Well, we are back from our trip to Savannah, GA- Birthplace of Juliette Low, founder of Girl Scouting in the USA. I had 5 girls and 2 adults. We left on Valentine's Day (Tuesday) after school and got back President's Day (Monday) night at 7pm. It was a total of 1601.0 miles roundtrip including the little bit we drove around down there. And we managed to keep it to about $450 including hotel, gas, program fees, patches, and food. Souviniers were extra, of course!
We visited the Birthplace of Juliette Low, the First Girl Scout Headquarters, the Andrew Low house, Tybee Marine Science Center (which I was very disappointed with), the beach, the Savannah History Museum, the Railroad Roundhouse Museum (where Grandfather Gordon started the railroad), Old Fort Jackson, Bull River Marina for a dolphin and eco tour, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist for mass (in which we got drenched trying to run through the raindrops), and Christ Church (where we met and took photos with Juliette Low's great nephew Dick Platt).
We ate at some awesome places and met awesome people at Smooth on Bull- a cafe across from the Birthplace, One Eyed Lizzy's right on River Street, The Pirate House Restuarant where we met a lady dressed as Pirate Anne Bonney who took us around the old place and told stories, Lighthouse Pizza where the shop owner had so much fun exchanging jokes and riddles with my girls that he made them free cinnamon sticks, and also Leopold's Ice Cream- where we had sandwiches and ice cream while being surrounded by movie memoribilia. And we had lots of fun at Cracker Barrel in some town in West Virginia on the way home!
We also stopped at the Scenic Overlook and visitor center of the New River Gorge to stretch our legs... it was fun trying to navigate the snowy wooden steps! The driving down was rainy, but decent... coming back, we nearly decided to stop at a hotel earlier on our trip due to the snow storm, but just when I was deciding it was becoming unsafe to continue due to the very slushy highway, the road cleared up and was clear to our pre-arranged hotel! That night, we had snacks and drinks from our bag as well as a little bit of left over bread, peanut butter, and jelly... because I wasn't driving anywhere and pizza was going to take over 2 and a half hours to be delivered! Luckily nobody starved! We did pass the driving time by watching ALL of the Harry Potter movies (#5 twice) and making swaps on the way down and making friendship bracelets on the way home.
I had a wonderful time. I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to do this trip with my Girl Scouts. At many times, we were actually part of the attraction- like during our Birthplace tour- a public group was going through as well and they were pointing to us (if photography was allowed inside, I'm sure they would have been taking our photo). Also at the Smooth Cafe across the street- a woman said to her companion "Oh look, there's some real Girl Scouts!"
-Jen
