Sand Tastes... Oh, So Good

The sun was dying behind the steel and brick towers placed amongst the dunes like guardians over the endless stretch of sand. As the waves rolled out across our feet and the sand slowly swallowed our toes, our eyes took in the never ending sky, resting above the water and scattering the clouds to capture the final rays of light left above the Earth. The ocean was calm, ready to join the sun in settling down. It's at this time that we remember our motivation for being here. Paul walks out bravely into the water, unafraid, as it rises up above his knees and surrounds him on all sides. He reaches his hands out, his tiny fingers dipping into the swirling tide as it carrys the broken shells up from the depths to abandon them upon the shore. And then he falls... not just on his butt, but all the way into the water. Covered in salt and clumps of ocean mud, he waddles his bare feet out of the waves and puts a sand covered hand into his mouth. His mother informs me, "We didn't bring a towel."

Shortly thereafter, Paul learned that nothing tastes better on the last day of July than a sandy vanilla cone, and nothing makes more of a mess in our car.

Swimming Child

Paul and his mother spent last week taking swimming lessons at the YMCA, and it's looking like the lessons paid off. Here's just a quick video of him showing his stuff in the pool. We're preparing for the 2024 Olympics, go for Gold!!

New Cousin Arrives!

Paul wanted me to take a moment to announce the arrival of his newest cousin! Brooke Rebecca Clayburn was born yesterday, July 27 at 7:03 PM Idaho time. Her "favorite" aunt claims to be psychic, having guessed the date some time ago. This person would also like me to point out the fact that Brooke has an incredible middle name, in honor of somebody special I'm sure. She was 8 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches in length. Congrats to the new mom and dad, Kelly and Chris!

Paul was ecstatic, until he learned the Granny G Fund dropped 50 points yesterday. His portfolio is currently in ruins. Oh well, can't be the only Unbehend grandkid forever!

Oh Savannah, Don't You Cry for Me

Another weekend, and another fort we had yet to see. You'd think by now we would have seen them all, but apparently people were very scared living in these parts two hundred years ago. There's pretty much a fort in every town around here. So I like the history part, and Becky just likes to do anything to get out of the apartment for a day. Today, we made it up to Savannah.


Our first stop was Fort McAllister, about 13 miles south of the South Carolina border. It was actually much more exciting than I had anticipated. Online it looked mostly like a bunch of dirt hills, but when we visited... well, it was still just a bunch of dirt hills. But at one time General Sherman sat across the river (shortly after having burned the state of Georgia, peaches and all) and watched the fort get bombarded. That was about the only history to it. The oak trees were incredible as usual, and the aforementioned dirt hills were actually fairly impressive. But the highlight of the stop, was the fort mascot: a wicked Banana Spider who'd built her web just outside the door. Seriously, the largest spider I've ever seen in the wild. My Grandmother Sellers would have run screaming into the river. Some of them get to be the size of a human hand, and this one wasn't far off. Check them out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_spider

So, after Fort McAllister we ventured into the town of Savannah. We'd been there once before, but never stopped to look around. The twisting branches of the trees above your head, laden with rich emerald leaves and dangling moss (and probably deadly Banana Spiders) make for a unique Southern experience. Yes, I stole that from the tour map. We checked out Old Fort Jackson, yet another place where the Confederates bravely held off the onslaught of the Yankees, though I don't think it worked out in the end. The highlight of this fort once again was the wildlife. As we walked in we could see dolphins playing in the waters and even leaping completely out into the air! I know, it was cool, you should have been there. But it was really hot, and I lost probably seven pounds of water off of my head alone. Paul took a fall, a bad one. He smacked his head on the bricks so hard the Rebels woke from the dead. Thankfully, he was ok, but he has a rather large blue bump on his head. Don't worry grandmothers, one little concussion never hurt anyone.

See, he's fine. And now that I've written a novel, I'm going to bed. Until the next fort!

Excitement-Free Weekend

Looking back at the past few blog entries it appears we've ventured out quite a bit lately. No place overly exciting, but the past few weekends we have gone to somewhere new. Well, not this weekend. It was pretty excitement-free, unless you consider shopping at Costco exciting. We did make it out to Metro Park yesterday though. It's one of our favorite parks in town, due to the size and numerous locations for picture opportunities. We were attempting to take some good photos for you guys, but unfortunately the intense heat and non-cooperative child we brought with us made that difficult. We did get this one:



Oh, what a sweet little boy. Right.

We ate at a new place today called The Loop (I had been meaning to try it out for some time) and Paul got ketchup to dip his fries... or better yet, spread all over his head and in his hair. Then, after rolling in the sand on the beach, he was pretty much a disaster. But that's Paul. Hopefully we'll do something more exciting next weekend and I'll have more to write about.

The British are Coming!!

We ventured into Georgia this weekend, but missed out on the peaches! I kept looking for a side of the road stand, but alas, we left the Peach State empty handed. But we did make it to Fort Frederica! And now I think we've seen every fort and site where people have been massacred within a hundred mile radius. This one was a ghost town of sorts, but we didn't see any ghosts, just a lot of building foundations made of tabby. Some of the fort was still standing, but for the most part it had all worn away over the past 250 years. The British set up the colony to defend Georgia, killed a bunch of bloody Spaniards (who were probably just getting finished killing the dirty French), stuck around for a few years, and then abandoned the site to rot away until the National Parks system found a way to charge people to check it out. In all, it was a good day! Paul enjoyed running through the tall grass and playing in the dirt. Here are some pictures from the day!

DISCLAIMER: This message is in no way intended to offend any Georgia locals who may randomly come across this blog, or any British people, or people of Spanish heritage, or any clean French people. That includes Frederica Frank or Georgia Gene. I loved your home town, and plan on visiting it again soon. This message is simply the sarcastic ramblings of a Montana raised redneck shack dweller. Enjoy!

If you're at all confused by the above disclaimer, see my last post and related comments.

Way Down on the Suwannee

We took the day and traveled west to the massive metropolitan area known as White Springs, Florida. There must have been at least two dozen red necks living in shacks out there in the swamplands, it was incredible! We took a day hike through the Florida back woods to the Big Shoals on the Suwannee River... basically just a bunch of rocks. Overall it was pretty cool to see though, lots of birds walking in the shallow tea-colored water, massive man eating spiders, and loads of tree roots in the path making it difficult to push the stroller carrying a very enthused, sleeping child. We sat in the sand along the bank and Paul enjoyed a graham cracker before we noticed the log drifting in the water a short distance away. Turns out, there are gators in these parts, and some large enough to make a snack out of little land dwellers such as Paul. So we hightailed it out of there before he came to say hello. Check out the pictures!

Walking Child

Here's the latest episode of Paul TV. Sorry I can't make the videos any longer, I need to find a way to downsize them. This short video is 20 megabites, and I know there's got to be a way to make it smaller than that. I'll figure it out sometime, but here you go:

Fireworks and Giant Bugs

So we enjoyed another sunny day for the 4th of July and we spent the day at the park and on a nature walk through the thick swampland of the Westside of Jacksonville. It was a pretty good time, except for the giant man eating bugs that grow in the woods out there. I'm pretty sure they were locusts, or just massive grasshoppers, but Becky left the door open on the car and two of them were making a break to steal our ride. And we also ran into some pretty creepy looking spiders and some tortoises (which are by no means slow). So it was a good walk. After that we let Paul run around a safer, bugless park for a while, and then caught the fireworks on the beach. Of course for me, the highlight was the two hour traffic jam getting out of there. But all in all, it was a great holiday, check it out: