Low Country

C'mon...do we really need an excuse to head in my favorite direction?

Ever since I went with my family to Savannah, GA two years ago, I have fallen in love with the South. It's so charming, romantic, and haunting. (We have so much in common.)

So this year, Justin and I decided to celebrate our anniversary early and splurge by letting him take off two days in a row...the most he's taken off since our Honeymoon.

We had such a good time. In fact, I told him that I enjoyed myself more than on our Honeymoon, mainly because we know each other better now and are more comfortable around each other. If we could have had the same temperature as we did in Kauai, this vacation would have been absolutely perfect.

We drove down to Raleigh on Tuesday night, to split up the drive, and then slept in on Wednesday and made our way down to Hilton Head Island, SC. I don't know why I love this drive, but I do. Maybe because there are no tolls, maybe because we pass at least 2 Sonics on the way and I can get my regular order (corn dog, Diet Coke, onion rings, and banana cream pie shake), or maybe because once we actually see South of the Border-"The South's biggest kept secret"-we realize that Pedro's 500+ billboards are full of crap.

We got to our resort that afternoon and after settling in, went to a lovely steak and seafood restaurant, right on the water. The bread and calamari were amazing, and the steak, shrimp, and crab weren't so bad either. The best part of the restaurant is that they provide a stray cat to walk you from the door of the restaurant, across the bridge, to your car. It was charming, romantic, and haunting all at the same time.

Later on, we took a beautiful walk along the beach, and I also made Justin watch 500 Days of Summer that night. I think he liked it more than he thought he would.

The next day, we got up and went to the outlets just over the bridge. For some reason, it took all the energy out of us, and we came back and took naps, unfortunately during the warmest weather we would have all week.

A few weeks ago, I had made some reservations at this Italian restaurant for our New Year's Eve dinner. I always get nervous taking Justin to an Italian place, since he's such a snob after serving his mission there, but my vast amount of research paid off. It was really tasty. We had calamari (his favorite), tomatoes and mozzarella, seafood linguini, and butternut squash raviolis. Honestly, everything was to die for, so if you're ever in Hilton Head, be sure to check out Michael Anthony's Cucina .

We went to the grocery store after, to pick up some Martinellis and icecream, and Justin thought some non-alcoholic wine would be good too. We bought a few champagne glasses and headed back to the hotel. After a quick dip in the hot tub, we were so relaxed, lethargic, and tired that we could barely make it to midnight.

I actually fell asleep and woke up to see that Justin had cleared our table off and set up the glasses and drinks. Fortunately, I wasn't brave enough to try the "grape juice" so with my Martinelli in hand, I toasted my husband, the pseudo-lush. He gagged a few times, told me it usually tasted better than this, and was then surprised when I refused a sip. The one good thing about this New Year's was that when we had our midnight kiss, it wasn't being filmed by Giggle-Pants Meg. (The amazing Epcot dance parties did rule though.)

Friday, we woke up, got ready, and decided that we didn't care if it was 40 something degrees; we were going to mini-golf. Justin called Pirates' Cove to make sure they were open, and we headed across the street at about 9:30. When we pulled up, there was a closed sign, so I made Justin call again to make sure. I'm sure it was the same guy, saying the same thing he said 30 minutes ago, "Yes, we open at 10."

So we drove around, picked up a Diet Coke, and were the first in line when they opened. Doesn't everyone wake up this early on the coldest New Year's day in history to be the first to go mini-golfing? All I know is that my hot pink ball did me right, and I not only beat Justin, but I managed to get a hole-in-one and a piece of the pirate booty (a gold coin for a free game). Arrrrrrr.....

After golfing, we headed to Sea Pines village, walked around the freezing harbor, and had a bowl of chowder (10 minutes before they opened...for some reason we couldn't read signs or follow directions that day) at some local restaurant.

I forced Justin to go see the Princess and the Frog that afternoon (so cute and appropriate to watch while in the South), and then we found a delicious BBQ place for dinner (The Smoke House - get the ribs). We had take-out, hit up the hot tub (and a seriously quick dip in the heated pool) again, and watched some bowl games.



The next morning, we drove about an hour into Savannah and after walking along River Street for a few minutes, decided we were freezing and purchased two tickets for the covered trolley tour. It actually was really fun, informative, and most importantly, warm. We had put our names in earlier at Lady and Sons (Paula's Deen's restaurant) so we killed another hour shopping, including a stop at the Paris Market (an adorable store) and finally sat down to a delicious lunch.




The biscuits, pancakes, fried green tomatoes, chicken pot pie, and mac and cheese were awesome and perfect for such a cold day. Justin got the buffet, of course, and loved trying some new Southern favorites like black eyed peas and collard greens. We kept dreaming of the ribs from the night before and got another rack for dinner, after which we bought and watched The Count of Monte Cristo. (Does anybody else think he looks like the guy from Bella?)

Oh yeah...and I got a caramel apple.




Sunday morning, we woke up super early, packed up the car, and headed home, so sad to be leaving such a fantastic place and ending such a fantastic time. We stopped by the Florence, SC ward for sacrament and after witnessing one accident and seeing three car fires, thanked our lucky stars that we made it back to Virginia safely.

Long live the Lingards and low country!