Travelin' Fam

Danny had not been able to take time off of work since our trip to Venezuela last February. Back in June we had tried to take a family vacation to South Carolina but were not able to pull it off. So there was little fanfare on my end prior to our trip last week, perhaps in fear of jinxing it again. The night before we left, I stayed up till 3 am planning every second of every day! And subsequently, we returned exhausted!

We planned our trip around visits to friends, and around the chance to visit some new places. We left Ft. Lauderdale on Monday, September 26th. Our first stop was at a Smoothie King in downtown Jacksonville to see Jessica Ballard and her family. Danny and I have been friends with Jessica since highschool. She is pregnant with her 3rd daughter, and is due a month before me. I hadn't seen her since she left Tallahassee over two years ago. From Jacksonville we drove on to Savannah, checking into our hotel

sometime after 9pm and eating homemade leftovers that we had brought with us. I had never stayed in a hotel room with a whirlpool tub in the main sleeping area. Hubba hubba! Dominic and Noemie made good use of it, eating their dinner in it to keep messiness to a minimum. Toby entertained himself by climbing in and out of the night tables.

The next morning we ate a hot and yummy breakfast, compliments of the hotel, before packing up and making our way towards historic downtown Savannah. We spent a lot of money on trolley tickets to tour a city that lacked any sights that would interest a preschooler. Furthermore, about 90% of the landmarks came up on the right side of the trolley, and we were seated on the left. Which is really such a shame because the little old ladies who were sitting on the right could have been admiring Forsyth Park, as I wished to do, instead of whispering audibly about the negligent parents sitting beside them who were ignorant of the imminent dismemberment of their 4-year old's arm, hanging recklessly outside of the window. About halfway through the tour, the protests from the peanut galleries, young and old, were so unpleasant that Danny and I thought it would be strategic to exit as soon as a restaurant presented itself. We ate at a sushi place and then made our own walking tour so I could take a few pictures to prove we'd been in Savannah at all.

From Savannah we sallied forth towards Walhalla, passing through Columbia where we had the good fortune of stumbling across a Chick-Fil-A with one of their famous cows in attendance, and arriving at our destination just past sundown. We were greeted there by our friend Tjay, in whose parents house we'd be staying for the next three days - which Dominic numbered for us every morning, so as to make sure we didn't leave a day before schedule. Walhalla is located in South Carolina's "Golden Corner," in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. His parent's house sits on Lake Keowee, and on more terrain than Noemie seems to have ever seen at once, commenting the next morning, "Dominic, look at all this grass! Look at all these plants!" Noemie was also curious about Tjay and Candice's accent, asking why it was that they talk "silly." We spent our first day lounging on the back porch in a hammock, chasing Canadian geese, and poking at fish from the lakeside dock. I remembered to call Emily for her birthday, and promised myself, like I do every year, that next year I'll remember to send a card. The next day Tjay took us to Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel and Isaqueena Falls.

Excavation of Stumphouse Tunnel began in the mid 1800s so a railway could run through the mountains but the tunnel was never finished. It was just a cave, some 4,000 feet deep. One-hundred years later, Clemson was using it for cheese storage and today it's just a neat thing to visit in Walhalla. Danny and I explored the tunnel on our last visit to South Carolina in 2005

and walked to its end. This time, however, the tunnel was blocked off about halfway through, to Noemie's relief. Noemie, who is afraid of the dark and most things really, took a while to warm up to the experience...though she never warmed up enough to release Danny from her death grip. Dominic was cautious but wore a giddy smile the whole time. Toby was indifferent. After the adventure, we walked down to see the waterfall. The kids forged trails and I gathered maple leaves. A homeschool lesson is afoot!

Back at the house Tjay also took us around Lake Keowee, and all three kids got to try their hand at steering the boat. Dominic was afraid to stick his feet in the water for fear that fish would nibble his toes. Toby had no problem with the fish. He was eager to jump ship. Overdue for a nap and threatening a tantrum, Toby managed to lose suction on his pacifier, which was windswept out and over the boat as we sped back to the house. Tjay, who was already in a hurry to meet a client at his law-office, graciously turned the boat around as Danny scouted the surface for the tiny bobbing treasure. We only own two, you know.

Our last day in South Carolina was another relaxed one, with nothing to do but dress Candice's old Barbies and lament the fact that the nearest U-Pick farm was more than 45 minutes away. My friend Waverly drove down from Hendersonville, NC to share in our lazying around. We

decided to look for edible things in Tjay's yard instead. Waverly braved some unripe persimmons, which she reported tasted like deodorant. In Tjay's grandparents house next door, there were apple trees that had been left to themselves and all the fruit was rotted and shriveled. When Tjay got home from work we asked him to show us where the muscadine grape vine was and, finally, I got my fresh-fruit fix. I had never eaten muscadines before- the skins were tough and sour and the insides tasted like wine. Danny made shrimp creole for dinner before Tjay left for the local highschool football game (a city-wide event). After the kids went to sleep, Danny and I indulged in a little Dr. Mario tournament before packing.

