It’s so funny when my clients ask me about my days off, and what I do to relax, since I well... party for a living!
My hubby asked me the same thing when we decided to take a few days off and have one of those “va-kay-shun” things! :)
The first thing that I said was, “let’s not plan anything!” I’m a planner for a living, so I wanted to know what it feels like to be spontaneous and live without a direction, reservations, and a weather report! Yikes! We got in the car and decided to flip a Canadian coin (don’t ask) and see where good ‘ole Queen Elizabeth would send us! After packing our bags and loading it in the car, destination still unknown, we flipped for either North or South. North it is! We headed up I-75, a road we had traveled numerous times before, but this time we would stop when we saw something cool.
We ended up stopping at the Florida National Cemetary. We’d driven by it about a hundred times, but never did stop. It was truly amazing! Hill after hill of gravestones. Wow! That’s all I could say! I was speechless that we had such a patriotic place right here in the state of Florida!
After our visit to the cemetery, we continued north to Ocala, once again, a place that I frequently drove by, but never did stop to see. We checked out the historic district and poked around for a while. While in Ocala, we decided to head over to Gainesville, since we've never been to the University of Florida before.
After snapping a few photos around campus and of course, visiting the gator...it was time to flip the coin again! This time, it was for East or West! East, yey! To Jacksonville we headed!
Upon arriving in the Jacksonville area, it was late so we decided to get a hotel room, and it is true that you can get last minute deals at hotels by walking in. We stayed in a super nice room for not much green at all. After a good night sleep and a continental breakfast, it was time to explore Jacksonville! We headed over to Jacksonville Landing, a great spot with lots of shops, restaurants, and bars, overlooking the water.
We enjoyed some lunch, and then decided to drive until we hit the ocean!
Fernandina Beach was where we greeted the Atlantic Ocean! There were so many boardwalks meeting the water, it looked like a jagged crossword puzzle!
We continued to drive up the coast to Amelia Island. Totally adorable! We found a historic stretch of road lined with shops. Ahhh...I was in Heaven! After some shopping, we decided that seafood would have to be the end to this fun, seaside day! Hubby had the flounder while I enjoyed the crab. Over dinner we discussed our next adventure. Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth was left in the car, but we were enjoying the discovering so much, we decided to continue North to Georgia, Savannah to be exact!
We drove North, late into the night, and got a hotel room in Savannah, right off the interstate. Darn, it wasn’t as fabulous as our Jacksonville hotel, but still super nice! Upon awaking, we hit that brochure holder that every hotel has, to find a map to historic Savannah. Heck, we’ve been checking out the historic district of every other town, why stop now? After a 35 minute drive, we were pulling into prime historic Savannah real estate. We found a parking garage to park the car, and continued on to discover historic Savannah! We hit some fun shops, read about the history, and even sat on a bench for a while, just reflecting. We found an awesome sweet shop that claimed to have the best pralines in the South. Being from Louisiana, and enjoying pralines all my life, I just had to try them. They were right, they were the best! As we were walking back to our car, we realized that the parking garage was right next door to a Holiday Inn. Continuing our spontaneous attitude, we inquired. Vacancy! Yessssss!
Our room overlooked the main square of historic Savannah, and you could even see the river from our window. Hubby truly enjoyed the view! Once our room was secure, we headed back out to sample wine and have a great night. We found a great little restaurant and I seriously enjoyed the greatest sweet tea and caesar salad of my life!
After enjoying a quiet night in our downtown room, we had one more day, before we had to head home…life was waiting…pooey! So this is where my planning personality took ahold! We had a map and a list of twenty places to see…here we go!
We sat where Forrest Gump sat, we enjoyed the city fountain, and visited every single square in town! We saw it all and learned all about the wonderful city of Savannah.
While walking back to our car, confident that we saw everything there is to see, we saw an electric car go by with my two favorite words on the back “rent me!” I looked at my hubby with the biggest, gleaming eyes ever! He knows that I absolutely LOVE to rent electric cars everywhere we go! Destin…did it! St. Augustine…check! Savannah…here we go, baby! We drove to the rental building, and we were informed that they were closing in one hour, so we could only went the car for an hour…no problem! We were determined to drive the entire city in Savannah in 60…yikes, 59 minutes! Forrest Gump's spot, the city fountain, and all of the squares, we saw them all, again! After our noses were freezing and our hair was completely windblown, we got into our car, and Captain Hubby drove us back home. Before I knew it, we were back at home and back to life, with nothing but fun memories, and peach wine to remind us of our few spontaneous few days!
