Priceless

Airline Tickets to Savannah, GA for 2: $780.00

Hotel Stay in Historic District for 6 nights: $700.00

Rental Car (upgraded to a fun Mustang so we can be cool): $300

Trip to the Ocean: $150.00 and counting...

Making Marriage Memories: Priceless

We're finally home, safe and sound and almost in one piece. Savannah is gorgeous, HOT, delicious, scary, fun and expensive! Here's how it went down:

Arrived on Wednesday after a million hours on a tiny plane. Ok, so not a million, but we were on a smaller jet, an "express jet" from Houston to Savannah, and it felt tiny and after the fact that we'd been awake since 3 am Mountain time, it felt like a long trip. I couldn't wait for hubby to see the ocean, so we checked in (score one for the hotel--valet parking is included in the hotel room; score two for the hotel--there was a garden whirlpool tub in the room separate from the bathroom) and I dragged hubby off to Tybee Island. We hit the sand, right before sunset, and I did everything but shove hubby into the Atlantic. It was perfect weather, and we agreed that it stinks that I forgot the camera, but we'd buy a fake-er, disposable, camera and recreate the moment that he saw the ocean for the first time again. We went to a crab shack--neither of us eats crab. In fact, neither of us really cares for seafood at all. I was adventurous, and I had a crab and shrimp Au gratin (still don't like shrimp, and I hate to confess, but I think I prefer imitation crab) while hubby had ribs. We were bit by all sorts of bugs (guess what else I forgot to pack?), so we ended the night with a soak in the garden whirlpool tub watching the boob-tube.

So we were full of energy and ready to hit the streets the next morning. We took a narrated tour on a trolley, and then I again couldn't stand being so close to water and not being in it. Added to that which someone forgot to pack was swimsuits, so off to Walmart we went. And really, what is a vacation without at least one Walmart run? So we grabbed suits, sunscreen and bug spray (see, thinking ahead!) and returned to the beach with ample time to swim and return to clean up for a murder mystery cruise we were booked for that night on the Savannah River. After two hours of frolicking in the waves, swallowing salt water, spotting a shark fin (which it turned out upon closer inspection, was a dolphin! I had no idea they were in the Atlantic! See how deprived we are being so stinking far away from the ocean?)and getting sunburned (80 minutes of continuous coverage is not quite enough for us...who wanted to get out?), we were about to get out when I just wanted to "jump" a few more waves, and in coming down, cut the bejeezers out of my foot on something sharp and excruciatingly painful. I grabbed my foot (almost drowned while trying to sit down in a wave) and hubby helped me to my feet (well, to my foot) as I hobbled up out of the waves leaving a bloody stream on the beach behind me. Hubby thought I was being a baby, but he gave me his beloved Chicago Bear's t-shirt which I bleed through in a bunch of spots, and tried to flag down the Fire/Rescue/Lifeguards that were driving around the beach for a band aid.

Southerners are known for their hospitality, but apparently, Fire/Rescue/Lifeguards are not Southerners, or they haven't been properly instructed that a man waving his arms over his head repeatedly and drawing the attention of other beach goers may need assistance. Good thing nobody was drowning, because they drove by--twice.

We went back to the hotel (not as easy as it sounds because we were trying to keep sand out of the cut but all I had were my flip flops, and hubby left me to soak clean the cut in the tub while he hiked to the CVS to buy band aids. I called my mommy for advice, thinking I needed a tetanus shot (who knows what's in the ocean?), and sympathy, and after she consulted with her nurse, she called me back and told me to go NOW to the Urgent Care for a shot. This began the battle with the insurance companies (this is why both hubby and I carry full insurance on each other--my HMO that covers more in my state wouldn't cover anything other than a full steam emergency in another state, but hubby's insurance said go here and agreed to pay--and gave us numbers of multiple providers in the area), and after some time we headed off into unknown parts of Savannah. Note--this was at 7 pm and our cruise started at 9 pm. We were in evening attire and I was (hoping against hope) carrying my heels as we entered the Urgent Care place.

Sure enough, the doctor wanted a tetanus shot and to clean the wound herself. In doing so, she apparently shocked herself and hubby at the depth of the cut (I know I'm a drama queen, but I'm not that good of a liar, and I was secretly relieved that I was not being over dramatic with the cut). Shocked hubby to the point where the next thing I know, hubby is bumping into the sink and then I realize that he (all 6 feet 4 inches, 250 pounds) is headed directly for the doctor (all 5 foot nothing, maybe 100 pounds) head first. Sure enough, hubby is lying face plant on the floor where he landed so that the doctor was on her rear, holding the tweezers/scalpel thingy in the air and saying "Okay" over and over, like she's reassuring herself. Hubby jerks while he's coming to and looks like he's having a seizure. Nurses and aides are running to the room and I'm trying to pick up equipment that has scattered as hubby went down. I say his name, and hubby looks surprised and says "Ow" in what has to be the understatement of the year. Nurse scrapes him off the floor and puts him in a chair and doctor says to me "it's quite a bit deeper that I thought and I think it's deeper than what he thought" and decides to stitch me up while the nurse attacks hubby with a tetanus shot of his own and ice packs. I think we made quite an impression.

So off we tottered to Target to fill prescriptions for me, and then it was on to dinner--to heck with the cruise. I drove, as who knows what really caused the fall of hubby...we had had a late breakfast and skipped lunch in favor of the ocean, and had only drank maybe a bottle of water between us, so I imagine that dehydration, low blood sugar and sun contributed to the shock of the sight of the inside of my foot. Hubby sports a lovely bruise on one arm and a big cut on the other arm, along with a cut on his lip. I sport a lovely bandage and the inability to walk.

Needless to say, Savannah is a walking town, and we spent the remainder of the trip in a car or on a trolley. Hubby spent a good portion applying creams of wonder to my foot and wrapping my foot, as well as holding me upright as the antibiotic makes me dizzy. I spent a good portion wondering if he would pass out again (the shaking as he came to and the twitching seriously make me freak about a serious problem--and he is still getting searing pains through his head to the point where we made an appointment from the Houston airport for him to go to the doctor) and trying to stand on one foot. For those of you that haven't seen me, I'm too big to imitate a flamingo.

We did do a ghost tour that let us into a house where the Ghost Hunters from the Sci Fi channel show (I know that's not really their real name because hubby keeps muttering TAPS at me, but I don't know what that means), and we were able to take the murder mystery cruise tickets and turn them into a moonlight cruise, which we enjoyed. We saw the Pirate House, which is supposed to be the inspiration for the Pirates of the Caribbean, and attended a murder mystery dinner there. We toured Juliette Gordon Low's home and had a carriage tour of the historic district. We ate at The Lady and Sons (Paula Deen!) and shopped in her store. We toured the oldest African American church in the nation that was built by slaves for slaves and used in the Underground Railroad. We walked River Street. We ate some more. It was a wonderful trip, and a truly memorable trip for more than one reason :)

Now it's back to the real world. Hubby works tomorrow, and I'm trying to stay up to acclimate myself back into the graveyard schedule. Hubby sees the doctor on Friday and I get the stitches out tomorrow...hopefully both will bear good news and we will keep the good memories of Savannah and this will just be a passing laughing memory next year.

Of course, next year, we're thinking of going camping in Utah, so only God knows what will happen there!