The Miller Five: July 2011

We celebrated July 4th in a big way. With a road trip to Savannah, Georgia!

We left Maryland on Thursday afternoon and stayed overnight in North Carolina. The next morning we got up and drove the rest of the way into Georgia.
Our first stop was at the Tybee Island lighthouse.

The lighthouse is 90 feet tall, with 178 steps and was completed in 1736.

All of us at the top.

View from the top

Saturday we spent most of the day at the beach. Even with several applications of sunscreen, I still got a little burnt.

This was the first live sand dollar I had ever seen. It was so amazing!

The incredible view from our balcony....we loved watching the shrimp boats, tankers and dolphins!

Sunday we went exploring downtown Savannah and our favorite, River Street!

Talmadge Memorial Bridge

Riding the water taxi

Gorgeous old bench on Bay Street

Absolutely LOVE the trees dripping with Spanish moss

Later that afternoon, we took a dolphin tour with Captain Mike

Hayden loved seeing all the dolphins surface and blow water...every time he saw one, he laughed and his eyes lit up.

The whole gang

Best picture we could get....dolphins are fast!

Looked like a scene right out of Forest Gump...we all loved these cool shrimp boats.

Sunday evening, we wandered over to the beach for the fireworks.

Entertaining ourselves

This boy is so spoiled.....you have NO idea.

Fireworks on the beach. Seriously THE coolest thing ever.

Monday we hung around our condo and swam....a lot. Jake and I went to dinner and the kids caught a few fireworks shows from our balcony.

Tuesday we went back into Savannah to check out some of the squares and the cemetery.

Colonial cemetery.
It was established in 1750 and was expanded 3 times, before it closed in 1853. It contains more than 9,000 graves. We looked really hard, but we couldn't find any grave markers dated before 1794. A lot of the inscriptions had been weathered away.

Love the above ground graves....cool and creepy at the same time.

Next stop, Forsyth Park. Forsyth Park was the first large park built in Savannah and was created in 1858.

The gang in front of Forsyth fountain

We made a stop at Bailee's current college goal. Savannah College of Art and Design, otherwise known as SCAD.

SCAD is the premier college for creative careers. With Bailee's grades and ambition though, Jake and I are hoping that she ends up somewhere further up north. Princeton, Harvard, Yale...you get the picture. :)

The last thing we did in Savannah was a ghost tour. Savannah is known as the most haunted city in America, so it seemed like the logical thing to do.

And who wants to bother with a walking tour, when you can ride around in THIS?

The picture is really dark, and if you can't tell, it's a hearse!! It was creepy at first, but it turned out to be the funnest tour we have ever been on. Scary too!

This was the point that my camera battery died. Bummer, because I really wanted to get a bunch of cool pictures from our 11 hour drive home. HA HA HA HA

We had a blast and believe me when I tell you, if I EVER get the chance to move to Savannah, I will! LOVE the gorgeous surroundings and the proximity to the beach. I may just retire there.

Better late than never, but I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July. I am so grateful to be an American and live in a country where we are free. And I will never forget the men who fought and died to make our freedom possible.

God Bless America!