RV Spring Break: Savannah to Miami

Oh, hey, we made it to Savannah. Time for a nice stroll (well, as leisurely as Brooke will allow).

 

I was pretty excited to be going to Savannah, even if we could only stay for a few hours. The tricky thing with having an RV is finding a place to park. The Fahm Avenue parking lot had RV spots and then we walked over to the historic district.

Meadow should go to the Savannah College of Art and Design. You know, if she can get a scholarship.

Savannah is just as cool in person as you think. I should have done at least one house tour.

I had to embarrass Meadow with taking her photo in front of the first Girl Scout Headquarters. 

Brooke got me to go into the beautiful Catholic church right in the historic district. I don't think I've ever been in a Cathedral Basilica. Usually it's one or the other.

It seems like every few blocks there was a perfect square. We should build all cities like this.

For lunch we went to Savannah Smokehouse. We ended up getting the sampler for 2, which was obviously going to be perfect amount for the 4 of us.

Would've preferred a hole-in-the-wall bbq joint, but it would do.

I later learned that Chippewa Square is where Forrest Gump waits for this bus. 

All the...white cars (in the melody of that Blink 182 hit).

 

haha

We had to stop in Pulaski Square.

We Poles are very proud of him. Embarrassingly,  I finally found out he was a hero of the American Revolution on this trip.

 

 I wanted to stroll through Forsyth Park.

 

We also stopped at the playground for a bit.

 

We could've walked the Historic District all day long, but we had a house in the slightly less historical Victorian District to check out.

The Victorian district was also full of picture perfect homes.

We didn't want to carry around water bottles. That was a dumb idea. We were all feeling the heat and getting dehydrated. Theo complained about being so hot right as we walked by someone. He said something about it being worse in the summer. We explained we were from the north and not used to this.

I could've walked around here for days. Except everyone else was feeling worn out. So maybe not.

We treated the kids to Doki Doki for some ice cream to cool down. 

 

And $20 for water.

I'd expect this aesthetic in Miami, but the ice cream was great.

 

As an aside Brooke likes to complain about the always at least somewhat flattering pictures of her. And then shares this...

 

We stayed at Fort McAllister State Park for our one night in Georgia. In hindsight I wish we'd spent more days in North Carolina and Georgia.

 

Agreed. 

We took in a perfect sunset along the Red Bird Creek.

 

We talked with someone who was fishing and said during high tide the lower dock is almost as high as the upper dock. 

 

 

I woke up early the next morning to catch the sunrise but it was too cloudy. 

I did run into an armadillo.

 

Theo's turn to drive.

Hey, we made it to Florida. Jacksonville to be exact. I did not realize that both Savannah and Jacksonville were on their state's respective northern borders.

We decided to explore the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve on the eastern end of Jacksonville.

 

I like visiting the National Monuments and historic sites just as much as the parks. 

I think this was the hardest Junior Ranger book we've done thus far. 

A recreated Fort Caroline was our second stop after the visitor center.

 

The state park we stayed at the night before also had a fort. It's hard to imagine soldiers battling in this environment. 

The kids got their second Junior Ranger Badges of the trip before heading onto our next destination in the park.

On a more somber note we visited the Kingsley Plantation, which for much of its history was run in the Spanish form of slavery vs the even more brutal American chattel slavery.

 

The mistress of the house was a former slave. I had never heard of that happening before. When Florida became a state they had to move to Haiti as interracial marriage was not allowed. 

The self-guided audio tour is well worth your time. 

Vacations need not be all fun and games. Your kids need to know about the good and the bad of American history. You can both love your country and be troubled by its failings.

Our vacations usually include ice cream everyday. Bonus if it's a custard joint. 

Whit's Frozen Custard if you were wondering.

We finally got to the beach portion of our trip. We were in Florida after all. The campground and beach at Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park were perfect.

 

This campground is apparently the place to be. You can only enter the park after a certain time if you have a campsite reservation or a guest pass. 

The kids are just so happy by water.

I mean I am too. 

Loved watching the e-bikes and beach cruisers racing down the tide soaked beach.

We were hoping to find some seashells. 

And they did.

The vibes in the campground were equally great. 10/10 would do it again. 

 

It's was a big campground that was completely full. The foliage made it feel a little more private. 

 

 

I do like the size of the campervans better but it is nice to have both beds inside. 

I think Brooke's struggling with the fact that she actually prefers RVs.

 

Not at all. Would pick a camper van over an RV. 

Again, no one wanted to get up with me in the morning to watch the sunrise. Boy did they miss out. 

We all slept soundly while Brooke enjoyed the morning and then made our way down the A1A.

Brooke wanted us to stop in St. Augustine to visit the supposed Fountain of Youth. Instead we explored the oldest continuously settled city in America's old town.

 

Savannah and St Augustine were the two cities I was most excited about on this trip.  I did want to see the Fountain of Youth but there was no where to park with the RV. Scott tried to park on the street and the cars behind us were not having it. We found a free RV parking spot by Francis Field and then walked over to the historic district.

