Headin' South!! Part I

Two weeks in the South in the middle of July...not the best time to go if you and summer heat don't get along!  Our first week was spent in Savannah, Georgia.  Our oldest daughter, SAW, was spending a week at SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design, to take a couple of classes and get a glimpse of what to expect of college.  The rest of us spent time wandering around Savannah, getting to know the city.  Our budding artist had a wonderful time playing college and created some pretty cool artwork.  Here is a sampling: 

Her task was to draw a how-to.  This was in a Sequential Art class.  The other class SAW took was Animation:  Bringing Artwork to Life.  I am not able to show you that sample, but it is pretty cool!  She drew 62 pictures for about 4 seconds of animation.  At this point, she thinks she will major in Sequential Art and hopes to be a storyboard artist/cartoonist.  She is committing to attend SCAD next fall.  Pretty scary sending my first child off to college so far away!  At least it is Savannah, a beautiful, enchanting city.

While she got to know SCAD, my husband, younger daughter, JMW, and I found things to do.  We spent a lot of time walking around Savannah.  Even though we had a full 4 days, I'm sure we did not see even half of the city.  This was not our first trip to Savannah, so we skipped the museums and historical homes in favor of strolling around.  Savannah is not a city to rush through.  When you hurry through, you miss quite a lot.  Sitting on a bench in one of the many squares, watching the tour buses cruise by and the tourists and locals traversing the town on their way to wherever is recommended.  People watching in Savannah was more interesting to me than getting a canned tour in a home turned $20 museum.  Quite interesting. 

The most fun I had was visiting a couple of cemeteries.  The Colonial Park Cemetery in downtown has some unusual tombs.  The most curious thing about the cemetery was the playground just outside the main fence. 

We took a trip out to Savannah's most famous cemetery, the Bonaventure Cemetery.  The rich and famous are buried here.  We saw maybe 1/3 of the cemetery and spent a good hour, hour and a half there.  I took the most pictures here.  Talk about spooky-so many statues and mighty oaks draped in Spanish moss.



In addition to seeking out the dead amongst the living, we ate at some really good restaurants and took a trip out to the Atlantic to look for dolphins.  The food was great and the dolphins performed beautifully.  I'm excited SAW will be going to school in such a wonderful city.  It will make our time apart a little less painful.  And it doesn't hurt that we will have to spend more time there ourselves.  I'm thinking  maybe I'll just move down there with her......

Every Year at this Time

a harsh reality hits me....fall is really here and winter is on the way.  I hate winter.  I hate the cold, I hate the snow and ice, I hate winter clothes, I hate wearing shoes.  The only redeeming quality that winter has is being able to wrap myself up in my t-shirt quilt and lay in front of a roaring fire, dreaming of summer.  Since fall precedes that dastardly winter season, I have a strong dislike for it.  It is only a strong dislike for these reasons: 

How can I hate a season that gives us such scenery?

Colonial Williamsburg is my absolute

favorite place to visit!  We made it there twice already this year and hope to get a quick trip in this fall.  I have been following the saga of the Anderson Blacksmith Shop and Public Armoury for the last couple of years.  It is particularly of interest to me as my Dad was a hobby blacksmith.  It has been fun to watch the project progress from planning to archaeological digs and more planning to the actual reconstruction of the buildings.  I've been following via a blog with web-cam availability.  Check it out here:  Anderson's Public Armoury. 
The Armoury has a mascot named Eleanor.  She isn't the friendliest kitty; you have to get her in the right mood.  Here she is with Kenneth Schwarz, Master Blacksmith:

 The Armoury is going to be a huge complex with plans for multiple structures on the site.  It was a busy place during the Revolution and had many people working at the complex.  Another important element to the successful quest for liberty by our Founders.

As I wander around this blog,

I see that it has been a year, very nearly to the day, since I have published any musings.  I certainly have had quite a lot over the last year to muse about!  One thing I would like to share with you, my faithful readers, is a new blog I started in June of 2011:  A Girl and Her Grill.  I love grilled food and decided to share recipes, etc. with the world at large.  It turns out, I really am sharing with the world.  Browsing my stats, I have viewers from over 40 countries! 

I celebrated my 40th birthday in 2011.  Life begins at 40-who was the first person to say that?  I don't necessarily agree with that statement, but I will say life changes at 40!  The changes that have occurred in my life in the last year would have been inconceiveable to me just 2 or 3 years ago.  Some of the changes are very welcome, some have taken me by surprise and some I would rather forget about.  Here are a couple of pictures sampling one change:

1st day of school in 2003, 3rd grade and Kindergarten.

1st day of school 2012, Freshman and Senior.

I'm not sure where the time went, but I want it back!!!  Above is the very first 1st day of school picture of my daughters together and the very last 1st day of school picture of them.  I swear I turned my back for only a moment!  Next year, the photos will be dropping one off at college (14 hours away!) and a lone pose in front of the door of my high school sophomore.  Wow!