Georgia on my mind

Well, the first leg(s) of our journey is/are now complete. Tonight we're staying in a hotel in Savannah, Georgia - and its great. But more about that later!

We left on Sunday quite a bit after church and we finally got to Gatlinburg around 11:45pm after a very pleasant experience getting directions from some native Sevierville residents who seemed to be washing their dogs in the car wash. Southerners are nice! We stayed in a Fairfield Inn very near the lodge where the rest of my family stayed. It was a great idea! We spent a lot of time with family, but also a lot of time together exploring Gatlinburg.

The family reunion was great! It was in celebration of my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Almost as soon as we pulled in on Monday morning, Oma and Opa presented all of their 5 children with a spiral-bound copy of their memoirs. Very cool and fascinating! I've read the first couple chapters of my grandpa's life already and am learning so much. I knew a lot of it, but not all. And as I read it I am reminded of the silly stories he used to always tell us about his childhood when we were little.

It was good time with the family. I met some cousins who I hadn't met...and some of them met me for the first time in their memory. My cousins (and great cousins - or whatever you call your cousins' children) range from age 5 to 13 (except the one who is the mother to the 4 great cousins of course!) and they are all boys except poor 9(?) year old Jessica. But she managed well. :) But it was interesting to be relegated to the same ranks as the aunts and uncles.

We had some great times of laughter and conversation...especially after we gave our gift of a scrapbook of tributes from each of us and pictures from their years of marriage. Then some of us laughed till we cried at different people's memories of my grandparents. That's one thing I realized about my family. They laugh easily and hard and at themselves! :)

Jamie and I also had some fun times driving around the mountains around Gatlinburg on the first day and walking around touristy Gatlinburg the second day. Wow, Gatlinburg is a tourist town! And pretty hickster too. But we had a great time and ate Ben and Jerry's while we walked around - which of course made it even better.

Then last night we went out with Jon and Stan and Bobbi (our other cousin our age) and went go-carting. Oh my gosh, it was SO much fun! I'll post some pictures when we get a cord to upload our pictures. :)

So, then, we left today around 1 pm to drive down here to Savannah. (It was sad to leave, for sure.) Just to get to the interstate was like a picture of mountain America. Houses tucked into the mountain side with huge piles of scrap wood and a couple cars under the bushes (like the bushes are growing through them). It was so interesting and a great drive!

And Savannah. Ahhhh! The hotel room actually smells good. You know how hotel rooms usually smell neutral in a way that can smell yucky like putting your ear up to a sound proof wall sounds yucky? Well, this one doesn't and I love it! Plus its just a nice hotel, so that's fun.

Then, the best part, Jamie and I went into the waterfront area of Savannah for dinner tonight. We got seafood at a restaurant with a view of the river. The clam chowder that Jamie got was delicious! (And the rest of the food was good too.) But then after that we walked along the water front and heard a little threesome singing on the riverside. They were so good! One of them was playing guitar. One was dancing. We sat there for probably 30-45 minutes listening (with a whole bunch of people) while they sang (kind of jazz style) "Brown Eyed Girl", "On the Dock", and "New York, New York", and tons of others. They also asked for other to sing for them when their voices got tired from singing all evening, so this kid (like late teenager) steps out of the crowd, says he's from Alabama and proceeds to sing two songs beautifully! I couldn't stop grinning for most of the time.

So, that's it so far.