After a long delay with United and queuing at immigration at Dulles we finally arrive in Orlando around Midnight. We are at that time up for more than 24 hours and obviously super tired. We pick up our Pontiac and head straight away to our Best Western in Titusville. It’s an ok place to crash for the night and after a not so continental breakfast on Sunday morning we are off to Kennedy Space Center.
It’s quite interesting to look at all the rockets, ride the space shuttle simulator and watch the IMAX movies, but the best thing is the guided tour “Cape Canaveral now and then” that we thanks to J’s interest had bought. A volunteer that had been working at Cape Canaveral from the 50’s onward gave us some first hand insight in that exciting period of time! In the evening we hit the road again to Southern Florida.
On Monday we visit an alligator farm where we take an airboat ride and then tour Everglades National Park.
It’s so much better to see the wild alligators in their natural habitat! When the typical afternoon thunderstorm hit, we hit the road back to Florida city where we have a nice meal at Cracker Barrel before sleeping out our Jet lag.
We spend Tuesday morning at the Florida city outlet center before embarking to the keys! Finally we are on our way to one of the highlights of our trip – Key West- and already the way there is so worth it! More than a hundred miles with ocean view on both sides. Wow!
It’s just awesome! First thing we have to do after arriving in Key West is picking up our marriage license! Surprisingly all the paper work went very smoothly – what a relief! After checking into our hotel we take a little stroll through the historic center, everything is so walkable in Key West! We have a very nice Cuban meal - grilled grouper with Caribbean rice and black beans and homemade sangria. Very yummy! After dinner we take a dip into the bathtub warm ocean and have the best coconut and key lime ice cream for dessert! One of the cutest things in key West are all the wild roosters that walk around town just about everywhere! I’m instantly falling in love with the island, the cute wooden houses with their front porches, the lush vegetation, the laid back pace of life!
The next day we start out very lazy, hang out by the pool and then meet Michael, the man who is going to marry us! He is a very nice guy and like everything else in Key West the meeting is very laid back and personal. We are driving to the beach to choose the location for the ceremony and go through some formalities. That’s it! After lunch we are boarding our catamaran that is bringing us out to the coral reef where we are going to snorkel.
It is such a great feeling…reggae music and turquoise blue water. It’s a quite windy day which makes for a bumpy ride and a wavy snorkel! The photos don’t really show how awesome the reef is but I’m telling you the snorkel was an amazing experience! On our way back Jörgen isn’t doing to well but luckily he is getting better fast! Back on the island we are having another great seafood meal, do some souvenir shopping and then head back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool and an early bedtime as the next day is going to start early and promises to be exciting!
Our alarm rang at 5 am and the first thing we had to do on our wedding day was to give Michael a call to make sure we were all awake 
I was very relaxed and maybe a bit tired as well when Michael picked us up to drive to the beach. The ceremony was very low key and intimate, still very moving. Everything went so fast but still slow motion! A very happy moment!
It was a windy morning so that Michael offered us to take more pictures at sunset, an offer we happily accepted.
After the ceremony we went to have breakfast at the Blue Heaven. It was such a special place, or maybe it was the mood but I was on a total high!
The food was fantastic and I just wanted this moment never to end! Key West is magic! After breakfast we had some paperwork to take care of and then just hung out and took it very easy. After the second photosession
we had an awesome dinner under palm trees and the stars on the small and very romantic terrace of the roof top cafe.
On Friday morning we already have to leave to wonderful, wonderful Florida Keys.
We enjoy the drive back just as much as the way down though and make our first stop at Big Cypress. I love the swamps here in the South, they are so mysterious! If it wouldn’t have been for all the mosquitoes I could have stayed there forever, listening to the birds and enjoying the mystic atmosphere.
We arrive in Naples in the late afternoon where an amazingly nice Best Western awaits us! So after our yummy dinner at the Cheesecake factory we make good use of the beautiful pool there.
We start out Saturday morning the same way before it’s time for some more serious shopping again. Afterwards we make it to the Naples pier where we see our first pelicans!
In the afternoon we have to start driving back North but not without stopping by another swamp at the Corkscrew sanctuary. Unfortunately this one is completely dried out and we almost don’t get the chance to observe any wildlife. But the atmosphere is still full of wonder as sound travels very well and all the singing of the birds is so much louder. We also get a good impression about how Florida must have looked like when the first settlers arrived.
We arrive in Orlando late in the evening and just crash after a quick cooling off in the pool.
