February 4, 2012: Travel to New Orleans
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- Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 11:09
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We had a leisurly morning before leaving Perdido Key at about 9 am. We drove to Mississippi and dropped down to Biloxi along the coast where there has been considerable Katrina damage. We followed along the Mississippi Coast west as far as we could before getting back on I-10. We had lunch along the way at a waterfront restaurant called Shaggy's. It was a bit cool on the patio but the fresh sea air was refreshing.
We arrived at our hotel in New Orleans (Westin) at about 3 pm, checked in and hit the streets. We are located in the French Quarter so there is a lot within walking distance. We walked around the area to help plan our activities for the evening. We ferreted out a good restaurant and made our reservation. There is the first Mardi Gras parade this evening so we found a good spot to watch that. We walked Bourbon Street and others around it checking out all of the locations.
The parade was not your usual parade and was a bit on the risqué side. Might have been a good thing that there were 10 rows of people standing in front of us so we couldn't see all that was going on. We left the parade at 8:15 and went to the NOLA Restaurant (one of Emeril's restaurants). Delicious dinner.
After dinner at about 10 pm we took a stroll down Bourbon Street. A lot of what might have been intelligent people really acting stupid. A lot of drinking and some flashing for beads. We headed for the hotel by 10:30.
Goodnight.
February 3, 2012: Drive to Perdido Key
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- Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 11:02
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We left our hotel before 7 am this morning. We did a quick drive by the shore at "South of Grand" in Charleston and then headed for Starbucks. We grabbed Coffee and Breakfast for the road and were on our way again.
It was an all day drive with stops only twice for gas and once for Walmart where we picked up sandwiches for an on the road picnic and kept moving along. We cut across Georgia once again taking many of the state highways we had covered before with only a few changes.
Arrival in Perdido Key at Darwin and Marlennas about 4:45 PM and moved in for the night. They have a great condo on the 3rd floor overlooking the gulf. Of course LC (Boston Terrier) was happy to see us arrive.
Dinner out this evening was at the Fishermans Corner just up the road from the condo. We had a snack first at the condo and then on to dinner. A great seafood restaurant, and some bread pudding for desert.
After dinner it was back home for visiting and bed by 10 pm.
February 2, 2012
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- Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 10:55
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Walked to Starbucks on King Street for breakfast. Then we headed to the visitors center to sign up for the Fort Sumter and Historic Charleston Tour.
A good trip to the island and then a good bus ride around the city with narration of all of the era's of homes. Found out that Charleston is below sea level. Sleeping with our life vests on tonight. After the tour, we walked to the Market Area and walked through it. Just a couple of strikes by the girls and we were on our way to the next adventure.
We hopped on the free Trolley but found out that rush hour is probably not the best time to see the sites of Charleston unless you are wanting to see some fat guys butt or anothers belly button. We hopped off shortly after we hopped on and got back to our walking tour of Charleston. We sought out a place later in the day for Happy Hour and then on to Dinner again at Poogan's Porch.
We turned in early today as it will be an early day tomorrow for the trip back west to Perdido Key.
February 1, 2012: Savannah, Beaufort, Kiawah and Charleston
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- Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 10:48
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Off to Panera for a quick breakfast this morning then on the road to Beaufort SC which is a quaint little village on the way to Hilton Head. It has a number of Antellebum Homes. We just learned today that Antellebum is a reference to before the war and in most cases it refers to the Civil War. Thus most of the home were built along the coast in this community prior to 1860. There were some grand old homes and lots of old oak trees full of Spanish Moss draping down. However, we have now learned also that Spanish moss is not really Spanish and it is not really moss. But is sounds great and looks neat.
On to Kiawah Island which is a beautiful island after crossing over a lot of marsh land along the coast that seems to be vast areas of wastleland that is good for nothing but storing water from high tide. Kiawah on the other hand is a really nice island, with lots of golf courses and a beautiful resort called Sanctuary. We had lunch at the Jasmine Porch at the Sancutary overlooking the Ocean and great landscaped grounds. Ken W took a conference call while the others walked the grounds and did some dolphin watching from the pier.
On then to Charleston. We stopped at the visitors center for information on the city. Then on to the Hotel for our stay here which is the Mills House Inn. It is a quaint old place full of history with a great courtyard and well situated in the heart of Old Charleston. Nice rooms.
We walked around the Old town area for a while and then settled in for dinner at a great restaurant called "Poogan's Porch". It is southern cooking at it finest and prices that are quite reasonable for quality food that we had. We will probably go back again tomorrow night as it will be hard to improve on this. We reached out for a new experience and had Fried Alligator for an appetizer. The waitress told us that "it tastes like turtle". Now we have another experience to explore and need to find fried turtle.
January 31, 2012: Savannah, Tybee Island, Hilton Head
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- Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 10:34
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A busy day today with our beginning with breakfast at the Panera Bread Company just up the street. Good stuff and Kay got her daily allotment of Oatmeal (steelcut even). We grabbed a cup to go of coffee and hit the road.
Our first stop of the day was at Tybee Island about 13 miles from town center in Savannah. We walked out to the pier in Tybee, looked the town over and moved on. The beaches here are lack luster in comparison to what we had in Destin. However, after we have experienced the Destin Beaches, we don'think that anything will ever compare to the white and very fine sand of the Miramar and Destin Beaches.
Our next stop was to Fort Pulaski, a National Monument. It was started to be built in 1829 and finished in 1847. It was occupied by the Confederacy in 1861 but overtaken by the Union shortly thereafter. If was built to secure the river passages from the Atlantic into Savannah. A lot of great history here.
We also saw another side of history at the Fort. They were filming a movie there called "Abe Lincoln vs The Zombies". You gotta love a good Docudrama. I think the seeing of it in process will be enough to satisfy my desire to see the movie.
Most of Savannah is full of ancient US history. We next visited Wormslow Plantation which also has a lot of history about the early settlers to this area. After Wormslow, we visited Benaventure Cemetary which dates back 300 years. It is a beautiful facility with some really unique old headstones and we can only imagine how beautiful it will be in the spring with the Magnolia's blooming.
Our adventures next led us to Hilton Head Island where we had hoped to have dinner. We drove the hour out to Hilton Head but found most of the decent restaurants closed for the season. We had a good look over the island and headed back to Savannah.
Back to Savannah for Dinner at the Moon River Brew Pub across the street from our hotel. Back to the rooms by 8 pm to pack up our goods for the trip to Charleston in the morning. We will spend the next two days (and nights) in Charleston.
