SeeGoDo……Savannah

When I received the invitation to my cousin’s wedding in Savannah, I thought I would coincide the wedding with a mini vacation for the girls before school starts. (school starts July 30!!!) Since Savannah is only 3.5 hours from Atlanta and the wedding was scheduled for 6pm, most of the guest drove to Savannah on the day of the wedding. After pricing hotels, I thought sheeze! Hotel prices were ranging from $175 + a night which adds up quickly. So I put my penny pinching hat on to figure out how to get the cost down.

I went to Priceline.com and put a bid on a hotel for $80 per night for a 4 star hotel. I crossed my fingers hoping it would accept. The “Priceline Negotiator” came back with a counter offer for an additional $24 per night. I thought $104 was still an excellent price for a 4-star hotel, so I accepted. Twenty seconds later the deal was made! The 4 star hotel was revealed, and it was the Marriott Savannah Riverfront hotel. SCORE!!!

The plan was to leave Atlanta Friday at noon. An oil change and 2 errands later, we left around 2:30pm. (By any means necessary, we had to leave before 3 because Atlanta traffic starts early on Friday!) Even on a short trip, I heard “Are we there yet”, at least 10 times. Once we got off the interstate and saw the Spanish moss draped over the trees that lined the streets. We were in awe.

After we checked into the hotel, the girls wanted to go the pool IMMEDIATELY! No pass go! I unfortunately left the swim bag with Harley’s swimsuit and towels so we made a quick run to Wal-Mart. Since the swimsuits were on sale, Haven picked out a two piece. (She has a ton of one piece swimsuits because she swims competively.) The Marriott Savannah has an indoor, outdoor pool, and a hot tub. Harley kept mis- pronouncing “Jacuzzi” and “Savannah”. She had the nerve to correct a little boy that said “this is a hot tub.” Her response was “NO its not, it’s a KA KOOSIE”.

It was late, and we still had not eaten dinner. A guest at the Marriott, suggested we try Spanky’s on River Street because they have a kid-friendly menu and SeeGoMama friendly prices! We walked the path from the hotel to River Street and we across a sign that said “do not feed the alligators.” The girls refused to walk on the right side closest to the water. We went through a few of the gift stores that were still opened and then heard someone murdering Adel’s song , Rolling In The Deep. I looked up, and it was Spanky’s! The hostess asked did we want to sit on the quiet side or by the singing. Haven yelled “THE QUIET SIDE PLEASE!” The hostess nodded in agreement. The “quiet side” played 80’s hits. Harley(3) starts singing along loudly “I’m Sexy and I Know It” in a tavern at 10pm. I had a vision of her 20 years from now at Spanky’s singing the same song. Scary…. The food was yummy and everyone was fed for less that $20! SCORE!!

We retired back to our room and CRASHED!!!!!! The next morning, the girls wanted to go back to River Street because most of the shops were closed the night before. We hopped in the car and went to Denny’s for more cheap eats! By 11am, we were back on River Street. I had to give the girls the spiel, it goes like this “Don’t touch anything and don’t leave my side. You can buy one souvenir each.” The signs in the stores said “You break it, you buy it.” That really justified my speech!

We went to the Harley-Davidson store and Harley made an announcement that SHE is Harley-Davidson to the entire store. We found a shirt for her, kept it moving. The girls enjoyed the street performers and ice cream at Savannah Candy Kitchen. The quest was finding Haven’s souvenir, which took hours! She finally found a toy store that sold Melissa and Doug product.

We headed back to the hotel so that Harley could get a nap in before the wedding. I let them play in the pool for 45 minutes to wear her out. When it was time to nap, it became a WWE match. I had to ~~cradle~~ hold her down until she wore herself out! There was no way I was going to deal with Harley at the wedding with no nap. NO WAY! Haven watched TV and played with her toy.

A few hours later we got dressed and drove to Tybee Island. Once we found the location, I saw two other weddings, neither was my cousin’s wedding. I was thinking, I should have been the one to take a nap, because I was getting a irritable. The humidity was through the roof, and my freshly curled hair was expanding by the hour. By the time I found the wedding, I had a full blown afro! There was a delay, and the kids were in the water, my girls were building sand castles, so you can imagine how soiled their clothes were before the wedding even began!

The wedding was so beautiful, yet simple. It was 2 tiki torches wrapped in flowers, and an outline of a heart in the sand. That’s my kind of budget! My cousin and her groom seemed so happy with not a care in the world. Because of the natural scenery (beach, water, sunset, etc), there were about ten of us with cameras to capture the memories. The girls were so elated. If you have on a flowy wedding dress on, to them, you are a rock star.

We made our way to the reception at the Civic Center in downtown Savannah, ate and danced the night away.

The next day, we checked out of our hotel and drove BACK to Tybee Island so that the kids could really enjoy some beach time. As soon as we settled in, someone got stung by a jelly fish. The girls stay on high alert. They had so much fun with their cousins. We stayed out there for 4 hours and got in the car and Yours truly….drove back to Atlanta drained from the sun. I, however, was a soldier. Mission accomplished. As soon as we got home, I hopped in the shower, laid down and woke up the next morning.

We had such a fantastic time. We won’t move there, like the girls asked, but we will certainly go back and do some tours, take in the arts and the culture.

Family + Savannah= GOOD TIMES!