Welcome Home Sergeant Neilsen!

Austin and I were lucky to go to my friend from high school's return from Iraq ceremony tonight. He has been gone since last year April and this was his second tour of duty in Iraq. He had some pretty amazing stories to share. It is cool to have another Oregonian, especially one from high school living in Savannah. Although technically he has lived here a few years he has been over seas for most of the time.

Some Pics...

Here are some pictures from a trip to Jekyl Island a while ago (another one of Georgia's barrier islands ~ an hour South of here). We went to the water park, sea turtle center and then stayed on the beach trying to catch fish with our hands until ~9:30 at night that is why it is kind of dark in the pictures.

Weekend Events

We started the weekend doing household chores Friday evening so we could enjoy the day on Saturday. We went to Tybee Island (aka Savannah's Beach) and enjoyed the big waves brought in by the storm the night before.
















We haven't been to Tybee much, but it is definitely the best beach in the area. We usually go to Hilton Head because it is closer to shopping for the weekend chores. The large pier area has an ice cream stand, grill, and bar (no open container law in Savannah or Tybee beach so there are a lot of walk up bars).

Austin gettin' his chill on.

































There are not normally waves this big, Austin enjoyed the body surfing.















We stopped on the way home and had dinner down town on a roof top restaurant. While walking we noticed this amazing Yacht across the river.
















Sunday we did some yard work which included removing all black widows and other spiders from the garage. I tried to use the new weed whacker we bought 2 weeks ago and the box was still there under it in case we wanted to return. As I tried to pick it up I noticed a black widow with a web across the box. It was a rare opportunity to get a picture of the red hour glass, so I did and then we went to Lowe's and bought some Home Defense spider killer and gave it a shot. The corner on the far side of the garage has been home to many black widows recently so we decided to do a full clean out of the spiders and spray every opening into the garage.

We spent the late afternoon playing a round of golf with Brent. We were some of the only people who think it is wise to play golf in Georgia starting at 4:00 in July. It was hot, but nice to not be rushed with people behind us.

The golf course turned out to be a nice wild life viewing exhibit.

As well as provided a close up view of the belly of F-15's and commuter planes. It was our own personal fly bye, some might be annoyed by the noise, but we liked the show. The course is located between the highway and the SAV airport landing strip (for those who have flown here this is the course you see as you land).

Could I get relief from that shot?

Judges ruled they would give me relief. The gator went under water as you can see in this pic he is missing. I still didn't trust him so I used the rake from the sand trap near by to reach down and grab the ball.

What's Going On?

See anything odd in these pictures of Austin and me?
































Now what if I tell you that the sun hasn't set yet? Yeah, it is a VERY dark thunder cloud.




Look to the left....

















Look to the right.....
















Look straight ahead....

Notice on the look to the left and right pictures you can see the beginning of the storm coming in with normal sky on the other side. So far we are in the middle of the worst storm we have seen yet. Crazy lightening show and Bo is going mad in his kennel with the thunder. We have the lanterns (electric of course) out on the counter just in case.

We also learned tonight that Daisy is afraid of bright lightening flashes.

Daisy's First Trip

We took the puppies to Magnolia Springs State Park today to go hiking. Sadly, this is the first time in the 6 months that Daisy has been part of the family that we have taken a trip with the dogs. While we are learning the area and getting use to her we haven't taken the pups anywhere. She is starting to have trouble with new people coming over so we made it a priority to get out with them this weekend.

Daisy in the Car
First off, her trying to ride in the car was humorous. She was shaking and trying to stand for the first 20 minutes of the 60 minute car ride.














"I'm scared!!! Where are you taking me? I don't like the vet!"

















"Bo how do we stay back here with out falling?"
















"Oh, we sit and look out the window, thanks for teaching me big brother."
















"This isn't my favorite, but I'm doing ok."


Yeah I know, the commentary is lame, but it worked here.

The Drive
Today was a big day for another reason as well. We have now been to Guyton. Yes this is the town on our address, but before today we had not actually been to Guyton. We just drove through it on our way to the park so Austin says it doesn't count. It is a very cute small town, I mean 1 block long small town. We live ~1 mile from Rincon down town area and ~15 from Guyton but we live outside the city limits of both and are listed as Guyton, don't know why.

Downtown Guyton...

Downtown Guyton from the other view...

One of the many old Churches in Guyton. These are all still in use.

We were driving when I took these pictures and they are not the best. If you open this one you can see the style of houses that line the main street of Guyton.

I took this during the 4th of July parade in Rincon. I liked the 4th decorations.

The scenery on the highway headed NW (which we haven't explored yet) was very much like driving through the countryside in Oregon. There were a lot of farms with rolling green hills lined with trees in the back ground. Again not the best pictures. Rolling was the key, Coastal Georgia is FLAT, so even going up a 40 foot hill in the car is a trip now. It was nice to see some hills and landscape.

Austin thought this house was comical because the front porch was crooked. Like the crooked house in Enchanted Forrest.

Onto the Park...

Magnolia Springs is a fresh water spring with hiking trails a lake, camping and an aquarium. We decided to make the hour drive up there after reading about the Beaver Trail in our Best Hikes with Dogs - Georgia book (thanks Holms). How could it be bad with a fresh water spring and a trail with a name like that? We hiked for ~2 hours, no alligators as expected though. The spring was really cool, it is bright blue water coming out of the ground. It was overcast for the first part of the day today which kept us cool for most of the hiking until the sun came out.

Austin had to go first because I was scared of going through a poisonous spider web. It turned out there were no scary spiders on this trail. I went on a nature hike with our friend's a couple weekends back and spent the entire time with one of their girls glued to my arm and Chris ahead knocking down spider webs. It was a little too much of a nature trail for us. Today's trail and area was very similar to hiking in eastern Oregon, just less height changes, some elevation change, but less. It smelled exactly the same as the Ponderosa Pines do, very refreshing.

Our puppies are so well behaved, they pose for pictures.

Austin had just said, "I'm going to take Daisy down and let her swim in the lake." I mentioned she was perfect alligator dinner size, he forgets about alligators sometimes despite the bright red signs.

We didn't get a good picture of the spring, if you open this one you can see the blue color of the mouth of the spring behind me.

Austin learning about the fish in the spring. He is such a smarty.

The puppies were great walkers today. They are not use to so much activity and as a result are wiped out tonight.