The Smith Clan: Georgia on my mind, cont.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Georgia on my mind, cont.

I almost feel ridiculous blogging about this almost a month after it happened, but this is my life now....everything seems to take longer than it did 10 months ago. I wonder why? :-) If you need to catch up on the beginning of our trip to Georgia, you may do so here. After the only restful night we go while in GA, we got ourselves up and headed out to meet Jason's dad and stepmom for lunch and then over to the local department store because they of course wanted to spoil the grandkid, even though I later found out they had a giant bag of clothes and books for him at home as well!

Grandpa Joe and Eli

They were incredibly generous, although I think it was probably as much fun to shop for all those little outfits as it was to give it to him! After our little outings, we headed out to "the little red house". This is the house that Jason's dad and stepmom currently live in. It is on a little country road and the drive back there is GORGEOUS. I forget sometimes how beautiful the foliage is in the east. It makes you want to take drives, just look. Not quite the case in the Bay Area.

The little red house (which is what everyone calls it) was originally built by Jason's grandparents as something of a retreat - a place to get away from it all. Jason's dad decided to make it a permanent place to get away from it all some years ago and has slowly made additions so that it's not so "little" anymore, but still completely charming. It's set on about 30 acres of land, which again, blows my mind after living in the Bay Area for so long. We talk about our parcels in square feet!

We spent a really nice day just relaxing at the house and watching the baby play. They had a Winnie the Pooh ball that he just couldn't get enough of! It was so much fun to watch them, watch him. It's amazing how fresh everything is with a baby (minus the diapers of course). Everything is new and fascinating and exciting, because you're seeing it through their eyes. You can see the effect on everyone. It's pretty amazing.

Unfortunately the little man developed a fever and we had to cut the night short. This continued through most of the trip sadly. It's hard enough to have a sick baby, but a sick baby in a hotel room, across the country from home is quite enough thank you very much. I must say, he was quite the trooper though. He smiled and laughed and didn't really complain at all. My little angel baby.

On Saturday we took a trip down to Savannah and Tybee Island. Savannah is absolutely amazing! So much history and beautiful architecture. I wish that we had had more time to explore all of the antebellum houses.

After a stroll through the city, we got back in car and headed out to Tybee Island. It was so cute! It was very East Coast Beach Town and totally reminded me of the summers I spent on the beach in DE and MD. It was very Ocean City.

We took a stroll out on the pier and then headed down to the beach where the duder dipped his toes in the Atlantic ocean for the first time. So exciting!

He is such a well traveled baby already!

Tybee Island Lighthouse

On Sunday we had a lovely brunch at the Coleman House Inn. It's a beautiful little jewel box Victorian house that was built over 100 years ago and has been converted into a B&B. It was a lovely place to have brunch. Of course everyone had to stop by our table to meet the duder. He was quite the attraction.

We finished the weekend with another lovely afternoon at the little red house. It was so great for Jason to be able to spend so much time with his dad.

Hello in there?

First time on a rocking horse!

We even got to take a trip down to Smith Chapel (yes, it was built by J's family).

The entire area is actually full of Smith family history. Many of the roads are named after the Smith family and there is a Smith cemetery just up the road from Jason's dad's house. It's something special to see all of this history in one place and to know that generations have walked in the same place.

We left on Monday to head back to Atlanta and head back home, but on the way, Jason had an amazing surprise for me. He took us to Juliette, GA to the Whistle Stop Cafe where they filmed "Fried Green Tomatoes"! It was so amazing to actually walk down the little street that's in the movie and to have a delicious snack of fried green tomatoes in the cafe.