Savannah

Easter weekend was spent in Savannah with my parents. They were on their way back to Iowa from their winter in Naples, so they stayed with us Thursday and we headed to Savannah Friday afternoon. Ben had to work Friday so his plan was to meet us there for our dinner reservation at Alure to celebrate my birthday. On his lunch break he let me know that it didn't look like he would get out of the OR until 6 and still need to drive ~3 hours. Normally I don't get bent out of shape when the hospital holds my husband hostage. It's part of the territory. But didn't Mayo know it was my birthday?! Turns out the doctor Ben was working with (who decides when he can leave) goes to the church we've been going to Jacksonville and is in a Bible study with the friends we've made in our apartment complex. He let Ben out early so he was able to make our dinner reservation- God is good!

Alure was delicious! Not frequented by toddlers, they didn't even have a highchair. Scarlett sat nicely watching Elmo on her Kindle while my parents, Ben and I enjoyed a bottle of Malbec and seafood.

Saturday we took Scarlett to historic (everything is historic in Savannah) Grayson Stadium for an Easter egg hunt. There was live music and several age-specific egg hunts with 15,000 eggs. Scarlett loves egg hunts. I have been setting one up for her almost daily over the last several weeks. Even with all her practice she has "toddler technique", opening up an egg and eating the candy before finding another egg. Next year we will be more aggressive.

Egg hunt in T-5

Dress rehearsal egg hunt in the hotel room

Saturday afternoon we boarded a harbor cruise. We were surprised to learn Savannah is the 4th busiest harbor in the nation. My dad and Ben were like little boys watching the huge cargo ships go in and out of the river.

Cruisin' the river

Easter Sunday we walked to a branch of Savannah Christian Church that is held downtown at historic Lucas Theater. The theater was recently went under a $14 million restoration that took 14 years. It was beautiful! The community uses it for performances various nights of the week but Sunday mornings it's used for church.
We enjoyed brunch sitting out in a courtyard of the City Market district. Scarlett didn't sit so well for this meal. One of us was always up chasing dogs with her. We saw the city on a trolley tour, getting out for a break at Forsyth Park. Hundreds of people were enjoying the sunny, Sunday afternoon at the 22 acre park. The best meal of the weekend was enjoyed at the Pink House. We had received many recommendations for the Pink House and it did not disappoint. The large, home was built in 1771 and can seat 400 guests for classic southern comfort food. Our waiter assured me we were his favorite guests :)

He is Risen!
Off to church

On Easter dinner at the Pink House

Monday morning my parents hit the road for Iowa while we toured the train museum, had breakfast at Clarey's (which was in the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"- not that we've seen it) and took turns reading the paper and watching Scarlett on the playground at Forsyth Park. After a long weekend we were ready to call it an early night but we had to stay up to watch the NCAA tournament. My crazy love for basketball had led me to the educated picks of Wisconsin and Duke to be in the championship. Actually, I could not tell you one college basketball player and got extremely lucky with my picks. Either way, I was heartbroken when Wisconsin lost because I could have made some pretty good money winning the bracket.

Scarlett left the train museum so filthy she looked like an engineer