candy shop, we also found a different restaurant and decided to skip the other place and just eat at this Tapas by Anna place. We both ordered the Blackened Chicken Tortellini. It was delicious! We just wished we had known it would be so big and we'd have just split it! As it was, we took our leftovers with us. But we didn't have a fridge or microwave in our room (bummer) and so we ended up throwing it away.

After filling our tummies, we took our second trip into Savannah Candy Kitchen and bought a ton of stuff. They had old classic candies like chocolate cigarettes! I bought some. Because it's such a memory! We walked down to the Paula Deen restaurant to make sure we could find it easily for the next day. We went and got Gellato, which didn't impress me much, but impressed Julie a lot less. Her facial expression was hilarious! And she just had samples. So with our tummies full and our interest in our little area where we were staying satiated, we decided we'd go back to the hotel room to relax. And we did just that! See :)!

There were like 7 pillows on the beds. I don't ever sleep with that many pillows. But it was kind of fun to lay lavishly amongst them while relaxing and watching tv. In the air conditioning. Because you know it was somewhat humid. The temperature was nice outside. But no matter what the temp is, the humidity is still going to get you! So after a shower, I relaxed by watching tv and reading during commercial breaks. And I also talked to my dad for a bit. After that, both Julie and I decided that we were thirsty. Remember, we don't have a fridge or microwave in our room, so we didn't have nice cold water available to us in the room. But! There were vending machines right down the hall. And on every floor of the hotel, as we were previously informed. So we decided to go and get some drinks. So I grabbed 2 dollar bills, and Julie grabbed 2 quarters. And we trudged down the hall in our jammies. And yes, I was bra-less once again. And I was wearing capri pj pants. Lime green. Stripey. No make-up and hair up. Cute. Very cute. At this point, I decided not to even bother with shoes, because I didn't feel like putting on the tennis shoes (the flip flops were back at Julie's). So there we go looking all cute walking down the hallway to the vending machines. To my utter dismay, the only option were Coke products. I'm not a Coke fan in almost every category. Especially in bottled water. Dasani water tastes like saltwater. And if you don't believe me, take a look at the ingredients. Salt is actually an ingredient. So I decided not to get anything from that vending machine, but we put in a dollar and two quarters for Julie's Sprite, and we happily walked back to the room. But I really, really wanted water. And so I figured I'd go down to the first floor and see if they had a Pepsi machine (with Aquafina) down there. I did put on my shoes at this point. And I got an extra quarter so that I was armed with 1.75. 1. And I went down to the first floor. Where I did not find a Pepsi machine (and for the record, on the way back up, I realized how dumb I was for thinking there would be -- I'm pretty sure Coke has that contract for the whole hotel). 2. So I go back up the stairs (we didn't want to take the elevator, and it was only one small flight of stairs anyway), and on the way up I decide I really do want that water, and I'll even suffer with Dasani. So I go over to the 2nd floor vending machine again. And I put in my money, and I press Dasani. And it says "Sold Out." So I press the change return. And I get my 6 quarters back (plus I still have one in my hand). And I figure I'll just go back downstairs to that vending machine and get my water. 3. So I walk back downstairs and go to the vending machine. And I put in my first quarter, and it falls straight through! And I notice that the streaming message is that everything is sold out! Arg! So I remember that every floor has vending machines! 4. So I go up to the 3rd floor to use their vending machine. So I get there and I feed in my money. And it steals one of my quarters. But thankfully the other 6 go in without incident! And so I pressed the Dasani button, and it said "Vend"!!! And I heard the machine do something... But... It never dropped my drink! AAAHHHH! So I tried to shake the machine, but those are heavy machines. I didn't do much. And my drink didn't fall out. And I'm way too cheap to forget about $1.50 (actually, $1.75 if you count the stolen quarter, but I was willing to let that go...). 5. So I went back down the first floor and up to the main desk. Where a security guard was there yakking with the front desk staff. They asked how they could help me, and I said, "Is there a way to get something out of the vending machine?" They looked at me quizzically at me and said, "What do you mean?" So I explained that the machine took my money but didn't give me a Dasani. So they gave me a $1.50 and sent the security guard up to the 3rd floor with me. 6. We took the elevator. Only one of the elevators was even working at this point. Which made me abundantly glad that we hadn't been using the elevators! So we get to the third floor. And we go over to the vending machine. And the security guard watches me put the money in. It took the dollar bill. It stole my 2 quarters! So the security guard tried pushing the change return. And it gave me 4 quarters (from the dollar). He tried to press it again, and it got stuck! 7. So we went back down to the first floor on the elevator. During which time he told me I could try the 4th floor. But I told him, "I don't even have enough money to try the 4th floor, because it costs $1.50 and I only have $1.00!" So we went back to the front desk (walking by a group of people, I might add, and I looked just wonderful, remember) and he told the ladies that it stole the 2 quarters. So they gave me 2 more quarters, and I said, "Okay, I'm giving up now!" And I recapped for them that the 1st floor drink machine was completely sold out. 2nd floor was out of Dasani. 3rd floor is stealing money. And I went on my bra-less, sock-less way on back to my room. But before I even made it to the stairwell, I got stopped by a little old lady coming out of the 1st floor hallway. "Where is the ice machine?" she asks me. I point it out to her over by the vending machine (which I have come to know quite well...). Then she says, "Do you mind getting the ice for me? I took a spill up North, and I thought it wasn't a big deal, but my tail is really hurting!" Well, what am I supposed to tell the little old lady? No? Hahaha. So I did it. Which, when I got back to the room and told Julie about The Great Dasani Adventure of 2010, that was the part Julie laughed the hardest about! So anyway, after getting that lady some ice, 8. I went back up the stairs to the room. I went in and asked Julie if she thought I'd gotten mugged or killed. She said she didn't notice I'd been gone that long (she was engrossed in texting). I showed her my hands -- with 6 quarters and a room key. And Julie says, "Why did you come back empty-handed?!?" And so I told her. And she laughed hysterically. And I was still thirsty. And I really wanted water. But I wanted something cold even more. And somehow, Julie remembered a $1 bill she had in her Bible carrier. Because I didn't want to chance feeding 6 quarters in the machine, since it might steal them! So I walked down and got a Sprite. And you know what? It worked on the first try! If only I'd have just wanted a Sprite in the first place! And so I went back to the room and we just relaxed some more... while I drank my Sprite and Julie drank hers. And then I decided I needed to record all the memories we'd made so far (well, jot down notes) so I wouldn't forget them. But I didn't bring a pen with me. So Julie reached into her Bible carrier bag again to give me a pen. And low and behold! Another dollar peeked out! Which I don't think she knew was in there! And we laughed! And I said, "I want that bag for Christmas! It keeps giving you money!" So we turned in at about 11. But I didn't have a lot of success at falling asleep quickly. Which is lame.

