Georgia on my mind

There are few things better than a relaxing week-long vacation, and few things worse than coming back from one.

Jeff and I recently went to Tybee Island, Georgia to spend some quality time with the Ward fam. His dad turned 60, our sister-in-law turned 28, and all 15 Wards went to stay in 3,000 sq ft of condo chaos. It was a fun time.

We left early July 20, around 4:30 am, for what Google said would be a 16-hour drive to Georgia. Multiple Coke Zeros, a bag of gummy worms, one chocolate bar, a few handfuls of chocolate-covered almonds, four bananas, one pound of baby carrots, one stop at BK (disgusting), another at Cracker Barrel (slightly better than BK), a dozen bottles of water, two traffic jams, one major routing mistake, a huge rainstorm, one freak-out over driving stick in the rain and traffic (guilty), two gas stops, five bathroom stops, and 19 hours later, we arrived very tired, and pretty sick, at the condo on Tybee. It was a long drive, and we were so happy to get there.

The week was filled with lots of eating, beach time, lots of time wandering through Savannah, the best pot roast we've ever had in our lives, history, and screaming kids that we love so it wasn't so bad. Savannah is absolutely gorgeous. If you ever have a chance to go, go. You will not regret it. Go on a walking tour. Eat some of the amazing southern food, go antiquing, just drive and walk around. It's so pretty.

The night before we left, we decided to take the 'long way' home through Atlanta and Birmingham. Saturday we left early and arrived in Atlanta around 11, just in time to catch a 90-minute wait at Gladys Knight's Chicken 'N Waffles. Heck no. So we yelped a different place, a more upscale eatery that arguably had better chicken and waffles. Considering I don't really care for fried anything, I figured we'd better go all out on our one time eating it. South City Kitchen didn't disappoint. Cloth napkins, filtered water, real maple syrup, freshly battered and fried chicken with a crispy waffle. It was awesome. And, I didn't even get a stomach ache. It was a definitely a one-time meal. I like my chicken and waffles separate I guess.

We then headed down to the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coke Museum, which were both packed to the brim. Jeff and I have a rule: If we have to wait in a line, we leave. So after talking to a really nice senior missionary couple about all the miracles in the Atlanta mission, we left for Birmingham and the Civil Rights Institute Museum.

The only problem was, we had to get to Birmingham in two hours or we wouldn't be able to make it to the museum. So Jeff mustered up his best lead foot and we drove as fast as we could to get there by 4:30 pm. Around 4:20 pm, just outside of Birmingham, a stroke of genius struck me and I thought, When does the time zone change? Sure enough, we were safely inside Central Time. We hadn't laughed that hard the whole trip.

We were two of three white people in the whole place. Probably in all of downtown Birmingham. At one point a very passionate young black woman, who'd spent the entire time in the museum trying to understand white people or something like that, looked right at me, I looked back, and she said, 'I appreciate you being here.' I told her I was happy to be there. It was a little awkward. We shared a moment. To me, race is an issue only if we make it one. Let's just all love each other and be friends, be kind.

Jeff and I were so glad to have good friends to stay with that night in Birmingham, Alex and Elisa. Alex is one of two guys I dated who I'm successfully good friends with, and Elisa is just plain cool. We had a real awesome time being jealous of their beautiful 1920s bungalow, full of incredible vintage thrift store finds, including Elisa's Broyhill Brasilia desk she scored for $40. Still jealous. We ate some delicious Mediterranean food, some tasty sorbet, and had a generally good time chatting while we saw some beautiful parts of Birmingham. What a sad city, but at the same time, so vibrant. It has a real life to it. I would go back.

Sunday we drove home, all day, we drove and drove and got home around 7 pm. Monday saw me back to work for a very very busy week.

Jeff and I are both getting excited for our next trips, to Utah and DISNEY WORLD! Separate trips, taken over our 3rd anniversary. We are totally weird. Let the record state that I love my Jeff more than anyone in the world! There's no one I'd rather drive for 19 straight hours with than him. I love you, Jeff. Thanks for putting up with me and helping me be a better person. I don't ever want to live without you. Let's die at exactly the same time.

I would post pictures of the trip, but I'm too lazy. Sorry.