New Years Vacation Day 1 - Savannah, GA

We love to go on adventures for the New Year and this year we decided to go on a cruise as neither Lorne or myself had ever been on one. Of course, Jasmine hadn't either - but she doesn't get much of a say as to what we do or where we go! We chose a cruise that departed out of Miami, FL and after checking the prices on flights, we decided driving would be the way to go. It even got more attractive as the gas prices got lower and lower. We decided to take 2 driving days to get down there. Since Lorne has traveled so much, we used his Hilton points to book a hotel at our halfway point in Savannah and one in South Beach, Miami.
We packed the car and left Saturday morning the 27th of December and drove all day toward Savannah, only stopping for gas, lunch and potty breaks (which were more than usual due to my advancing pregnancy). The traffic was horrendous most of the day and the trip took much longer than anticipated due to other travelers on the road taking advantage of the lower gas prices. We also encountered a lot of construction. But, we didn't care, we were happy to be together and we had come prepared with movies for Jasmine, games, books, toys and music.
We arrived around 10 PM in Savannah and went right to sleep - we were all exhausted. The next morning, we decided to eat a big full breakfast that was even better to eat because it was free - we indulged in the large buffet offered!Since I had never been to Savannah, I begged Lorne to postpone leaving for a few hours so we could take a trolley tour of the city and I could get a feel for this cute place I have wanted to visit for some time. He agreed and we did a 2 hour tour where we saw most of the squares in Savannah and the historic places, homes and movie locations (where Forest Gump was filmed, etc.).
While we waited to be picked up for our tour, Lorne entertained Jasmine by playing a cute game with her where he told her to touch the stone lion's nose and make a wish and then run around and do it all again. As you can see from the pictures, Jasmine took to this game rather well. The lady operating the trolley was funny and full of information and it was entertaining to listen to her. She had everyone yell to say hello to her and she gave us a map where we could follow where we were going. Jasmine ended up falling asleep on her daddy's lap and that made it even more peaceful for us to pay attention and take in the local flavor of this quaint Southern city. I love seeing the moss on the trees and the architecture of the buildings and homes. We even saw Paula Dean's store and her flagship restaurant, The Lady and Sons, which was already booked for the entire day.After the tour, we got in the car and headed off so that we could get to Miami that evening (Sunday Dec. 28) as we wanted to have a good sleep before we were due to sail the next day. We encountered a lot of traffic again, trying to get out of Georgia but once we hit the Florida state line, the traffic cleared and we had smooth sailing all the way to Miami.
We arrived at our hotel around 10 PM again and settled in for a good sleep in our hotel.