The next morning, the alarm started going off at 8:15. We got up and got dressed for the day. We ate our Deluxe Continental Breakfast. I had a biscuit without gravy. Because I do not like breakfast gravy. White sauce gravies are weird to me. Like red-eye gravy. Just not my thing. Julie made fun of me for eating a plain biscuit. Without even jelly. I also had raisin bran. Because I am loving that stuff these days! While we were there, we joined in on conversations with other people. And learned, for the 3rd time, that Paula Deen's restaurant tastes like they just opened a can. And so, we decided to not go there after all. Because look. It is $14.00 for the buffet. And I knew I wasn't going to eat $14 of food anyway. But I figured if it was really really good, it'd be totally worth it, plus to have the experience. Well, if it's not good at all -- and if it just tastes like canned food. Well, I'm not paying $14 for that! So after eating, we got on our way. We decided to start out by walking down River Street. Now, the day was muggy. And you can see by the pictgure that it was pretty cloudy. The temperature was nice. The humidity was not. So I sweated. But this is down by the Savannah River.

And River Street was quite cool! The backs of the buildings just looked neat! And the cobblestone road was quite quaint (how's that for alliteration :)?). And so here I am on River Street. And that candy store is another different candy store that we went into and we got a sample of pecan praline. And then we went further down River Street and found another location of the Savannah Candy Kitchen and got another sample of the precan pralines. Only this time, the dude gave us each like half a praline! We liked that!

And here we are at the Waving Girl Statue. Which is something famous in Savannah. Apparently she would always go out and wave at the ships, and the collie would always be by her side. Julie and I just wanted to be sure to get a picture together at something that was "so Savannah." You know, for memory purposes :). It started to sprinkle on us at this point. Big drops. But not a lot. Just a sprinkle.