Sunday we are spending at Sea World! We enjoy the shows and exhibits, petting the dolphins and generally have a great time.
Monday is another big day: we have reservations at the Discovery Cove, which is kind of like a pretty exclusive resort place where you get to swim with the dolphins. Our swim is scheduled for 9:45 which gives us just enough time for a nice breakfast before the adventure. The time we got to spent with the dolphin was just undiscribably amazing! These animals are so beautiful and full of personality.
It was awesome, I will never ever forget this moment! The rest of the day we got to spend snorkeling a coral reef with lots of fish and at the tropical river and with the birds. As so often when you are having a lot of fund time just flies.
In the eveing we do some more Outlet shopping again. Isn’t that also always one of the highlights of any visit in the US? I at least think so. On Tuesday we are heading further North to Georgia but not without stopping by in St Augustine, the oldest city of the USA. We check out the fortress and have lunch and coffee in the cute historic city center where we also check out the oldest school of the US.
On our way further North we stop at a beautiful beach!
Late in the afternoon we arrive in the sleepy little town of St Marys, Georgia in a kind of spooky little motel. I don’t really know what caused the spookiness but Jörgen felt the same thing. We took the time to do our laundry and some fruit and water shopping at the local super market. On Wednesday we visited Cumberland Island, a National Seashore that is only accessible by ferry. But first we had breakfast at the local diner in the sleepy little Southern town. People watching and overhearing conversations was great!
People can’t bring their cars to the island and there are wild horses and turkeys everywhere. It’s a place full of wonder and so much beauty, you have to feel it – it’s not transportable in words or pictures.
We first joined the ranger walk. I really love the National Park system in America, the rangers give so much good information. We walked down the avenue of oaks
to the ruins of the dugeness mansion.
and listen to the stories about the Carnegie family who owns big parts of the island, the unique nature and history of this special place. After that we take a walk to the beach where we enjoy a long refreshing bath. The waves are coming in quite forcefully which makes it a lot of fun! Especially with the pelicans flying over us really close!
We then make our way back to the other side of the island.
I’m telling you this island is so magical and diverse, such a gem. But that’s not all yet! When I’m almost dozing off in the rocking chair on the porch of the ranger building while waiting for the ferry, I hear some kids shout “Dolphins!” And yes, they came in really close to the shore! What a wonderful, happy making sight!
We make a quick stop at Taco Bell before we continue our trip to Savannah, where we once again arrive just in time for a last swim in the pool. My expectations about Savannah were quite high and I have to admit that the city really disn’t match up! Yes there are wonderful buildings and shady sidewalks with life oaks with spanish moss. But that’s about it, frankly I found it quite boring. We had a good lunch though with crab cakes and Savannah red rice (with cinnemon). The highlight was a tour of the first african baptist church where the guide (minister at the church) told us a lot about the history, the slaves and the future of the congregation. Finding that tour was a great lucky coincidence!
In the evening we had dinner at Olive garden – always yummy- and did a little shopping again. On Friday we made our way to Charleston and visited Magnolia plantation on the way. More than the actual plantation house there is a lot of focus on nature (birds and alligators) of the swamp and the rice fields. The gardens of the plantation are also nice.
We arrive in Charleston in the late afternoon and instantly fall in love with this beautiful city! We take a stroll around town and have a good grits and shrimp dinner! So yummy! Southern food is really awesome!
On Friday night we got the impression that historic Charleston has so many stories to tell and holds so much history at every corner and in every single one of the beautiful buildings that we on Saturday morning decided to join a guided walk. Tripadvisor.com recommended Ed Grimballs tour and I can only agree: this man does a great and fun tour of Charleston. After having grabbed some bagels and coffee to go we joined his 3 hour tour and learned so much about the “holy city” and at the same time really enjoyed ourselves.
Ed didn’t leave us of course without recommending some good lunch places so we just had to follow one of his recommendations and had a “Southernized” New York deli meal at Josephs. It was yummy and we had a great conversation with a family that we had met on the tour! After lunch we took a stroll to the northern part of downtown to take a ferry trip to Fort Sumter – the Fort where the Civil war had begun. The ferry ride was very pleasant despite the heat as we got to see dolphins jump in front of the boat again and had a great talk to some very friendly South Carolinians. As far as I can judge the state really lives up to it’s motto “Smiling faces Beautiful places” as everyone we met was so friendly! The fort itself held a little exhibition about the history and the Civil war but I found the one hour we had until the ferry would leave again a bit short. I could just make it through all the displays and J was a bit disappointed as he had expected much more. After the tour we went back to the hotel, had a frozen drink at the bar and dipped into the pool before we got ready to go out for dinner which consisted of Seafood again, what else could it be here in the South?
