Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Beach Vacation!!

Well, I got back l-a-t-e on Sunday night/Monday morning, exhausted, a little sick of my (new!) car, but totally happy. This girls' road trip totally lived up to all my expectations. I had so much fun, that this will unequivocally be an annual thing from now on, and absolutely essential to my happiness. ;)
We started off a little late (I overslept--I know, big surprise, right?), but well. We made it all the way to the foothills of the Appalachians without mishap, where I had a panic attack. Why? I have no idea except that maybe I hate the mountains more than even I thought, lol! And I do, truly, loathe the mountains. It only lasted a couple of minutes and then it was smooth sailing all the way to Mary's house! We got in at a decent time, had a little dinner, and went to bed. The next morning we were all up bright but not so early, but on the road in fairly good time to check into our hotel and be on the beach that evening. Two minutes down the road, my (new!) car died on us. We all looked at each other with 'what the crap?!' expressions on our faces, and nursed it into the parking lot of a dental office, which I found ironic, being as I'm a former dental assistant. We jumped out of the car, and opened the hood, and as I am in no way familiar with the Envoy's inner workings, could come to no conclusion. As we came back around the car, however, the problem became blarringly apparent. We were sitting in a humongous puddle of gasoline!!! More 'what the CRAP?!' expressions, and then we settled into calling in reinforcements. Thank goodness I brought a cell phone!! Mary's husband booked it out to us with his two kids in tow, and with a few maneuverings, I was settled at Mary's looking for a mechanic and a tow truck, while Mary, Timpani, Mary's husband and father and mother in law all tried to make what they could of what the FLIP was wrong with my (new!) car, which I hadn't even owned for two weeks at that point. Mary's father in law has some knowledge of cars, and determined that the fuel line had become detached, but could not locate the detachment, or why it became so, or how to fix it. He spied a mechanic across the street, strolled over and asked if they could just come look at it and tell us if it was going to be a major (ie expensive and time consuming) thing or not. They complied, and actually fixed it in five minutes for the grand total of $10!!! Hurray! It turns out that a connection had simply come loose, and they simply snapped it back on. We were back in business!! No more mishaps presented themselves, and in four or so short hours we arrived at our destination; Savannah, Georgia!! We checked ourselves in to our GORGEOUS room, which was on the third floor where we could over look the courtyard with the pool and jacuzzi house from our very own balcony!! It was a ginormous room with two queen beds, a mini fridge and microwave! We were totally in love with it! After we dropped our stuff off, we went to eat as we were completely starving by then. It was too late to hit the beach, but we did do a little shopping at the mall conveniently located a mere three blocks from our hotel. Then we did a little exploring, and crashed. The rest of this is better told through pics, of which I took a couple hundred, so I'll let them do most of the explaining. There were just a couple of stories that are not photographed; Timpani getting save by super-hot life guards, Diego the waiter, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Preston with her husband John Travolta actually on Tybee Island while we were there shooting Miley's new movie, and we actually passed them taping on the highway!!, the totally ostentatious yellow Lamborghini that cut us off....but one thing I want to tell about that I didn't get pics of was the last disaster to befall us on our vacation. Timpani and I had successfully dropped Mary off at home, and were headed there ourselves. We were somewhere in Kentucky, (and here's a shout out to Dana--you live in a fantastically beautiful state woman!), I think a few miles west of Paducah, when an ambulance came screaming up behind us. Timpani was driving, and dutifully started to ease over onto the shoulder when BAM!! One of our (brand-new!!) tires blew!!!! We found the culprit; a sharp metal hubcap cover which tore a huge chuck out of the tire. We cursed the thing roundly, and started trying to figure out where the heck my jack was, and how on earth we were supposed to get at the spare tire under the car. I had just called John for advice/support when a supremely kind soul stopped to offer assistance. He not only knew how to get my spare, and where my jack was located (under the back seat of all weirdness, and getting at the spare is no picnic, it's totally tricksy), he changed the tire for us!! Bless his sweet heart, and his wife and kids for allowing him to stop!! We had no further adventures all the rest of the way home, and I'll tell you something: I will be able to handle anything dished at me for any other road trip I go on. For sure. (not to tempt fate or anything, lol!!)

Here we are at the start of our trip, blissfully unaware that in less than five minutes, we are going to be totally derailed.

Here's where we encountered our first major dilemma. I am NOT happy.

Here we are after the crisis has been dealt with, in our 'We will NOT be STOPPED!!' pose.

Mary asleep in the back seat.
Our Hotel!! Long live Marriott!
Timpani drove the vast lion's share of the trip. I had to get at least one picture of her, lol!
I just got us checked in. I look really excited mainly because I AM!

