Savannah: Day 2 - Evening

Back to Savannah.

After a great morning and afternoon walking around on a beautiful day, we went back to the hotel.

I took a nap. The others enjoyed the pool and hot tub!

That evening we went out to eat - at this fun restaurant called Fiddler's Crab House.

And actually did not go down to the river front, but stayed by our hotel even though there was one near the river.

I thought it was pretty awesome - they had a waterfall coming off their roof. We all kept freaking out because we'd think it would be raining and then we'd realize that it was the waterfall.

Hey, there was alcohol involved.

Party of Nine

It was a fish place. The boys had to get some oysters.

Joel and Darin (with gross oysters)

Suz and Meghan trying them for their first time.

Thankfully I didn't have to do it because I had already tried one a couple of weeks ago with our friend Russell (Maggie's Dad) in Orlando. Phew. I have to admit though that that weren't that bad - all I could really taste was cocktail sauce.

The Group:
Darin, Del, Meghan, Joel, Josh, Janice, Suzanne, Christina, and John
How'd we get to know these great people?

Afterward, we went back to the hotel, took another cab downtown (same lady actually), and went to Kevin Barry's Irish Pub.

I had me a black and blue. Guinness on top - blue moon on bottom. Tasty.

And yes, I was (and am) a Guinness drinker. One person was impressed saying I was the only girl he'd ever seen drink one. I think they're great actually. Particularly with blue moon in them.

We listened to this great Irish singer - a man in in late fifties (I'd guess) was wonderful. He even sang "Take Me Home, Country Roads" sang by John Denver. Suzanne requested it because she was born there (so was Meghan) and the whole bar sang with him. Pretty fantastic.

"Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads."

To be a country girl - I guess living in the south for 12 years now kind of transformed me. I guess that's what happens when you fall in love with the land and sunshine and water.

Loved Savannah. Not as much as Charleston, but it was right up there.

Slightly Nerve-racking

We finally had time to spend outside on Saturday.

The bushes and trees were having growing spurts.

Yikes.

Ended up hedging like crazy and making everything look nice - except for flowers. Not sure if we'll do those this year because they tend to just die in our no-sunshine yard.

But while racking up the leaves, I found this little guy.

He/she wasn't our usual black snake - we liked him a lot and got excited to see him.

This sucker was something different. He/she was staring at me. I left it alone and went to find Darin to show him. The snake was very pretty.

Wanted to share. I'll try to get a picture of him/her next time.

(We haven't named it yet. If we see him/her again, we will give it a name and gender.)

Savannah: Day 2 - Daytime City

We went to lunch on Saturday in the City Center area of Savannah.

Ate pizza. It hit the spot.

Walked around the area before.

Girls with a frilly umbrella. It just happened.

Happy John, Del, and Darin.

Savannah was very historical.

Joel fought Darin. (And won, actually.)

Suzanne was watching for the other troops.

Unknown statue.

Walked back to the cars. Took some pretty pictures.

It was gorgeous.

But went went back to the hotel, and I took a nap.

Savannah: Day 2 - Daytime Walk

Next day we did the tourist thing - parked our cars and walked. And walked.

Savannah has total country charm. It's one of those places that you should visit.

(Just like Charleston, SC).

The trees. Oh, the trees. I took a lot of pictures.

We walked around and just looked. Saw the true charm of the city in the houses and squares. It was very enjoyable and the day was perfect to just meander.

The group - with Joel (but no Darin)

Beauty!

Darin and Del.
Don't we look like tourists?

Beautiful stained glass - from this church

The streets.

Stairs to the riverfront.

We walked forever and then so more. Ended up just having the best time though. Visit.

Savannah: Day 1

My friend Josh had this fantastic idea to take a group trip up to Savannah.

He's a smart guy, that Josh.

A bunch of us headed up last Friday to enjoy a beautiful city and a wonderful spring day.

Ended up staying in the Southside (whatever that meant) in a very nice hotel right in the middle of everything. Worked out great!

That evening we went to a brewery for dinner - the Moon River Brewery. Right on the river.

Heaven in Savannah.

The group:
John, Darin, Del, Janice, Josh, Meghan, Suzanne, and Cristina

The stars of the show. Seven types. Yikes.

It was a really nice place - great reasonable food and good beer. A lot of beer that was. Darin and I both got flights. I guess it was a good idea to get a cab to drive us down to the restaurant?

Perfect.

One year. One week.

After dinner, we wondered around the area and found this older bar with beautiful distressed wooden floors. The Bayou Cafe - cute in a rustic way.

The boys played manly pool. And the girls talked.

Foxy Josh and Darin

Suzanne, Cristina, and I

And we took a cab home. All eight of us in one minivan cab. Scary actually.

Suz, Meghan, Josh, and Janice.

But we made it back - and after a quick dip in the hot tub, we were sleeping like little lambs.

FIRST Competition

In case people didn't know, I was involved in robotics in college - we started the first ever women's robotics team at my school and at this event. It was pretty important to me my last year of school, and I really got excited about building metal things (compared to wooden ones) and working with others.

In graduate school, I became a mentor for Team #281 in FIRST - a robotics competition for high school students. I really had a great time working with the crazy high schoolers (yak) and participating in FIRST. It's a great organization for students interested in building/engineering/programing robots. And it's fun.

But it was a huge time commitment. Huge. During the season, I'd drive up to Greenville (like 45 minutes) every day after school to help machine the robot. Every night for like two weeks. Overall, I loved the experience, but ended up not joining a team here in Florida. Though the whole thing basically started here...

Anyway, five years ago I started volunteering for the Regional here in Orlando. Not only do I get to experience this great event, but I have also met some fantastic friends.

Fantastic ones!

So this year I helped again - as my evil role as Lead Querer (getting the robots in order and ready to go on the field).

I'm evil. I'm efficient. Some of the kids like me, others not so much. Oops. But I am fair, and I feel that I lead a good example to these kids by being strict, but friendly. Ha.

This event allows for my evilness to come out for a weekend. It works out well for everyone involved.

Anyway. Here are some photos.

The field.

Maggi and Steve (her Dad)

The event was on March 11th-13th. For some, ahh, reason I missed it last year. And my wonderful husband let me go this year instead of a fun, relaxing cruise we were thinking about going on.

I enjoy myself every year and look forward to the next. The people who volunteer were amazing as ever, and I couldn't have been more evil.

Bowling P.R.O.

I'm sitting here trying to think of something clever for P.R.O. to stand for.

Pretty Random O.

What the heck are some nouns that begin with the letter O? Orphan. Oreo (I think it's because I want chocolate). Oklahoma. Orange.

I am left at a blank.

***

We went bowling with some friends a week or so ago, it was fun. This post is not about that. This post was/is 100% about my bowling score.

I got a turkey.

In the last frame. (Which I have done before, I do believe).

I called to tell my Dad what I did (you have to share bowling scores with fathers, it's what you do) and he was interested in my final score. Sigh. If you look above it was 95. Oops.

I told him and he laughed at me. Mean father. :)

We were bad bowlers. Darin was even bad (he's freakishly good at bowling with his own ball). And I came in second. Go Del.