Georgia On My Mind
Georgia, Georgia, just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind...
After anticipating this state for so long, we finally got to see it for ourselves. It ended up being short and not too sweet in spots, which is just how things go in this travel life sometimes. The places we visited were gorgeous, but we were sidelined quite a bit, by allergies at the first location and rain at the second. Oh well. That's how it is. I'm still glad we got to see a little bit of this state. Here are a few photos of our stay!
Our first stop was just outside of Atlanta, at Stone Mountain State Park. We wanted to spend another day at Six Flags before heading south and this was the only place in the area that didn't look sketchy, so I booked it. I found out later that this very popular park is known for it's stunning scenery, and has attractions that include an amusement park and snow mountain.
The reviews were accurate! This park was absolutely wonderful, filled with autumn foliage on shadowy trees.
And I was absolutely allergic to those trees!
And so was Jackson, though not as bad.
This poor puffy-eyed boy and I had to walk carefully to balance allergies with fun. We wanted to be outside as much as possible without making ourselves so wheezy and miserable that we were bedridden. It sounds dumb when I type it, but honestly, it's frustrating to sit inside when you're in a place this beautiful! So we would go out for walks along the water in 20-minute increments, then dart back inside. I doubled-up on allergy meds and diffused oils and stayed away from dairy. We limped along with mild success. We would have left early if we hadn't already paid and weren't looking forward to Six Flags, but stayed on because I couldn't handle the thought of wasting our money.
So we stayed mostly inside during that week. We spent Jeff's day off at Six Flags over Georgia and had a great time! The park was a lot busier than last time due to the holidays and it being a Saturday, but we still enjoyed ourselves very much. We're all looking forward to our next Six Flags park!
After we left the ATL area, we traveled southeast, to Savannah. This was our shortest stop to date, with only five days to see the city. The day we arrived, the weather forecast changed and showed that the last three days were supposed to be nonstop rain. I was bummed but thankful that I saw it in time to cram all the fun into the remaining two days.
We spent one morning down at Forsyth Park, then walked through the historic neighborhoods surrounding it. Honestly, this was a big disappointment. I hate to say that because this part of Savannah is lovely in and of itself! It's just that there was a lot of traffic, a lot of people, about half a dozen landscape people walking around with roaring leaf blowers, construction crews working loudly, and one of the hotels adjacent to the park was having its buildings pressure washed. It was the opposite of peaceful and relaxing! Jeff looked at me with a face that said, "You thought this was something I would want to do?" I felt just as let down as he did.
Look! I got a picture of the park that doesn't have any people in it! (#winning)
Forsyth Park is truly quite beautiful. It's too bad that all the other things made it difficult to enjoy.
Walking down the streets of these historic homes was neat. It was exactly as I imagined it would be, with one exception. In any old city, you find a lot of old buildings, and inevitably they are not all beautifully restored. So for every ten gorgeous homes you see, there is one like this:
It's understandable when you think of how old the homes are and how much it costs to completely renovate them. Just something that I don't think people show about visiting those classic, historic cities.
One of the beautiful homes was listed for sale, so Jeff looked up the listing online. Only $1.6 million!
We stayed at Skidaway Island State Park, which was amazing! This place was recommended by Nina @ Wheeling It, and we are thankful for the heads-up!
The sites were some of the biggest we have seen, the park was silent, and you can't ask for a more
"Savannah-y" feeling place than this! I loved my morning walks here!
On our second day there, we decided to visit Tybee Island beach to watch the sun set. I'm so glad we made the trip out! The beach was beautiful, of course, but the best part of the trip was meeting a new friend, Lorri, and her son. Jackson saw her son, Layton, and ran over to introduce himself, so Lorri came over to introduce herself to us! The boys played and swam in the ocean while we enjoyed a few hours of fellowship. Finding the bond of fellowship on the road is a treasure! We encouraged one another in the Lord and talked about the ways we need to conduct our hearts and minds in times of change. (Her family had just moved to Savannah from Tennessee a few days before.) It was rad.
Jordan took the camera and got a few nice shots.
Finally, as the sky was getting dark, we exchanged information and said goodbye for now. Lorri remarked about the timeliness of these meetings that we believers get to have with one another. I think we forget that the Lord is working in the little things, too--even in who we happen to be around in public places. It reminded me again to keep my eyes open and be ready for any opportunity that comes along.
Since that reminder, I've had a few other similar encounters. Just yesterday, as we pulled into our current RV park, I happened to glance up as we drove past a woman and her children. I realized that I knew her from somewhere, and remembered after a moment that it was a woman in the Fulltime Families group who I had been praying for! It was late in the day so I didn't want to bother them, but plan to go over and introduce myself today. It's remarkable, how many opportunities and so-called coincidences there are when you are looking for them!
Love and miss you all!
💜
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