So we walked all the way down River Street and then all the way back. And we took a picture at Factors Walk with all the cobblestone and stuff around me. Just thought it looked cool.

And this is climbing the steps back up to the main area. I love the trees!

There are a lot of parks in Savannah. A lot of people come up to you in those parks and try to sell you stuff. Which is annoying. But anyway... Otherwise the parks are quite lovely! So we took pictures in this park with all the trees behind us and the fountain.

And then the rain really started to fall. Like a real Southern rain. And yeah, it only lasted all of about 15 minutes. But within 2 minutes, Julie and I looked like this:

And we are actually standing outside of the Paula Deen's restaurant, since that was the closest thing, and we wanted to go to the Paula Deen store anyway, so I could pick up some stuff for someone at work. The rain was fun! Well, I thought so at least :). So we went, soaking wet, into the Paula Deen store and I picked up stuff for a gal I work with and we dried out -- a little. But not much. Plus we also waited for the storm to stop. Neither of us was terribly hungry at this point, and since we were close to the hotel, we decided to go there for a while. And so I took a picture of me still wet in the big lobby mirror. Oh, and with the storm coming and going, the weather changed completely! The humidity disappeared and so it was so nice and comfortable!

And here I am chilling and wet in the hotel room. Woohoo!

We ended up eating Jimmy John's sandwiches for lunch. They have one in Tuscaloosa, and I really like their sandwich that has avocado and bean sprouts. And Julie has always wanted to try Jimmy John's. And it was closer than the other place that was recommended. And cheaper. And so that's what we did. And it was perfectly filling. Then we went back to the candy shop that was near our hotel and got some more stuff. Including another free sample. Plus we also got our little souvenirs. I have decided that I am going to start getting a Christmas Ornament on each trip I take. I had decided that when I was on my trip with my mom. So now I have one from Savannah (a little teacup that says Savannah and has a magnolia on it) and one that has the Astoria Column on it. And I also bought one before I left UA that has Santa with a vest that has the Alabama A on it. It's a fun way to get something to remind you, but that doesn't have to be taking up space all year long and require dusting. We saw the cups were on sale for like $3.98. But when we got up to the register, Julie's rang up at a total of $2.12 (she went first). She looked back at me and smiled. And then mine rang up the same way. We were stoked! But she did admit that she was going to laugh her butt off if mine rang up for more. But it didn't. So then we went back to the hotel and took naps. And then I got a shower and then we went and ate at a little pizza place next doore to the candy shop. It was good pizza. Cheap. And what a whacky atmosphere! I think the people who worked there were all transplants from Washington State! And the music they were listening to? To quote Julie (because it was so hilarious and so spot-on), "It sounded like a muppet singing!" So we went back to the candy shop for one last free sample. Because, why not? (I think we ended up with about 1.5 pralines each for free through our sampling endeavors... hahaha.). And then it was back to the hotel and relaxation galore! We watched Liar, Liar. We read. We chatted about books and life and all sorts of stuff. And we laughed. Oh yes, we laughed. And then we went to bed around 11:30. And again, I had a hard time falling asleep. Which is really no wonder, since I took that nap earlier in the day.

We woke up at 8:15 again on Tuesday. We just had to pack up and get ready to go. We loaded up the van and then we went and ate our breakfast. Just raisin bran for me that day! And orange juice. Man oh man, I love orange juice! We headed out and found the Visitors' Center, because we had heard that the Forrest Gump bench was inside. And you know me... I love to take pictures with cool movie stuff! Yeah, well... They have it tucked into the Savannah History Museum. Which costs $5. No thank you. I just wanted to sit on the bench and take a picture! So we decided not to. But we did get to declare our state at the visitors' center. These days I'm declaring Washington. Maybe one day I'll be declaring something else... But for now. For now, it's Washington.

So we got on our merry little way and left Savannah. I talked to my mom for a bit on the way and learned that Washington had had a day of 94% humidity. That's practically blasphemy, if you don't know a lot about Washington's weather. Such things just don't happen. I guess it made the news. Let's just say I'm glad I missed it! And once we hit Gainesville, we stopped at Chik-Fil-A. Because they don't have these in my part of Washington. And it's deliciousness.

