Savannah

Because we anticipate leaving Jacksonville sooner rather than later, we thought we should squeeze in a trip to Savannah, since everyone we know that has been there loves it. So we booked a hotel Friday night, and left early Saturday morning. We got to Savannah and walked around the downtown historic area. This is me on River Street, after about 1.5 hours of walking. I was pretty tired. I am 26 weeks pregnant here.















We continued to walk around, look at old buildings and in shops. We had lunch at Moon River Brewing Company, where I had the best sweet potato crinkle fries with this cinnamon dipping sauce, that the waitress said was fondly referred to as "Crack sauce" because everyone loved it and ate so much of it. I wish I knew the recipe for it.

Below are pictures of me at Forsyth Park, and of Alex on a random street that had cool old buildings and neat trees.















Around 3 in the afternoon, this preggo woman was pretty beat, so we left to check into our hotel, but stopped at Back in the Day bakery on the way out of the historic district. I had an awesome pumpkin crunch bar and Alex had some banana pudding that he thought was the best he'd had.

Once we got to the hotel, it started storming and didn't really let up, so we kicked it in our hotel--which was brand new, so still very nice-- for the rest of the night. The next morning we headed out to Tybee Island, the beach east of Savannah to cruise the town and the beach. The beach was gorgeous, and if Alex were a beach goer, I would have made him stay! We got to see a bunch of dolphins feeding in an inlet, which is always fun to see.















On the way back to Savannah we stopped at some fort that was built in the early 1800s or something (I don't retain much these days). Here is a picture of us there. I always like to be the taller one whenever possible! (I'm not sure why Alex always looks so uncomfortable in pictures, but he does.)



















We had lunch at a place called Uncle Bubba's which must have some connection to Paula Deen, because she (and her merchandise) were everywhere, and a Paula Deen tour group came in and got to eat before we did! After experiencing Uncle Bubba's we headed home to Jax. We had a fun little trip together, which I know we probably won't have many of after Baby Berger joins us!

My Trip to Okinawa

I figure that since I've been back for nearly a month, its about time that I write about my fantastic trip to Okinawa to visit with Scott, Joy, Calvin, and Oliver. I left on a Tuesday morning from Jacksonville, and arrived on Wednesday evening in Okinawa. The total trip took about 24 hours, which was long and at times uncomfortable, but on the longest flight I was given plenty of food, drinks, and free entertainment, so it wasn't anything compared to Joy's Space A adventures.

On Thursday, Joy and I did a little shopping while Calvin went to school and Ollie played at a friends house. That afternoon we headed north to a military resort on Okuma for some beach time. This is Calvin--such a cool dude in my sunglasses.


This is the beach where we played most of the day Friday.

Here is Ollie with Joy, who is also pregnant, but has a much cuter preggo belly than I do (as you will see below!).

Scott and I did some jet-skiing. In the picture below, poor Calvin hit his face on the handlebars when Scott hit the wake of a ski-boat. Scott just thought Calvin got scared because he got a lot of water in his face, but a bruise on the bridge of his nose later showed the damage.

Here are shots of cuteness (and Scott).

The next day, we headed to another part of the resort to collect hermit crabs. I think we probably captured (and Ollie gently tortured) over 30 hermit crabs.





After we left Okuma, we drove to the northern-most part of the island, where there were some incredible cliffs and waves. Here you can see my belly at about 23 weeks.
Here are other things we did and saw: Japanese park, with a massive slide not made out of a single sheet of metal or plastic but bunches of little roller-thingies that make your bum numb as you come down. Plus you have to climb about three flights of stairs to get to the top, which was not that easy for a jet-lagged pregnant woman!




We went to an old Okinawan village at Ryukyu Mura. This old lady was dancing around with a large bottle of alcohol on her head.

Calvin and Ollie got to try out the Japanese drums and other musical instruments.

Joy and I got pedicures at a Japanese salon. I think I am ruined for pedicures here in the states because of the treatment we got there. Plus, they do a lot more work with the nails to make your toes look like works of art.


Joy and Scott took me to some great restaurants for Japanese, Indian, and Thai food. All so yummy. We went to Pineapple Park where we got to ride some sweet pineapple themed golf carts and learned how pineapples are grown on the island. We tasted some yummy cookies, juices, and fresh pineapple. We went shopping at the Japanese equivalent of a dollar store, where I picked up some candy and snacks for Alex (by the way Scott and Joy, he liked the grape chewy candies--so we could always use more of those!) and some random things for the baby and myself. We went to a children's clothing store where I scored some awesome clothes for Baby Berger, and I can't wait til she can fit into some of the Japanese fashions I got.

Here are Calvin and Ollie showing off their Japanese pajamas and martial arts skills. Some of their impressive skills include squatting and yelling "Hiya!"



Ollie has some fantastic hair, which he let me run my fingers through quite often. I had joked with Scott and Joy that it was so long I could probably braid it, so the last morning I was there, this is what I did:


Hopefully Baby Girl Wilson will have similar hair, cause know we know that she will be pretty and her hair will be fun to play with!

I'm sure I'm forgetting to tell of all the fun things I got to do while I was there, but I am so glad that I made the trip. It was awesome to see the island and experience some traditional Japanese culture (oh, and Japanese McDonalds, which was also a treat!), as well as visit with Scott, Joy, Ca-ca and Ollie.