On Monday it was time to say good bye to beautiful Charleston again and we hit the road after breakfast at Cracker Barrel. It was a long drive to the Outer banks where we arrived in the late afternoon.
We are staying at the Sea Foam Motel and our room faces the Ocean and we have a great balcony to enjoy the view. First we drive around the island a bit, do some grocery shopping like bagels and such and then take a long walk a long the beach. When it gets dark we see crabs and pelicans and I just so enjoy being there. Later on we share a bottle of wine on the balcony and listen to the ocean and look at the stars. Sea Foam is by the way a very fitting name for the motel. Today we took it really easy during the morning. Well first we had set the alarm to 5.30 a.m. to watch the sunrise but unfortunately there were too many clouds.
So we went right to bed again. Later during the morning we had a nice bagel-, blueberry- and orange breakfast on the balcony and then went for a swim. The ocean was very cold so we preferred the pool. After some more hanging out we visited the Wright Brothers memorial and at least I learned a lot about aviation history. It was (unexpectedly) a very interesting place.
After lunch we headed down to Cape Hattaras to check out the tallest Lighthouse of the United Satates and hang out at the beach.
It was wonderful and we had a great time. Afterwards we just went back the hotel to change and then went out for some more seafood at the restaurant “Tale of the Wale”. The food (combi platter of shrimp, scallops, crabcake and fish) was sooo good, but the portions so big again that I’m still suffering from a too full belly.
I love the sea so much and therefore it is so hard to leave the Outer Banks! We have another nice bagel breakfast on our balcony when it finally happens- we see dolphins really jump in the water in front of us. What a grand final of our stay on these wonderful islands! Afterwards we head off to the Jockey Ridge State Park, which basically consists of several very large sand dunes.
Must be so much fun for the kids to slide down those dunes. Our next stop is the Hampton roads Naval museum in Norfolk. Ok it is actually Jörgens next stop but I find it quite interesting as well to check out the battle ship Wisconsin and the adjacent naval museum.
We then proceed to Williamsburg where we have just enough time to have dinner at Taco Bell and do some more (very successful) Outlet Shopping. On Wednesday morning we are checking out the historical part of Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg. Considering the hefty entrance fee of nearly 40 bucks we do the cheap version and just stroll through the town without having the possibility to go into the different houses. This proves to be a good solution because I think that Colonial Williamsburg surely is a nice place to visit but not worth 40 bucks. So seeing that it is all for free we enjoy our little stroll through the colonial past very much.
Afterwards we drive down the Colonial Parkway – a wonderful drive – to Jamestown, the very spot of the first settlement in the USA and Yorktown, the area where important battles of the revolutionary as well as the Civil War took place.
To continue our walk through history we drive to Monticello- Thomas Jefferson’s home - on Thursday morning.
The house is quite a masterpiece of architecture and the guided tours of the gardens and plantation are extraordinarily interesting. We leave with the feeling to have learned very much about the man Thomas Jefferson. Monticello itself was very busy that day as they prepared for the naturalization ceremony on July 4 th, the next day which featured the president of the United States as a speaker. You can imagine how much security etc. was present that day. Very interesting for us to see, too. In the evening we have a nice meal at a Mexican restaurant and I finally get to buy my Ipod nano. Yay!
Our 4th of July started out with a tour through the Grand Caverns in Virginia. While most Americans slept into their Independence Day we had the great possibility to just be 6 people on the guided tour and ask the guide a lot of extra questions. The caverns were really pretty and very interesting with a lot of rather rare formations.
Jörgen took this picture of the mirroring in the water and I somehow see the image of the Wartburg close to my hometown in Germany in it. Ok, with quite a lot of imagination involved, but still to me it looks like a German castle on a hilltop.
Our spontanious visit to the cavern delayed our driving schedule for the day drastically, so that we unfortunately couldn’t go on the Blue Ridge Parkway with the legal speed of 45 mph all the way to North Carolina but had to drive off and use the Interstate for some portions. But still we had some beautiful views and especially seeing the locals with their sometimes beaten Pickup Trucks BBQ on the hills, listening to Country music and celebrating their Independence day that way was just beautiful and emotional to me. We also got the chance to see the fireworks that they had on the hilltops! Very beautiful!
