Parents Visit

Austin's parents and brother have been visiting the past week from Oregon. We spent time eating in the local areas, touring around Savannah, made a trip up to Charleston and they even made time to visit the paper mill. Sunday we toured around Hilton Head on bikes which was a new experience for Austin and I as well. I am taking off tomorrow for a week and a half trip for work so I have to make this quick but I wanted to get some pics up from there visit and our activities this past week. Also it became COLD the day they arrived. It dropped into the 60's at night and had highs only in the 70's on some of the days. They were glad to not have the Georgia heat, but we wish it would have been warmer for them. It was a nice mix between activity and restful events.

Why we live in Georgia

People often ask us why we moved across the country from Oregon to Georgia. This weekend was a good example. We went up the Savannah River in front of all the industry (fun for me and a few other mill rats on the boat), down River street and then out past Tybee Island into the Atlantic. We went to a small island just across the intercoastal waterway from Hilton Head. The island is only accessible by boat and has ~50 permanent residents. It was beautiful.

Mr. Brent (also relocated from the West) and Austin, they are two of a kind.

Austin showing off his size next to one of the huge container ships, Savannah is the the 3rd largest port in the country and the largest on the East coast.

This also was our 6 year anniversary, Happy Anniversary.

The shrimp boats pull up their nets where the river spreads in the ocean near Tybee, the dolphins swim behind the boats and eat the small catch that goes through the nets as they pull them up.

Austin and me tag team working.

They are incredible creatures, very beautiful.

The work gang cruisin' down the river. Steve has a sound system on his boat and was playing Jimmy Buffett for us off his IPOD the entire day. Perfect.

Here is the dock at the island we went to.

This is the local restaurant where we had delicious seasoned and grilled quasadillas for lunch. Also I learned that they hang zip lock bags of water around the kitchen to keep the flies away. Weird I know but there was not a fly to be seen inside the place.

We also stopped in at the First African Baptist Church, this is an OLD building, now they use it as an island museum. There is a newly built Church just down the "road."

An old winery that is now a place where one of the residents sells jewerly.

We didn't take many pictures of the beach because we were all in the water. If you open this picture you can see Hilton Head in the back ground with development on it. It was literally like having your own private beach on an island. Amazing, the water was so warm and there were sand dollars everywhere and shrimp will jump into your hand. This was the first time we had seen shrimp in the wild.

They use golf carts on the island to get around the dirt roads.

"Captain" Steve and his wife Carrie go out to the island frequently and know the locals, they took us on their boat. Steve worked on PM20 before I started out here. He left to work for a different company in the area hence me getting the job. They are a lot of fun and know the area well, being with Steve is like having your own personal tour guide.

We spent the afternoon at the local park, it had a very nice new play ground, a big fire pit burning, a bathroom =), and a bar with sattelite TV playing the Georgia football game hence Carrie and me staying put. From this side of the island you can see River street buildings, the bridge to SC and the cranes for the Port.

There were a lot of locals hanging out here in the afternoon and Austin enjoyed listening to stories around the fire.

Go Broncos!

Yesterday was a great day... season opener for the Broncos. This is my new (retro) Broncos shirt, I had been outside pressure washing the vinyl so I am a bit wet. I forget Mick, who did they beat to be 1-0???

Running Errands

We ran errands in Hilton Head yesterday (mostly shopping). We had the camera so we took some pictures.

Here are the lifeguards still getting everything back out, they had a bob cat to clear paths through the new looking beach, the storm brought the tide up higher than normal.
















Me drinking a Raspberry Italian Soda...they are hard to come by so we stopped at a coffee shop on the beach that has them.
















For lunch we ate at The Boat House (mom and dad this is the place the waitress at the place we ate at the beach recommended).

Don't get too excited Andy...it is unsweet tea. I'm at about 50/50 on which I order. Austin orders tea half sweet/half unsweet, it is not good.

Austin hanging out on the dock.

Austin being stalked by an alligator while hanging out on the dock (open the picture).

