Savannah/Charleston Spring Break Trip - Part I

Our Spring Break started out strong with the 4Runner passing a milestone on our 330 mile trek to Savannah, Georgia! We arrived right at check-in time - giving us plenty of time for our family to unpack the car and get settled in to our Vrbo! Our rental was a historic 1899 built home about 1.5 miles from the downtown Savannah Riverfront.  

    

First night’s dinner was at The Pirate House. It’s one of the earliest buildings constructed in Savannah, originally serving as an inn and tavern for visiting sailors. It has been preserved to its original state - including its distinctive “haint blue” shutters and doors, believed to ward off unwanted spirits.

We had reservations, but they were busy - granting us a few minutes to look around the lobby and peek upstairs at the gift shop (where after dinner Brock would score a cool t-shirt). 

We were seated in one of the side rooms - made it quieter, but we missed some of the building's character being back there. 

Kade received a child's menu - even though he didn't order from it - and it was so cool! Alas, he could not be persuaded to wear the pirate's hat, so only the picture remains. 

Brock was in good spirits! 

That night we really experienced city living. It was so noisy in our front room, it made it really hard to sleep. At least the boys were in the back bedrooms, so they slept well. In the morning, Brent and I needed a quick caffeine fix, so we walked over to the Starbucks inside Kroger while Moose stood watch.

Our first full day in Savannah was spent exploring - all five of us walked the 7 blocks to Forsyth Park. As we got closer to the park, the houses got nicer and nicer! 

Brock had Moose's leash for the majority of the walk - very proud of him working up to this stage - it's a lot of responsibility to walk a Corso!

Our first stop in the park was to take in the Civil War Memorial (originally the Confederate Memorial), originally dedicated May 1875 and renamed in 2018. 

The boys were fascinated by the caterpillars climbing all over the metal fencing. This is where they first learned the name of all the "fuzz" hanging from the oak trees - Spanish Moss! Kade was sure the caterpillars were purposely falling from the spanish moss onto his head! 

Kade and I explored the Fragrant Garden while Brock and Brent waited outside. 

It was designed for people with limited sight to enjoy - we spotted gardenia, lemon trees, roses, and mint!

Spanish Moss!!

Finally we made it to the Fountain! Originally installed in 1858 and constructed of white painted cast iron! 

They love to tease me about my posing. 

Absolutely gorgeous!

2026 TAC Titans Tarheel States Meet

We have a guest writer this blog ------ Brock!! 

This event was my best event and is the closest to getting the A time and champs cut. An A time is a fast time for the top 15% of swimmers. I got to wear my techsuit and a techsuit makes you swim faster in the water and it doesn't get any water in your suit which helps you speed through the water.

I had to come back in the water later to swim an extra time because I swam so fast. 

The 200 Free is way harder than you think. It's a long distance. 

100 butterfly was my worst event of the swim meet. I tested positive on Friday and swam in the pool on Wednesday so I was a little tired. 

This was my 2nd best event of the swim meet and I cut a lot of time on a 50.

This was my first time doing the 200y Breast stroke. I did pretty good. 

My mom took a video of my name being called at the finals. 

Dad got a text at 4:30 from my coach and my coach said that I made it to Finals and I need to hit the water soon. I didn't know that I was that good because I didn't make the top 24. The people in the top 24 scratched and then I swam. Dad was driving really fast and got there at 5:15 and I swam 45 minutes later. 

Dropped 10 seconds in another difficult event.

Morehead Planetarium & Science Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

We planned a nice visit to the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill with my Dad and Nana Phyllis. Before entering the museum, we spotted this enormous 36 foot diameter sundial outside the museum!

Once inside, we had about an hour to explore the science museum before the show. 

Papa and his grandsons worked hard at this Space Quiz - Kade, true to form, had his own way of answering them = pushing random buttons as quickly as possible before the others even had a chance to read the choices! 

Our show "Carolina Skies" shared how the night sky would look without all the light pollution. It was pretty interesting to see the boys make the connections between astronomy, astrology, and a little Greek mythology! 

The boys even scored some new Carolina shirts while we visited! 

We did learn during the show that Morehead Planetarium was the first to be built within a University. Built in 1949 and designed by the same Architects of the Jefferson Memorial, it is a beautiful building!

Saturday was a big game matchup between UNC and Duke, so we figured getting out of Chapel Hill and back into Cary would be better. Hickory Tavern was just as loud! Ooops! They had the game on every tv in the place so it definitely felt like a very Carolina kind of day! And Kade was happy with the chicken - rated it a 9 out of 10!

Thank you both so much for taking us to the planetarium and spending the evening with us. The boys loved learning - and finding - Sirius and Polaris in the night sky. We really appreciate you two making it such a special evening. ✨

Oak Island 2026

 

This year we planned to be part of the race action in Oak Island! We signed up in September and the boys (Brent and Brock) have been training hard for the 5k! 

The Oak Island race markets itself as one of the flattest courses around! 

I was surprised at how many people were "running" the 5K. I use that term loosely.... people were walking right from the beginning - totally fine, but they should move towards the back or at least walk to the side to let the runners pass! 

Kade and I found an ideal spectator place and kept our eyes out for our two runners! 

Finally we spotted Brent! We yelled for him, but he probably didn't hear us with all the commotion and his music playing in his ear! 

He told us afterwards that he was able to pass that guy in the neon yellow shirt! Way to push yourself all the way to the end!

And I had just about finished my sentence of "now let's spot Brock" when we saw him coming up the way too! 

Happy to be done! They were both pretty sweaty, but oh so proud! 

Here are their stats - not bad at all for Brock's first 5k!!

A close-up of the cool 5k medal! 

Everyone was a bit tired after the early morning start - obviously more so Brock and Brent. After a second breakfast, we turned on our favorite vacation channel - The Price is Right, the Barker era - playing 24 hours a day! Awww - same year as a favorite Uncle was born! 

A lazy Saturday for all - napping, foosball, board games and I got to start AND FINISH my book! 

Of course we trekked over to the beach on this gorgeously sunny day! 

Oh Moose! 

Look at how calm that water was! It was like a lake! 

Happy boy!

Brock wanted him to dig, but not hurt any crabs - perfect to do in the day.

Kade was happiest right by the water's edge building a wall. We reminded him the water is pretty cold - he still got his hands and feet in it. 

Beach hair! 

After a filling Sunday breakfast of french toast and sausages, we went out to the top porch to watch the marathon runners. 

Moose very much loved keeping an eye on them! 

Kade and I really wanted to go to the beach one more time and even though it was cloudy, the radar looked clear, at least for a bit. 

No one out on the beach with us and it was eerie and amazing! Kade played in the sand and I hunted for beautiful shells..... and then the bottom fell out. We ran back to the house - and saw that Brent had come to rescue us!! Alas, we were only 3 houses down, so opted to keep going. It made for a fun memory of being totally drenched and laughing with Kade, then coming inside for a nice warm shower! 

We ended our day with our annual foosball tournament and a visit to Southport for yummy dinner of lobster ravioli, burgers x2 and chicken tenders - I'll let you guess which of us had what! 

Thank you so much to Brian and Nancy for allowing us a weekend stay in your amazing beach house! Alas, we cut it a day shorter than we usually do as Wake County schools took away our President's Day holiday for a makeup snow day. A short stay, but a memorable one!