Savannah, Sand Gnats, and Skidaway

I finally made it back up to Savannah this weekend. It seems like I haven't been up there in quite some time, so it was nice to go this weekend and see some more sights (and see David, of course!). I drove straight from work on Friday and met up with David and his friends Robert and Meg at the Savannah Sand Gnats game. Robert and Meg are David's friends from college that just moved to Savannah from Germany (he's a JAG), so it was good to finally meet them and hang out. The game was nice- hot of course- but lots of fun.

I have to admit, I was a little spoiled, since about a month ago, I went with Stacey to a Pensacola Wahoos game. Pensacola just built a brand new stadium downtown, right on the water and it is so nice!

David said that Savannah is considering building the Sand Gnats a new stadium on River Street right off the Savannah River, which would be amazing!

Saturday we contemplated going to Tybee to the beach, but considering this was the first sunny Saturday in which it wasn't raining in well over a month, we knew it would be crazy at the beach. We decided to venture down to Skidaway Island and see what we could find.

We first hit up the state park to see what that was about when we got down there. It was absolutely beautiful down there. We did the 3 mile hike and did a little birding along the way. Ha!

The park boasted of old liquor stills, earthen works from the War between the States, and of course nature and the beauty of the marshland.

We spotted another painted bunting (and heard many, many more!), a few different woodpeckers, and a new bird we got to cross off our list. We spotted a great-crested flycatcher. Granted, I didn't know itat the time, but thankfully I got photographic evidence for identification later!

It was a great {and hot!} place to tour and I look forward to going back many more times in the future!

After the park, we drove around Skidaway to see what it was all about, since neither one of us have ever been down there. I fell in love with the area and tried to convince David to buy a house down there. This one would do. You know, in a pinch.

The next stop was the Aquarium. Which I wasn't expecting much from, but it surprised me!

 

Well- that's it folks! My advice is go explore your backyard. You never know what treasures are right there in your own neighborhood!

Outdoor Adventures: St. Marks Lighthouse

Another weekend, another outdoor (ok, birding) adventure! This weekend we chose to head down to St. Marks to go to the wildlife refuge/lighthouse. David and I got into a little argument over St. Marks. I swore that we had gone there before after we went to Wakulla Springs and he swore that we didn't. Well, I guess that we never did because David didn't recognize anything when we got there, so David won that argument. I must have dreamed it...

 I love St. Marks. It is so "Florida" to me. Sure, Florida has great beaches that millions flock to every year, but it is places like St. Marks that make me love the coast. Places that feel a bit more"local" and have that true Florida flavor.

And what would a trip be to St. Marks without a few lighthouse shots?

 I did of course get some bird pictures! We didn't see anything too exciting.

I took a picture of some grackles. Don't they look so much prettier when they aren't in their "normal" setting? AKA eating out of the garbage/dumpster or stealing food off your plate when you are dining outside?

The little Red-Shouldered Blackbird singing his heart out. I have never seen so many of these in my life than I did on Saturday!

In other wildlife spottings...

Lots of blue crabs

A gross rat

Wish we had seen this...but we didn't. I had this on my camera from our most recent trip to Blountstown and it was too good not share :-)

Well, that about sums up the trip to St. Marks. I know there were four gentlemen who were glad that we made it back home and released them from doggy jail!

The Thomasville Tourist, Part 2

Welcome to the second installment of my journeys around my town. Sunday, David and I went down to Pebble Hill Plantation to tour the grounds.

Main House

Original Main House before burning

If you are ever in the Thomasville, GA area, I suggest you put Pebble Hill on your places to visit- especially if it's a beautiful day outside. We opted not to do a tour of the Main House, which was fine by me, because I mainly wanted to see the beautiful landscapes!

The table and chairs are out because there was a wedding there the night before

Pebble Hill is truly a turn of the century plantation. That's when most of the buildings were added to the property by the Hanna family. I will spare you the history details today! Mainly because I don't have the time! So I will let the pictures do the talking :-)

 

School House



I loved these unique chairs in the school house!

Laundry Room

 



 





The Kitchen Gardens

I loved this!

The inside. I would love to have one of these!

David really wanted this turtle spout.

Where the wedding ceremony was held the night before.

Noah's Ark

Murals inside

Well, there is our trip to Pebble Hill in pictures. Guess it was grossly overdue for me to go visit, so I'm so glad we went!