The next morning, we piled on the sweaters (the temperature had dropped into the 50s overnight!) and made our way to Helen, Georgia- a misplaced Bavarian village, a tourist trap, a good excuse to bust out your dusty lederhosen. Only an hour's drive from Walahalla, Tjay decided to join us. We walked around the main street, donated our shoulders for cockatoo perches, and watched a man dressed in a top hat, a shimmering cape, and googly glasses sit on a bucket and play 3 chords over and over on a banjo while people threw money at his banjo case. Sadly, another musician, dressed in normal clothes, playing discernible melodies nearby, went home with a much emptier guitar case. All for want of googly glasses. We poked our heads into Hansel & Gretel's candy shop and found, instead, a fathomless candy emporium. Danny gave in to a box of chocolate coated, candy-sprinkled pretzels. I had to leave. Our main draw to Helen, however, was the Goofy Rooster Corn Maze. I'd never been to a corn maze before, and I'd rather not do so again in a pregnant state. The kids loved it; it was probably Dominic's favorite part of the trip. We were walking about 15 minutes before we were about a third of the way through. It took another 5 minutes for Tjay to orient himself on the map, which we secretly started using as a guide for future votes on which way to turn, for fear we'd be there till sundown.

At about 2 pm we said our goodbyes to Tjay and got back on the road. At 11 pm we were pulling into Calyn and Kenley's driveway in Tallahassee. We woke up Sunday morning ready to go to church. The rest of our itinerary was planned almost to the minute and the first order of business was to attend Faith Baptist Church to see one of my most favorite pastors ever, Pastor Clark. As Danny unloaded Toby and the last of the baby gear, I tried to position Dominic and Noemie for a photo, as I'd been doing obsessively throughout the trip. I was getting annoyed as Noemie kept bending over and fiddling with her shoes... until she started to cry. Pulling the camera away from my face, I noticed that Noemie and Dominic were up to their knees in fire-ants, Dominic standing squarely in the center of a large ant pile. I ran over beside them and started swatting frantically at their clothes and throwing their shoes, the kids half screaming, half crying out in agony. The church-goers poked their heads out around the sanctuary doors to ogle at the unfamiliar crazies in the parking lot. As if the morning didn't start out rough enough, Danny left his Bible on the roof of our van when we left church after the service. We realized it when we heard a sharp whoosh and saw a blizzard of papers in our rear view mirrors swirling over Capital Circle. Hmmm.

After retrieving the battered book, we made our way over to the Rubottom house where Mrs. Rubottom, one of my mom-mentors, cooked a wonderful lunch for us. She's used to cooking for large groups- she heads a family of 10. Her oldest two have married since Danny and I left Tallahassee, the third is an architect in town, the fourth lives and works in Jacksonville, the fifth attends the Savannah College of Art and Design, the sixth attends FSU and the youngest two are still schooling at home at the highschool level. All of them are exceptionally kind, gracious, and very intelligent individuals, who are (you'd never believe it) entirely socially competent. Amazing. Actually, what really impresses me always, is how much the siblings actually care for and enjoy one another's company, and how much they admire and respect their parents. I am encouraged by simply being in their presence. Dominic and Noemie were especially grateful for their massive tree house and extensive Duplo collection. Dominic built a race track, Noemie made a choir of Lego ladies and gentlemen. By the time we were ready to visit City Church where our friend Dean is a pastor, Noemie's ant-bitten feet had swollen so much that she couldn't walk on them for the pain. We carried her for the rest of the evening, which finished with dinner at a Japanese hibachi restaurant with Sophia, whom I love. "You're adorable!" says the waitress to Dominic. "No. I'm American," he responds.

The next morning we headed out to Tom Brown Park to celebrate Dominic's birthday with his friends from the mom-groups I was involved with when we lived in Tallahassee, the irony of course being that he doesn't actually remember any of them. But then again, the magic of being 4 years old is that anyone is your friend if they're nice to you. Luckily, Noemie's feet were back in working order (thank you, Sophia, for the Benadryl) and it was a particularly beautiful day. Unluckily, we lost $8 worth of helium balloons to the lovely blue sky before half the guests arrived. Before the party was over, the kids got a little crazy on the tire swing. The party was officially over when Noemie upchucked on herself and on her unfortunate companions.

Dominic could also stand to learn some manners.

Danny changed Noemie into a set of Toby's spare clothes that fit by some miracle of synthetic fabric, and we went to see Michael and Shannon, some of our closest high school friends. Dominic and Noemie watched the Lion King while Toby slept and Danny and Michael discussed Starbucks seasonal decor. We ran home for dinner and showers, then kept running to my friend Lindsey's house where she and I talked as quickly as possible for two hours before Danny and I tore ourselves away from them so she and her family could go to bed at a reasonable hour for school and work the next day. That evening we wrestled with whether or not to stay an extra day but decided that we needed to go home as originally planned. Tuesday morning we visited the offices of the Florida Supreme Court where Danny used to work and caught up with Dr. Pepper and his crew. Then we hit up the pumpkin patch on Mahan because a Tallahassee pumpkin patch is worth twice the best South Florida pumpkin patch any day. I took tons of photos and nearly lost my nerve when Dominic had the bright idea to throw one of the pumpkins. From there we went to visit my friend Lisa and her two-week old daughter, Isabel. And thus commenced our trip back home, with its endless rounds of Hakuna Matata reenactments. Oh, and two stop or two in Gainesville. If only the world was a leeeeeetle bit smaller, then our friends wouldn't be so far away!

Dominic's I'm-over-all-these-pictures face, Noemie picking her nose, Toby... perfect family vacation photos are becoming increasingly impossible

The End.
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