Jacksonville/Savannah Vacation

Josh and I returned from our vacation last week. Although it didn't feel entirely long enough, we seemed to have accomplished quite a bit.

Wednesday - we headed to Kansas City, a day early, because we decided to get last minute tickets to see Green Day in concert and we are certainly glad we did. We got a free seat upgrade and were quite suprised when Franz Ferdinand opened up for Green Day! Green Day was awesome -- just like a crazy concert that I would have attended when I was in highschool. While in KC we also managed to hit Uno Pizza for some deep dish pizza --something Josh and I seriously love.

Thursday - we got up early and went to Half Price Books where Josh and I stocked up on more books! This has quickly become my favorite bookstore and the prices are so reasonable. We also went to Einstein Bros. Bagels and I had a green chili bagel with cream cheese, yum... Afterwards we headed to the airport for a day of flying. We finally landed in Jacksonville around 6 PM. We drove through Jax and I took Josh through some of my old places, like the first apt I lived in Jax. Back in 1996 it was in Sin City -- it doesn't look the neighborhood has improved any. We checked into our hotel and then went to dinner at Bono's BBQ. I don't like BBQ but I love Bono's. It was my most requested restaurant on our trip. We ended the evening by walking around on the beach and eating gelatis which are custard and italian ice desserts.

Friday - we woke up and we're ready to do some shopping. Jax has a new shopping district called St. John's Towne Square with lots of neat stores. I managed to spend some money at Ulta and Urban Outfitters. That evening we met my good friends Corey and Karen at Bucca de Beppo for dinner. The food was ok, I actually think it was overrated and pricey but we had a good time anyway. It was so nice to catch up with my old friends and for them to meet Josh. They also seemed to enjoy him much more than my ex, lol. Later that evening Josh and I headed to Dave & Buster's. Josh loves D&B and since we don't have one in Wichita, we had to go. Our favorites are skee ball, Deal or No Deal, and now the spining relex game. I hit the jackpot on the spinning reflex game so Josh kept encouraging me to play again and again.

Saturday - we woke up early again and headed to St. Augustine to meet my friend Corey and her family for the day. We drove down A1A the entire way and checked out Vilano beach. It had obviously had a lot of recent beach erosion because it had a lot of new sand. We found an awesome hotel, very retro, that I would love to go back and stay at called the Magic Beach Hotel.

Once in St. Augustine we walked around St. George street with my friends and had lunch. I was able to hang out with her boys who are darn cute. It was terribly hot and muggy though so I ended up getting a bit of a headache. We headed back to Jax to relax a bit before heading to Singleton's Seafood Shack. Singleton's is famous to the area and the freshest seafood in town. Check out our dinner!

Sunday - we woke up early to drive to Savannah in order to get our name on the list for dinner at Paula Deen's Lady & Son's restaurant. We made it and were able to get on the list! Afterwards we headed to the Flannery O'Connor childhood home. This was my reason for wanting to travel up to Savannah. I love Flannery O'Connor and after reading about her home on Literary Traveler, I had to go. The tour was interesting and I found the stories about Flannery's reading habits to be very entertaining. She often wrote in her books and "graded" them. And unsuprisingly the original Grimm's Fairytales were a favorite. Also, while visiting the home I found out about Southern Literary Trail. Some of my favorite authors are included and I'm thinking future vacations could include some places on the trail.



We did some shopping in downtown Savannah and I found two really neat stores, The Paris Market and Cherry & East. Once we were done shopping we were ready for dinner at Paula's restaraunt. The food was so good, Josh kept telling me he was tempted to leave me for Paula Deen. Our favorites were the lemonade, hoecakes, cabbage, sweet potatoes, and gooey butter cake. The gooey butter cake is something I will be blogging about in the future. I bought one of Paula's recipe books and have already made it at home. Later that evening we took a ghost tour by trolley. I was able to capture a spirit orb at Colonial Park on film.

Monday - we headed to Bon Aventure cemetery. I was afraid we weren't going to make it but we did. The cemetery was beautiful, the mosquitos were awful! I was bit at least 20 times and had to slater my ankles in Caladryl once we returned home, and even then, they were still pretty itchy. Once we finished the cemetery we headed back to Jax to fly home. We missed the girls and were ready to get back home (um, not work though). Here is my favorite statue at the cemetery: