Extra! Extra! Savannah, Charleston, and the Way Back

Having returned to hibernation in the frozen north, now seems like the perfect time to look back at the week that was, starting with our flight from the magical world of 80-degree high temperatures on Monday. A certain fellow traveler (mostly grounded ever since her New Year's indiscretions) had a hard time letting the tropics go.


Liberated from US 1 for the moment (though we would meet again later), we blazed down interstate highways 4 and 95 on our way to Charleston, SC where we would be staying the night. On the way, we stopped in right purty Savannah, GA for lunch.


From there, we continued up the coast to Charleston, reaching our destination before sunset for the first time ever on this road trip. After checking in to our hotel (by which time it was dark, of course), we took a spooky nighttime walking tour of the exquisite houses in the area.

Following that appetizer, we stuffed our faces with the most delicious barbecue this side of Texas at Jim 'N Nick's (Debby even had fried green tomatoes!). Here I am pictured with my dinner and manly Cosmo:

The next morning, we attempted to do the AAA walking tour of Charleston in drizzle and temperatures that were half what we had experienced just 24 hours earlier. A local passerby opined helpfully, "you picked a BAD time to walk around!"

Anyway, here's a little of what we saw:




Later that day, we stopped just south of the North Carolina border for -- you guessed it -- South of the Border, the mother of all tourist traps.

Unfortunately, much of South of the Border appeared to be closed for the winter (including the theme park, which looked particularly awesome), but I still managed to walk away with some tasty Tex-Mex.

After a brief sojourn at the home of friends in the DC suburbs, we at last set off on our way home. But not before a stop at the fantastic American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore:

The museum is dedicated to self-taught and intuitive artmaking. It is well worth a trip if you find yourself in the area.

Since Wednesday, we've been recovering and preparing for Debby's birthday today. (Happy Birthday!) Although we've come/to the end of the road, we'd like to thank you for following us on our journey and we hope it's been as fun for you as it was for us!

Until the next trip,
Cheers,
Ian and Debby

EXCLUSIVE! Disneyworld, January 10-11, 2008

For an early birthday present, Ian took Debby to the place where, as we were reminded ad nauseum throughout the day, dreams come true. January 12th was devoted to the massive Magic Kingdom, where our first task was getting in touch with our inner pirate.

Arrrr...

We also partook of such classic rides as "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,"

the ever-raunchy "It's a Small World,"

and "Space Mountain" (the fear of which Debby finally conquered, after being severely traumatized by her experience on said ride in Tokyo Disneyland in 1987).

We even caught the afternoon parade through Frontierland, which delighted Ian

and Debby

to no end, until the latter got a glimpse of the Evil (Women) Float featuring her nemesis, Maleficent, the witch who made her afraid of the dark. Eeeeep!!...

While "Uncle Walt"'s version of the future

and multiculturalism

were sometimes comically retro, all in all a delightful day was had in this land of-- count 'em-- a "million dreams."

We returned to the park the next day for Epcot, which juuuust fits into Ian's hand,

and at last scored a celebrity meeting!

We took in the Epcot greenhouses in "Living with the Land,"

blasted off to the future and Mars (with our fearless leader, Gary Sinise, and Ian Moss as "Engineer," responsible for activating the crew's hypersleep),

and then headed around the other side of the park to the "World Showcase," a massive sprawl of selected countries condensed to their "essences" to enable an international whirlwind tour in under an hour.

Here we pranced through tiny China,

dined in mini-Morocco,

peaced out in Japan, Jr.,

and got stuck in the Viking ride in not-so-Norway, where our hopes for an exciting evacuation were dashed when we simply ended up finishing the ride about 15 minutes later.

(This photo is not from Disney World, but seemed thematically related.)

Goodnight, and may Mickey bring you sweet, Disney-immersed dreams and inspiration!


Missing your maps? Fear not! Here's your daily dose.

and

Cherry on Top! Key West to Orlando - January 9, 2008

Our two road-wizened travels greet you from Orlando, FL, after a late-morning departure from Key West. Before we returned to the mainland, we stopped in Sugarloaf Key to get a look at Perky's Bat Tower. Poor Richter Perky wanted to build a hotel on this land, but feared there were too many mosquitoes. He heard that bats eat mosquitoes, so he erected this bat tower

and put up some bat-nip. The bats came, but promptly flew away, leaving only this weird structure as a legacy to Perky's foiled genius.

Before our next stop, we pulled over to capture these inspiring words. We hope they will move you as much as they did us.

We drove the Overseas Highway back, and along the way stopped to admire the electric poles in the water going all the way out to Key West.

Our big attraction of the day was Theater of the Sea in Islamadora. Theater of the Sea is kind of like Sea World, only cheaper, smaller and less crowded. But it more than sated our craving for some aquatic animal tricks. Our first show was with Wilbur, the sea lion, shown here doing his best walrus impression.

We also saw some colorful parrots,


sea turtles,

dolphins,
and a totally adorable baby shark that bore a striking resemblance to a Super Mario Bros. mushroom.

And we even made some friends:

At the end of the Overseas Highway, we did something we haven't done in days-- we got on the interstate! Without guilt! Eeeee!

Route 1 followers, we sing your praises

as we prepare our next update on Disneyworld!