Gotta stop in the gift shops for Meadow.

I think I love Florida art.

This strangely felt like we were at the Renaissance Festival.

The kids were already hot and hungry so we got some pretzels at Ben's Soft Pretzels. 

The big April protest against the Trump administration even made it to Florida. 

 

I totally forgot about the protests. I thought it was just a bunch of cool old people.  Well, I guess they still are cool old people.

We thought this palm tree growing in the middle of this tree was cool.

 

"Take a picture of me looking like I'm climbing up the tree." Thanks Meadow.

 

You know when we get on an ice cream kick, we can't stop. This time we stopped at Peace Pie.

For ice cream sandwiches. 

That's really all they have.

We promised the kids more beach time, so we stopped at Melbourne Beach in Indialantic, Florida.

 

We had to drive by so many beaches because the parking lots were not accommodating to our big vehicle.  Even parking here wouldn't have been possible had most people not already left for the day.

Riptide kept us from swimming, but we played in the waves nonetheless.

Can you tell the kids love beaches?

Donald McDonald County Campgrounds RV sites were just serviceable, but we weren't looking for much more.

 

I accidentally left our bedroom window open a crack. All night long Meadow and I were eaten alive by teeny tiny biting bugs. 

I remembered Jupiter Island being magical from a work trip. So, first thing in the morning we headed to Nathaniel P. Reed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge Beach.

More rip tide currents. So much for getting to swim on this trip. 

The prettiest beach of the bunch. Quite possibly. Were beaches getting old? Also quite possible. How do people do this for an entire vacation?

Theo could do this for an entire vacation. I also don't get it. 

We went into the waves a bit while an old lady scoffed behind us about how unsafe it was. 

 

After a couple hours we had had enough beach time. 

Did I ever tell you the Brooke's not only beautiful, but also the perfect travel companion. Loves hiking and historical neighborhoods? Perfect.

 

At this point I was bored with Florida and regretted not doing another night at Great Smokey Mountains. 

We were now on day 4 of an ice cream binge. Beaches and ice cream keep the doctor away is how the old saying goes, right?

The Village Scoop Shack was just OK, but Meadow's cone was epic.

Afterward we returned to Jonathan Dickinson State Park where we camped for the last time on this trip.

Absolutely dig the slash pine scrubland found along coastal Florida.

To kill some time, Theo and I did some geocaching. 

And played some card games. Better shut that door before more biting flies come in. 

Then just as we did on the day we got our RV, we had to wait a while at Miami's Indie Campers location.

 

Not to mention the stressful drive to get to the drop off location. We avoided the freeway as much as we could. Driving into Miami in an RV was a little white knuckle for us newbies. Thanks for being our chauffeur this trip Scott. 

Would I go with Indie Campers again? Meh, maybe not. So far Roadsurfer has been my favorite. They seemed far more organized and informative. I honestly used Roadsurfer's tutorials for how to use our RV.

I don't have strong feelings about either. Both were better than Escape Campervans. 

Eventually we made it down to our hotel in Miami Beach.

 

We lucked out with a front view. However, our room was right over the restaurant down below.

 

We were starved and thought we'd fix our hanger with a slice of pizza.

The vibes are always right here.

South Beach for our last beach bum day of the trip.

 

 

We definitely stood out with our rash guards and being the only American family with kids at this beach. But hey, at least we finally got to go above our waists.

 

Theo enjoyed watching the diners below our room at Casa Boutique Hotel.

We shared a few dishes at Safron Grill just down the street from our hotel.

Theo's mind would be blown by the ice cream at Midtown Creamery (this location has since closed but you can still get this over in Miami proper).

This is why his mind was blown. 

Insanity.

Other parents: You can't take your kids to Miami Beach at night.

Us: Yes, yes we can.

Miami was never a place I had any interest of going to. I ended up liking it more than I thought. Any city that's lively at night is my kind of place. 

I've been trying to tell her that Miami rules. Well, at least Miami Beach.

I loved all the hotels light up in bright colors. 

Such a rad place. Worth all the beach days, just for this.

Today was the last day of our trip. For breakfast we stopped at 11th Street Diner.

 

We lucked out with the weather this entire trip. On our last day it called for rain all day.  

Theo lost his first tooth! He didn't want us to see it so I had to sneak this photo.

 

 Since it was going to be rainy we used our Minnesota Science Museum passes and went to the Frost Science Museum in Miami proper.

It was crazy to be in a building that was mostly outside. 

Feel like this was a decent way to spend a rainy day.

Outside the museum they had cat and dog statues painted by local artists. 

One last meal: Pierogi One right across from the museum.

 

You know we had to try it. 

Since we were headed back to cooler temps we changed into our Minnesota clothes before leaving. Boy did I feel out of place. 

 

Scott and I used our Walker Valley duffel bags on this trip. It was great to be able to carry on our backs and bonus they still count as carry-ons. 

As pre-check fliers we like to get to our flight as the plane is being boarded. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by 2 hours.

 

So long Florida. Miss you Georgia.