Aside from an awkward girl who hung out by our table -- like right over my shoulder -- who worked there and decided to ask a lot of questions about Julie's pregnancy and then share a lot of information about a co-worker of hers and her pregnancy... It was a great lunch! And then it was back on the road! We got back to Julie's around 2:30 or 3, and we relaxed. We talked to Alysha and watched tv. Then dinner got started (actually, Alysha cooked it all), I got a shower, Julie took a nap. We ate dinner and then hung out for the night. We played a couple of rounds of Catch Phrase while eating the fabulous Mint Chocolate Cooke frozen yogurt (or whatever it's called... I always call it the wrong name...), but once Shayla went down for bed, we changed to playing Mexican Train. That game is so awesome! Everytime I play it at Julie's, I remember why I love it so much! We almost finished a whole game, too! But it got to be midnight, and I was flying out the next day. And the teenager was exhausted. Go figure!

So I struggled with sleep once again, even though I didn't nap. But I eventually drifted off to bed. And then the next morning, we were up around 8 to start getting ready. I had done really well. I packed light. I had plenty of room. I had all my stuff ready to go! We got in the van and got on the road! And about 10 minutes (maybe 15) down the road... Well, I realized I'd left my cell phone! So we turned around! Aaaaahhhh! How dumb of me! Funny how we are so attached to our cell phones these days. But seriously, how else would I be calling my mom to pick me up from the airporter? So anyway, we finally got on the road for real at about 9:25. And my flight was to take off at 12:08. And we had 1.5 hours to drive to the Tampa airport! I just figured, if I was late and missed my flight -- well it would be my own fault for being careless. The good news is I didn't miss my flight. But that's later. In the meantime, Alysha and I rode in the back of the van and took pictures. See :).

We got to the airport and parked. And we went in. Now I've never flown out of Tampa before (only flew in one other time last October when I flew out of Birmingham). So I didn't know that I had to go down a floor to get my boarding pass. But we finally figured that out! And so I got checked in and then Julie and I took this picture where I kind of look like a howler monkey! Hahah. But we have a similar one from when Julie was 8 months pregnant with Shayla. So we knew this is probably the only time I'd see her pregnant with this baby (and probably ever again, right Juliebean ;)?), so we took this opportunity to take the "shocked" picture :). Like, "Oh my gosh! How does this keep happening?!?" Hahaha.

And then we took a serious one. And it turned out so pretty! We are such pretty ladies :). Hard to believe we've known eachother and been the best of friends for 11 years! Almost 12. The time sure does fly!

We wanted to get a group shot, so I used a table to put it on timer and catch this shot. Shayla was more interested in going down the escalator and didn't want to have anything to do with the picture. But she still looked at the camera at the right moment :).

And then a pilot who was sitting nearby noticed and offered to take a picture for us. And since I think both pictures turned out so nicely, I included them both.

As it happened, they checked my backpack because I think the biscuit mix I'd bought at the Paula Deen store was suspicious. But they let me pass without incident. I stopped for a potty break once I got through security and then headed to my gate. Literally as I was walking up to the gate, they announced the boarding of my row. It was perfect timing! The first flight was so packed that they ran out of room in the overhead bins. That's a first for me. I mostly got reading done on the flight, which was good. My layover in Houston was brief and I boarded the second flight. They fed us on that flight. Chicken Enchilada wraps. It was good. The flight was long -- and I didn't sleep nearly enough. And I sat next to a little Asian couple, and the husband had some love with clipping every single one of his fingernails. It was kind of annoying. I had planned to watch the in-flight movie. Apparently they have changed the headphone situation. I used to be able to listen in with my regular headphones. Apparently I now need the two-prong adapter thing. So that was kind of a bummer, because it was a chick flick and I'd have enjoyed watching it. Plus it would have killed some of the 4 hour flight (remember, I'm antsy). But instead, I got a lot of reading done. And that was good too :). We landed in Seattle around 5:00 local time, I caught the 5:20 Airporter, and I was meeting my mom at about 6:40. Perfection! And thus ended my trip to the South for 2010. Memories were made. Hopefully I've remembered all the high-lights. And if I left something out, hopefully Julie will remind me of it in the comments :)! Just don't sneeze! :).

Oh, and i did finish Dracula before going to bed. And I loved it. Took a bit to get used to the language. A lot of description and paragraph and not as much dialogue. But I loved it!