Georgia on my mind

Making new friends (and new faces) on the St. Augustine Pier. Cale with Brown Pelicans and a Brown Booby waiting by the fish cleaning station

Hello from Hilton Head, South Carolina! We've crossed a few state lines and now have some real miles under our belts. We left Kissimmee heading north and made it as far as St. Augustine where we spent two days in the sun. We found a beautiful State Park (Anastasia) where we played on the beach,  ate some frozen bananas and did some hiking. On Cale's insistence, we stopped to read all the local vegetation signs along the trail which makes the scientist in me smile.

We then headed to Savannah, Georgia, where we unknowingly found ourselves in the midst of the 2nd largest St. Patrick's Day celebration in North America (second only to NYC). We stayed a few miles outside of the historic downtown core, and there was no way we could have gotten any closer. We waited until the parade was over after dinner before we ventured into town and saw the remnants of what looked like a really great party. Literally every person we saw, adults and children alike, were decked out head to toe in green and most had half drunken, sun-burned smiles on their faces. We took a wrong turn heading into town and ended up at an amazing park in the centre of town where even the water in the fountain was green! One of favourite things about road trips are the little mistakes like these that turn into beautiful memories. Savannah was one of the spots that many people had recommended we visit, so we spent the morning touring the waterfront before continuing on into South Carolina.

Savannah waterfront

We are quickly coming to terms with the fact that Odin is basically the one in charge on this trip. As much as we might like to wander around parks and towns for hours, or push on and drive to a distant town, we are traveling on Odie time. We need to work around his schedule, making sure he gets adequate naps and doesn't spend too long in the sun or cooped up in his car seat. Speaking of car seats, Odin is not a fan of his. There have been tears, many, many tears while we drive. Basically we cringe and try to bare the screams until he falls asleep and hope that he won't wake up until we get to where we are going. It definitely is a challenge, and I'd like to say that each day gets better, but we only drove for 50 minutes today, so it is hard to say. The second we take him out of said car seat, he is a delightful little boy, grinning and charming everyone around him.

Thankfully, Cale is perfect. We couldn't ask for a better traveling partner for a road trip like this. He can easily spend hours in the back seat listening to music, asking great questions and drawing in his travel journal or making 'tickets' for each of us to get into an upcoming party that will begin when we arrive at the next hotel. Today was a 'Family on the Road' party which came with a very detailed $5 ticket that allowed each of us to bring 5 people with us. Very generous! Cale is also an amazing backseat big brother. He gives us updates on how Odie is doing, passes him toys to play with and doesn't let the tears get him down at all. He may ask for us to turn up the tunes to drowned out the cries, but other than that, he is just taking it all in. We reward him with as many play ground stops as we can find. We are basically on a play ground tour of the USA, and we're ok with that!

Hilton Head play ground. Grammie and Grampie Jeffries - the pirate flag was purchased, after very careful deliberations, using the $5 US you gave to him. He is doing a 1 man parade in this photo!

Even Odin is enjoying our play ground adventures.

One thing Odie is loving on this trip is eating whole solid foods. We seem to be doing the 'baby led weaning' method out of sheer need. We have no means to blend up food, so we let him share whole pieces of fruits and veggies which he delights in chowing down on. Cucumbers, celery, carrots, apples and frozen banana are current favourites.