This sneaky guy was coming up behind Austin as soon as we would turn and look at him he would slow down and turn a little. Sneaky gator.

Green Diapers?

Check out "The Payne Family" link for those of you who have little ones and might be looking for something better than a cloth diaper....but not quite ready to wash "waste" into the sink and washing machine.

Good Bye Hanna

Hannah was not very eventful for us. We stayed in for the night and watched The Mummy (Austin was inspired after going on the ride at Universal Studios Orlando last weekend). Just as the Mummy attacks the first person the power went out. It came back on shortly after and we finished the movie. The power was also off for sometime while we were sleeping last night, but it is back on this morning. The sky is partly cloudy, winds are down to 17 MPH and it is only 74 degrees F out this morning. We are suppose to be back to normal by this afternoon, 90 degrees and calm blue sky everywhere.

Hello Hannah

The unfriendly Hannah is starting to make her way over the Savannah area. It is windy and raining, but luckily we will just get the edge of the storm. Our largest concern with Hannah is not having power for a little while which we are prepared for. We even bought a new mind teasing card game to entertain us without Internet and tv for the weekend. If we don't post assume we are fine and without power. And don't worry, we are prepared if Ike decides to turn and head to the East coast instead of the gulf, evacuation plan and all.

Car Retrieval...and Some Fun at the Park

Since we had to go to Orlando to get our car back anyway, we thought we might as well spend a day at Universal Studios and a day at Wet n' Wild (one of The Travel channel's top ten water parks in the country). Friday we left early afternoon piled in our friend's explorer which thankfully seats 8 if needed (there were only 6 of us). We picked up the car with no problems and other than a few leaves it looked to be fine. We later noticed that a colony of ants had decided to make it home so Austin is cleaning it out today.

Back to the trip....

Ahhh Jaws is eating my husband!




















We started the day at Universal's Island of Adventure which is mostly roller coaster thrill rides and we didn't really take many pictures there.

Me at The Simpson's ride in Universal Studios. This was a great ride, it made almost everyone else sick, Austin shut his eye's after ~20 seconds so he couldn't see the simulation screen, but I loved it.

As you can see by Austin's wet shirt we had a lot of thunderstorms in the afternoon which soaked the part and us. They have some good log ride/water rides at Island of Adventure and we did one in the morning, but then they all shutdown because of the storms. It was plenty warm so it didn't matter if we were getting rained on.

The group waiting to get on the "Jaws" ride.

Austin thought my parents would LOVE this part of the park, he thought it was pretty cool as well. We chose to eat at Margaritaville instead however.

Austin walking down one of the main streets of Universal.

Piper showing off her umbrella. It wasn't raining at the time, she was just sporting the umbrella look.

Leaving the park, thanks to the misters they have going I couldn't get a good shot, but it was nice and cool as we walked by.

Margaritaville chair that I want for our back porch.

THE Hemisphere Dancer, I'm sure Janna will be the only one who knows what this is, but just trust me, it's cool.

The wait at Margaritaville was an hour and a half which wouldn't work for us since we were all hungry and it was already past the girls normal bed time. We ate at the Jimmy Buffett airport which is the outside bar at Margaritaville. Still the same margaritas.

Sunday we went to Wet n Wild which was great despite the increased winds thanks to all the storms in the Caribbean and Gulf coast.

I didn't get any pictures on the real rides just the kiddy area where we had our bags stored at. It was the first "big" water park we have been too and even Piper did some of the big rides as long as she could be on a tube with one of us. It was a lot of fun.

We left around 2 so we could get to Jacksonville in time to go to Costco for the month and eat at P.F. Changs. There was a VERY pleasant surprise at Costco......Tillamook Medium Cheddar cheese!!!!! It was the expensive pre-sliced stuff but I didn't care. We bring our insulated Costco reusable bag with us when we go so we packed home some cheese in with the freezer food and I am enjoying delicious slices of Tillamook cheese.

Today we are unpacking everything, cleaning up and going to dinner with a co-worker of mine and his wife in Savannah.