Our pool!


Our Jacuzzi house!

Me and Mary at dinner after we checked in. We were totally focused, lol!!

We did a little shopping and trying on of things, and we couldn't get this dress, but doesn't Mary look HAWT?!

We found this button on our explorations around the hotel. We have no idea what it's for, it had no explanation, and it wasn't around anything. I found it totally hilarious! None of us had the guts to push it and find out what happens when you do. Where the heck is Brad Carter when you need him?!

The trees with all their Spanish moss gorgeousness!!

The streets were sooooo pretty!!

Here's a park we saw on the way to Tybee Island. Beautiful!!

This is Crepe Myrtle. I have no idea if I spelled that right, but it was everywhere in the south, and very pretty.

We crossed over lots of rivers and tributaries on our drive to Tybee. They were so different than the Mississippi River, all wandering and curvy...

This was the first thing I saw my first time on the beach. Great pic, eh?
Finally here! The ocean!!
My first step into the Atlantic! It was so warm! I loved it!
We shared the water with lots and lots of ships.
Beautiful!
More beautiful!
A little crab came up to say hello while we rested on our towels.
I poked him to get a better picture, and he totally went into this, 'If you touch me again I will slay you!!' pose. I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't take the picture! He was only about an inch and a half long!

Burying Mary in the sand. Thats the sand castle we made using only our little hands on the right there.
Mermaid Mary.
We got all dolled up and went out for a night on the town!
We did some shopping on our last day, and saw this maniquinn with the ginormous bazoongas. I, of course, HAD to get a pic with it, lol!
They have sea turtles on Tybee Island, and these sculptures were all over.
This is Timpani and I leaving Mary and heading home. A little redder, a little tireder, but happier by an inconceivable amount.



So who's coming next year??! ;)


The Almighty Liz

11 comments:

Jeanette said...

It looks like you guys had so much fun. It looks so beautiful there. What made you guys decide on Georgia? I love your swimming suit by the way. So cute. Hooray for the man who stopped and saved your day (and for that matter the guy who fixed your car for cheap). I've had a man help me with a tire before and it is such a blessing.

Anonymous said...

glad you had fun on tybee!!!

Renae said...

Sounds like fun. Lydia would cut off her nose to see Miley Cyrus!

Oh, I'd have pushed the button, and then probably ran.

lizS said...

jeanette-we decided on georgia because i wanted mary to come with us, and it looked really cool when i researched it. it just looked like there were a million things to do, and the research was right; there WERE a million things to do! we didn't even scratch the surface in our two and a half days there.
thanks kim!
and renae, you TOTALLY should have come with us!!! next year, you are going! no argueing!!

lizS said...

oh, and i forgot renae, that at one of the shops, you could by a miley t-shirt, and if miley saw you wearing it, she would drop everything and sign it!! the lady at the shop said she was super good about things like that, and really nice. they had a pic of her signing a little girl's shirt, too! lots of fun. ;)

timpani76 said...

It's funny that you thought us breaking down in the parking lot of a dental office was kismet, because Erik thought a hispanic mechanic fixing the fuel line was was kismet. Maybe Dana will think it was kismet with us breaking down in Kentucky, getting the car tire fixed by someone from Kentucky, but who now lives in O'Fallon, IL (play twilight zone music here)

That picture of Mermaid Mary turned out great! Also, I am always wearing heels with jeans from now on since they apparently make my legs looks so wonderfully long!

I also love the pictures of you standing in the swimsuit!

We still need to come up with a name for our group/trip/etc. ;)

lizS said...

How about the Horkers?

lizS said...

that was NOT ME!! that was john!! who will be beaten when he gets home from work!

timpani76 said...

Tybee Island Moms?

Escape from Saint Louis?

Ocean Explorers?

Beach Babes?

Escaped Mothers?

Wives Gone Wacky?

Wives of Weirdness (W.O.W.)

Mothers of Mayhem (M.O.M)

Moms & Ocean Marauders (M.O.M)

Hmmm, anyone else come up with anything?

lizS said...

the roadtrip sisters? the roadtrip mommies? oooo, i kinda like the roadtrip mommies! i like escaped mothers too. but what if someone comes with us that isn't a mommy? so maybe wives gone wacky, or the roadtrip wives or something less mommyish.

Anonymous said...

wow, Liz, AWESOME that you explained your trip and showed some pictures. I finally got around to checking your blog today ;-) That trip sounds like it was so much fun. Good for you!
-VIRGINIA