Friday, October 5, 2012

Our visit to Tybee Island

Hey yall! How's life treating ya?  Mine has been pretty busy and about to get even busier (the life of a retailer) so I am so glad I got to get away for a nice little vacation recently.  If you follow my blog you already know that my husband and I finally got to visit Tybee Island and Savannah, Georgia.  I have been wanting to go here for a few years now.

I recently promised to share a few photos from my trip so here they are.
Here I am standing (smirking) in our cute and cozy little condo for two!  

Rarely do I share pictures of myself but since I was all gussied up and ready to go to dinner this night I thought these would be okay to share.

We were going to Uncle Bubba's (Paula Deen's brother) restaurant for dinner this night.

This was the view off our balcony.  It wasn't Ocean Front but was Ocean View. 

We stayed on the north end of Tybee Island.  It's the end that feeds into the Savannah River.

It's also the end of the beach where the boats occasionally come by.  This was a shrimp boat that came by and parked close in for awhile.

We sat back in our beach chairs every evening to enjoy watching the dolphins play.  I've never seen so many dolphins in one area regularly.  They even jumped up high doing back flips a few times.  It was so fun to see them!

Here are a few more random shots of the North shore at Tybee.






There were a few beautiful homes on the North shore.  I love how they did not look like the typical beach homes you see on the coast.

Check out this door to the beach!  


On our first full day at Tybee we went downtown to the South beach area to check it out.



Lot's of Oceanfront condos with public parking in the front, but it's not free. Be prepared to pay everywhere for parking on Tybee. LOL!



Here are a few shots of the pier at Tybee.




We also decided to do a little walking around the furthermost point of Tybee on the South end to check out the homes.

There is quite a variety of styles.


I just love this little scene I spied through the trees...

...and this one over the fence.

There were so many attractive beach homes both old and new.

And so many colorful ones too!

The next day we toured the riverfront at Savannah which is only about 15 to 20 minutes away.



Here is a  memorial statue of the waving girl who was often seen waving the ships in.

My yacht! Haha!  I wish!  But seriously, this was one big beautiful boat!

We had lunch here outside on the upstairs patio at Tubbie's.  It was delicious!

Then we returned back to the condo just in time to  catch a glimpse of a barge ship passing by...

..and to soak my tired feet in the ocean just before sunset.


I see a Mermaid in this photo, do you?

What a gorgeousness beach and weekend!

 I hope you enjoyed our visit to Tybee Island as much as we did.  My husband actually enjoyed Savannah just so much that he wants to return again to check out the rest of the city in more detail.  There's so much to see there you can't possibly do it all in one day.  I give both these locations a big thumbs up!

Thanks for stopping by.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sailing in the Outback Regatta 2012

Yesterday was such a fun day!  In fact this whole past week has been so relaxing and fun as I have been on vacation.  We finally made the trip to Tybee Island as I have been hoping to do for some time.  We toured the island one day, toured Savannah one day and enjoyed the beach as much as possible.  We only spent 3 nights which was not nearly enough but wanted to get home so we could  attend a yearly regatta at home with friends.

After motoring over to the host clubhouse for this event and for racing registration details
 we set sail with friends aboard their boat.

Here are a few of our club members that we went sailing with.


The two men in the middle of the photo here are our captains.  They co-own this boat together with their wives.  It's always a fun time to go out with them too.

This is my husband sitting here keeping an eye out before the race begins.


Several other boats already out and getting ready for the race.


Speaking of being ready!  There were only 8 of us on the boat and here is a picture of all the coolers we had on board.  My husband and I also had an additional rolling one filled with food.  We  were all amazed at how of all the coolers we brought no two were alike.  Too funny!

Before a race begins all boats have to jockey around each other waiting for the signal to start.  

We jokingly called this boat the cheater boat because it had two sails.

Sometimes you cannot help but get very close to other boats while you are sailing around in such a small area waiting to get started.  You can be penalized or disqualified for crossing the line too soon.

