The James Taylor song has always been one of my favorites and even more so now, after spending a month in this beautiful area!

When we left Florida in mid-March, we started our journey north with stops along the gorgeous Georgia coast on our way to the Carolinas.

Georgia

Jekyll Island was on our radar simply because of Driftwood Beach; however, there is more to this beautiful and quiet island! Jekyll Island was the winter home to many notable New Yorkers back in the day. Several of the homes remain on the island and some have been converted to guest rooms for overnight stays. The quaintness of the old buildings, the quiet shoreline, and the giant live oak trees provide simply the perfect backdrop for a relaxing few days.

Although cars are abundant on the island, we preferred riding our bikes on the oceanfront bike path. One day we spotted a few people with binoculars staring into a tree, so we stopped to see what was going on. Low and behold, we found ourselves looking at a Great Horned Owl nest with two baby owls! It was an amazing sight!

We had both heard wonderful things about Savannah and were excited to make this stop on our journey. What we hadn’t realized when we arrived on March 18th is that Savannah hosts the second largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the United States! The festivities lasted all weekend with a parade, several bands, open bars and people in crazy outfits EVERYWHERE! The scene was fun and energetic and something to keep in mind for our next visit!

The historic buildings and squares in Savannah are stunning. Furthermore, the azaleas and roses were in bloom and color lined the sidewalks. We had a fun day strolling the streets, visiting Forsyth Park and shopping at a local farmer’s market.

During our stay, some of our friends were vacationing on Tybee Island, which is 20 minutes outside of Savannah. We felt fortunate to spend a few nights exploring this quaint island and visiting with our pals.

Fort Pulaski is in this same area and is worth a stop. Keep in mind that we have seen a LOT of forts on our trip; however, this was the first that we saw with actual Civil War damage! There was only one battle fought here and the Confederates ‘lost’ the fort to the Union in two days! After 1862, the Fort served as a Federal Prison and later became a stop on the Underground Railroad.

(click on any picture to open the gallery and captions)

South Carolina

Like Savannah, Charleston is simply a gorgeous town. It is easy to get around and the architecture and flowers are beautiful. We went to the historic Charleston City Market, ate dinner with a friend, saw the Angel Oak tree and visited Fort Sumter. The Battle of Fort Sumter began the American Civil War and the fort was severely damaged.

We had a whirlwind few days visiting with family in Ocean Isle, NC before heading west to Sumter, South Carolina. Congaree National Park is a small park with really big trees! In fact, 25 trees in the park are the largest of their species in the entire country! Since Congaree is a floodplain, the mosquitos can be atrocious! However, the park holds a summer firefly festival where the insects light up the dark park; this would be a fabulous sight and is now on my bucket list!

Luckily, our visit aligned with the annual air show at Shaw Air Force Base! It was a wonderful surprise and we had a great day watching the airplane demonstrations. Mark captured some fantastic photos of the show!

North Carolina

From Sumter, South Carolina, we drove north to the beautiful Smoky Mountain National Park. Our original plan was to hike the Appalachian Trail through the Smoky Mountains with our friend Leslie. This would have entailed hiking 70-something miles in rain, mud and overnight temps in the low 30s. Um … no thank you! Instead, we offered to support her for 110 Miles of her hiking journey. (As I type this post, Leslie has hiked over 800 miles of the 2400-mile Appalachian Trail with a goal to finish in September 2022!)

We met Leslie and her hiking pals at 4 locations along the AT and provided them with resupplies, rides into town and general camaraderie. It was great to see our friends and cheer them on their epic journey (all while we stayed warm and dry in the van!).

During our time in the Smoky Mountains, we hiked several trails and admired a billion wildflowers of all kinds. Because the days were foggy and raining, the waterfalls were brimming and the day-to-day changes in the emerging leaves were evident. We hadn’t visited North Carolina in 10 years and we had forgotten how much we love the area. There is an endless amount of hiking and the scenery is simply breathtaking.

From the Smoky Mountains, our travels have been a whirlwind:

• We stopped in Louisville to watch our nephew play college golf. He placed 8th out of 50 players and made All-Conference! It was fun to watch him in his element and we are so proud of him!
• From Louisville, we headed north to Cleveland for a nice week visiting friends and family. We always look forward to our time at home and we were fortunate to see so many people during the week!
• From Cleveland, we drove southwest to Lawrence, Kansas to watch our niece graduate from KU. She earned a double major in geography and environmental studies and will continue school at KU next year to earn a master’s degree in Urban Planning. Again, we are beaming with pride!

And that takes us to where we are today … in northern Arizona on our way to Utah! Because of the vast terrain we have covered since May, we have camped in snow, rain, high wind gusts as well as near-perfect weather. We are looking forward to sharing our most recent adventures soon!

Thanks for reading our blog! We hope you are doing well and have fun summer vacation plans!

Debbie and Mark