Feb 27 Mobile Ala

Arrived in Mobile, Ala around 1:00PM.
We took a tour of ….

Bellingrath Gardens -- A testament to what dedication, hard work and lots of money can accomplish, the breathtakingly beautiful Bellingrath Gardens and Home began as a humble fishing camp, purchased to give Walter Bellingrath, the area's first Coca-Cola distributor, a weekend place to escape the city. Eventually Walter and his wife Bessie moved their permanent residence to the 65 acre estate, continually building and landscaping the land to reflect the natural beauty of the area. Visitors to Bellingrath Gardens will see flowers in bloom all year long as they stroll through the sprawling grounds which include a rose garden, butterfly garden, rockery, formal gardens, Oriental and American gardens, mirror lake, conservatory riverfront walk and an ecological bayou boardwalk, where local wildlife abounds.
Profiled on A&E's "American Castles," the Bellingrath Home was completed in 1935 under the careful direction of Bessie Bellingrath, and showcases her expansive collection of priceless antiques, furniture, silver, china, crystal and cut glass. A tour of the home gives insight into how the generous Bellingrath couple lived and entertained and how they were inspired to create this horticultural masterpiece.
Bellingrath Gardens and Home is located at 12401 Bellingrath Gardens Rd. in Theodore, Alabama, just 20 minutes southwest of Mobile. Allow 30-40 minutes to tour the home and 1-2 hours to tour the gardens, and do wear comfortable shoes. For more information, click on http://www.bellingrath.org/.

That was a blurb from a website. Here are a few photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/Mobile?authkey=Gv1sRgCK3E4qHDqZ2C2AE&feat=directlink

Feb 26

Drove over to Tybee Island to check it out before we left for Tallahassee. It’s an ok place. The beach is shelly. The town and beach area reminds me of old Conneaut Lake…a bit honkie tonk. Wouldn’t want to vacation there. We’ll be on the road driving most of the day today. Hope to be able to ride the St. Mark trail in Tallahassee. If we don’t get there in time today, we’ll do it tomorrow morning before we pull out for Mobile, Ala. The trail is about 16 miles long. Don’t think we’ll have time to do more than a couple of miles. It’s about 4-5 hrs to Ala.

Feb 25

This was our site seeing day. We purchased a self-guided walking tour……it’s an MP3 that is loaded with a 2.5 hour tour. It comes with a charger and earphones. You get to keep the unit. The MP3 player was $40. At each location we sat on a bench or stood close together and shared the earphones. Thought it would be good to have for future trips to Savannah and to lend out to anyone else going to Savannah. Before starting the walking tour we walked up to Forsyth Park and then included walking along the river in our guided tour. I’m going to get a link set up for viewing the photos. We walked from about 10AM and ended about 4:00…….the sun was out and we passed a bar with outside tables so we HAD TO stop J! We walked a little more and then stopped at a place called 6 Pence close to the apartment. As we were sitting there, Ashley looked at me laughing and said that we were the youngest in the bar J…..The area is totally filled with retires traveling. Tomorrow we move onto Tallahassee.

Feb 24 - Savannah, Ga

Ann Marie suggested we check out a tree called the "Angel Oak" on our drive to Savannah. It was well worth the stop.....

Arrived in Savannah around 3:30 PM. The apartment was great……….perfect location for sightseeing. We were able to buy a 2 day parking pass for $8. After unpacking a bit, we searched out Paula Dean’s Restaurant but our timing didn’t work. We did find a wonderful place called Bistro’s up the street and had a terrific dinner. Started off with calamari with three different dipping sauces, then Ashley had lobster and risotto, I had lobster and mushroom gnocchi.

We then went on an evening Ghost Cocktail walking tour. Suzanne, our tour guide, was great fun. Her tour included a lot of history in addition to ghost stories. Suzanne and Anna, her friend, invited us to join them at a bar down on River Street after the tour was over. Here is a photo we took when we were leaving….

Feb 21

Had a great visit with all the Rassau's the last few days. Jan makes a really good potato recipe. Red potatoes with sour cream, scallions, parsley, salt and pepper. Jess and Casey are alot of fun. We all met up at Starbucks one day and had a lot of laughs sharing stories. Casey showed us her apartment ...wow!!! is about all we could say.........her apt building has a pool, a full gym, pool tables and get this........a theater....no kidding. Her apt has 4 bedrooms and each one has it's own bathroom. Ashley and I couldn't believe it.

We took off for Brian and Ann Marie's around 9:00am today. We took Rt 17 and stopped in Wilmington for lunch. We walked around and saw the Cotton Exchange and the town of Wilmington. This is a place I'd like to get back to for a longer stay. We reached Brian's around 4:30pm. The kids all are great. Claire is sitting up by herself and crawling (in her own way). Marin is crawling and pulling herself up and moves all over the place.....she is very fast.

It was a beautiful ride down. Little traffic and lots of sun.

February 19 - Greenville, NC

The car is packed ...couldn't get another thing into it. Left Pittsburgh around 8:00 am and arrived at Jani's (North Carolina) around 6pm. It was great to see everyone. We had a great dinner and watched Grey's Anatomy (big favorite in the Rassau home) and hit the bed. Travel was not bad once we got off of Interstate 68 which was snow covered.

Getting Ready

The trip idea came about very quickly so we are running around pulling together all the little jobs that need done before we leave. We are taking a laptop and it is now set up for broadband internet access to help make the trip a bit easier ..... finding places to stay, gas and all the fun stuff we want to do. Took a bike repair class. Can't believe it took this trip for me to finally get to this class. Had to put two new tires on my bike. Ashley's bike is new so she is in good shape on that front. The trip as of right now will be.....Pittsburgh, North Carolina (Jani's), South Carolina (Brian and Ann Marie), Savannah, GA, (want to try and eat at "Paula Dean's). Then onto Tallahassee, Biloxi, New Orleans, Lafayette (Cindy), San Antonio, El Paso (girlfriend), then up to the "Four Corners" (where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet together). That's about it at this point. Stay tuned :) !