Here's a few of our other club members waiting to start.

Finally the horn is blown and the countdown to start begins.

And we are on our way to a very promising afternoon of sailing.

The weather looked great and we sailed wonderfully for quite sometimes towards our mark which was quite far down the lake.  After an hours worth of beautiful sailing the winds died off and we were sitting around for quite some time.

Here we are sitting in very still waters.  Our friends who were in a different class came by and took this photo of us after they had already crossed the mark at the finish line.  That's me there in the middle of the boat beside my husband who is standing up in the white shirt with the sunglasses.

They were teasing us because they were able to finish before the winds died out and because here we were sitting so close to the finish but unable to move much at all without any wind.  

After sitting here for about another hour or so the race committee decided to call the race as happens in poor weather.  Just look how flat the water is.  Ughh!  As it turned out we actually got 2nd place in our class because we were so close and The Dragon Fly came home with a trophy to boot!  Hoo! Hoo!

After the sail we all went back home and showered and returned to the host club for dinner from Outback steak house and the rewards cermony and dancing.  It was quite a bit of fun as always but unfortunately I did not take any more photos during the evening.  
  
So that's part of how I spent my vacay.  
I may be back again to share a little of my trip with you soon as well.
Hope your having a great weekend too!

Thanks so much for stopping by be sure and let me know if you do!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Sailing into Fall

Hey Yall!  It's Fall! 

I know many of you have been waiting a long time to be able to say that right?  Well now you can!  Woohoo!  Since it's officially now fall and everyone will be getting out their fall decor I'm sure your are going to be seeing lot's of festive seasonal decorating.  You've already seen many of my fall touches around the house but I haven't shown you this one yet.

It's just a tad different from the usual.  For many of you this may not even seem very fallish at all.  But to me, my fall mantle decor not only seems fallish it's reflective of our own personal lifestyle.


  Many of you already know that my husband and I have a sailboat that we keep in the water at the lake.  While most people think of sailing as a summer sport it's actually more of a fall and spring sport around here.  Our summers are incredibly hot with very little wind and not often a lot of fun on a sailboat.  We have a motor boat for the hottest times of the summer but love our sailboat so much that we even sometimes go out during the summer and tough it out.  So I am sure you can imagine how excited we get when the cooler air comes back with fall and the winds pick up a little more.  That is why I just could not remove the sailboat from my mantle decor just yet.

Here's another peek at the little sailboat I found this summer in a consignment store at the beach.  I just love how weathered it looks.  Just like our old boat!  

I decided to remove all the other summer items and bring back these bottles that I bought from work awhile back.  

I thought the colors of these bottles were just perfect for fall, don't you?

When I see these bottles I can not help but think of a few songs for some reason.  I am reminded of the songs, Time in a Bottle, by Jim Croce and Message in a bottle, by The Police.  LOL!  IDK why?  I'm kinda funny like that!

Because I had the glass bottles on the mantle I decided to add my glass pumpkin here too for just a touch of fall.  The pumpkin on the left I have had for quite some time.  After adding it to the vignette, I decided it needed just a bit more.


So I went on a search for another glass pumpkin that was just right and look what I found at Kirklands.  It's blue and green and was just perfect for my mantle.  Sold!

The floral arrangements were another lucky find at another consignment store just recently.  I just loved how they looked and thought the bamboo holders were a perfect fit for us too.

I added the fall leaves to them for a bit more color for the season.




So there you have it friends, this is how I decorated my mantle for Fall this year.  I know I had planned not to change out my mantle for the season but I just couldn't help it.  I am glad I did because it must be bringing me a little more good fortune too.  I am going to be able to be in a regatta with my husband and friends next weekend.  I can hardly wait!
 I hope to share more photos from that with you afterwards too. 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed seeing a glimpse of my own style for fall.
I'll be back again tomorrow with a peek at a few more traditional fall touches.

I hope you are able to get out and about and enjoy this beautiful season too!
Have a great day everyone!