Hilton Head Island

We only stopped in Hilton Head for a few hours, because we decided to go at the last minute on our way to Charleston.  I had heard of it, but didn't know much about it and wanted to stop.  We went to Coligny beach, and it was BEAUTIFUL! The weather was perfect, and the water was warm. We went when the lighting was perfect too.  The sand is hard packed so you can ride bikes on it and push strollers.  The water is shallow and you have to go out 30 feet to get over 3 feet deep, which is great for kids.  When we arrived, we tried to get bike rentals, but were too late in the day to get any.  We wished we would have known about it before and made more time to stay there.  It has been rated #1 family beach or destination by several magazines. We hope to go back!

We didn't build this, but it was cool.

Walking down to Coligny beach past the luxurious bathrooms and wash up area, there were several swings.  We went off season so most everyone was old and retired and thought our kids were the cutest.  An older couple offered to take a picture of all of us together.

Savannah, Georgia and Tybee Island

Savannah is such a pretty city!  I loved all of the live oak trees hanging with Spanish moss.  It felt like we were driving through tunnels because of it's thick covering.  The houses and downtown neighborhoods were beautiful.  Savannah was America's first planned city, and was designed with a series of neighborhoods centered around 24 squares.

 Forsyth Park sits on the edge of the historic district with it's pretty fountain built in 1858.

A memorial to the confederate dead.

Chippewa square is where the famous bench was from the movie Forrest Gump, but the bench isn't there anymore because it was a movie prop.  There are flowers there now instead.

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was beautiful.  The outside was having construction done on it though, so I didn't get any outside pictures of the magnificent structure.

Brendan's sister, Taryn, recommended Starland cafe for lunch.  It had some delicious food.

I love bakeries, so I like to stop at them whenever I can.  I saw this cute one while driving by and had to take a peek.  It was called Back in the Day Bakery.  I picked up some yummy cupcakes for the kids.

 Watching salt water taffy being pulled, cut, and wrapped on an old fashioned machine.

 These historic stairs with the original cobblestone lead down to River Street.

 We had to stop at Paula Deen's restuarant and store, The Lady & Sons, to get some southern food.

Tybee Island

Tybee Island is only 20 minutes outside of Savannah.  If you've ever seen the movie the Last Song starring Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth it was filmed here.  I remember seeing the cheesy movie and wondering where it was at because it was a really pretty location.  They were actually filming for a Spongebob movie when we were there.  I guess there is a part where they go onshore in the movie.  It was really dead when we went and the grill on the pier was closed and not many people were out and about, but it was pretty. We were going o go on a dophin tour, but they didn't have enough people so it was cancelled.  We just walked around for a while and grabbed something to eat and got back on the road.

Okefenokee

Before we left on our trip, a couple different people recommended us going to the Okefenokee swamp in Georgia.  We decided we couldn't miss out, so Waycross, Georgia was put on our itinerary.  

We love it when we find the girls like this.  They both love to cuddle. We let them sleep in for a while before we were off to our swamp adventure.

Hazel enjoyed feeding the turtles.

Oh just an alligator hanging out.

We purchased the boat tour, but unfortunately it started raining while we were out.  We had our big umbrella with us all crammed underneath, but we were still getting wet and the tour was cut short.

 

Later we went on the train tour, and luckily that was covered.  The train took us to an old pioneer village where we got out and walked around and explored.

We went to the reptile show, and Brendan held a one year old alligator, and Hattie touched it's teeth. Brendan also held a three year old alligator.

We enjoyed our swamp experience and recommend it to those traveling near the area!