At one point we even were on top of the clouds – an awesome, liberating feeling like being on Top of the world!
On Saturday morning we checked out Asheville, but I wasn’t quite impessed by the little place so we left real soon and planned to spend more time hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains.
We picked quite a strenous hike which included a steep climb up some really slippery rocks in the end. But the view from up there made it all so worth it! Ok, I chickened out for the last steep bit because I wanted to enjoy married life a bit longer than just 2 weeks but still the view was breathtaking even from there. Hubby is scared of heights so he wouldn’t have followed up all the way either.
We spent the evening walking around in Gatlinburg – a place in Tennessee that can maybe be best described as little Vegas in the Mountains – which was quite a lot of fun!
On Sunday morning we went for another hike to one of the beautiful waterfalls and then hit the road South back to Georgia. On our hike we also saw deer really close by and wild turkey. Good opportunities to practice with hubbies new telly lens! And all the blossoming azaleas along the trail made hiking in the Great Smokies such a pleasure, I loved it!
After having the spent the night deep in the Western Georgian countryside in a room with a great view we went for a hike in the Providence Canyon. Now, on our trip through the Southwest we have definitely seen bigger canyons with a lot more Wow-factor than this one but I still really enjoyed our hike through this little canyon with all the greenery around. Due to the smaller size one could also really go in and explore. Loved it!
After the hike we continued the trip on small highways through countryside Georgia and Florida and stopped for the night in Tallahassee. There was a very convenient Target and a nice mall, so that was great. On Tuesday we continued our trip down to the Gulf coast and stopped for a hike in the Apalachicola forest. Oh and before that we had a Country buffet lunch. They had great home cooked food, chicken and meatloaf and macaroni and cheese and yummy custards for dessert. Hubby loved it even more especially the countryside atmosphere as it definitely was a place the locals went to.
Anyway, it was a nice hike, but since we were out in the “Forgotten Florida” we really were on a trail less travelled, which meant that we constantly ran into spiderwebs. With big spiders in. Eeeek.
But anyway, it was a nice hike and also the little Fishing town Apalachicola was awesome and a lot less “plastic” than most of the rest of Florida we had seen. Not that I minded that a lot really, but it’s nice to see the other side as well. We also were finally in Seafood country again!
Big time! We had an awesome dinner at the local Seafood grill and then strolled around the cute place for a little while.
When we stopped by the harbour to watch the sun set, we saw another alligator gulping down a big catfish! On Wednesday we decided to spend a last day at the beach for which we drove over to St Georges Island! They have beautiful white beaches there so we took a last swim and walk along the waterline.
On our way to Orlando we still spent hours driving through the absolute middle of nowhere and the only food we could get was another country buffet, which made hubby very happy! Back in Orlando we just spent the evening by the pool talking to some other couples. I might have stayed in the water a little long because on Thursday I woke up with a big fat cold! Very strange, normally my colds come slowly, start with a throat ache or so and then worsen. Not this time, it hit me real hard directly. On the Disney World day. Well, we still made the best of it, thanks to Dayquil it was really ok.
I love Disney World, it’s making me happy so of course I could also forget about that damn cold on the happiest place on earth! We had a great last day and stayed till closing time.
On Friday morning we packed and did some last shopping (like for another bag ) before we boarded our plane almost punctually. The flight to Frankfurt was ok and even though I had a slight fever going on, I managed to fall asleep right after dinner and woke up when we were already flying over Ireland. After a stress free 1 hour stop over in Frankfurt we made our way home to Gothenburg where Ivonne and kids picked us up. Hannah was really happy about the Disney colouring set and Disney mug we brought her, while Kiki was more bothered by getting a new tooth and directly chewing on her new Pooh bear to soothe her aches. At home we did some unpacking and laundry and on Sunday the cold almost disappeared as fast as it had come. But I still haven’t gotten my voice back though!
Now we already spent two days working again getting sucked into every day life. There are a few mosquito bites, a little tan, a slight jet lag and some extra pounds on our hips as reminders that we actually really had it, this vacation of a lifetime! And there are two rings on our fingers that will always let us cherish these last 4 weeks in which incredible memories were made!
I am from St. Marys, Ga and I am glad you injoyed our sleepy little town. I loved looking at your pictures. The little Island Cumberland is where John F. Kennedy Jr. got married. It is a treasure.
By: jenny on December 22, 2008
at 7:26 am