Phelan/Niemann Vacationfest 2013 in retrospect - Day 1

And we are off on the mega vacation for the year.  All of these are being written after the fact so it's up to you to decide if I am telling everything in the correct order.  Sleep deprivation and time have probably muddled things up a bit.  As an added bonus, Sherri used a pedometer to track her steps so you can be amazed at the distance covered on our relaxing vacation.

Things started off with a bang for our 5 AM departure.  If there are two things we have learned with little kids and driving trips, it is that stops every few hours make a huge difference and early/late driving in time with kids sleeping is great planning.  Stage 1 of the drive took us from home to Savannah via mostly non-highway methods.  We were pleased to see that I-16 is still the most boring stretch of road around.  At least western Kansas has the world's largest groundhog.

We went to Savannah to see The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist because it is described as being as close to old European style as can be found in America.  And, it is majorly so.  Huge, ornate, and pretty cool to see.  Tons of colors, art, big design.  The only negative is that the entire facade is being updated so that part was all scaffolding.  The inside was great.  And, unlike any past cathedral adventures, Chris didn't do any against the rules exploring.  As an added bonus, second cousin James Woods was in town so we met up and toured it with him and spent about half an hour in the old town area.

After splitting up, we walked onward to Lafayette Park.  On the way, we passed a bomb disposal unit.  We hope it was a practice scenario, but there was activity.  At the park, we looked at a few statues and made our way to the playground (gotta burn off that kid energy.)  We managed to intersect a batch of moms racing their kids in strollers through the park.  It was some sort of Mommy and Me exercise class, but it was an odd sight nonetheless.  And, we are done with Savannah.

Back into the car and off to Ormond Beach for the night.  We stayed at some random hotel and found a really good, fairly unpopulated beach area to hang out.  Our famous dislike of the beach was ignored while we spent 3 hours there.  Our assumption was the kids would go nuts building sandcastles.  In reality, they wanted to mainly go knee deep in the water with Dad then run out when it got too high.  Ben continually ran into the very edge of the water than nervously darted back out when it got close.  We say tons of crabs, got some shells and a starfish, and even got to see a sea turtle nest. 

And, sand everywhere.  Ugh.  There's a reason our golden years won't be spent touring America's beaches. 

Total steps, around 24,000 or 13.5 miles.