Sea Island, Georgia

This past Friday through Monday, Ethan and I went on our first trip sans Eli since the little man has joined our family.  While we recently had our first overnight getaway for our 7th anniversary, this was the first time we actually boarded a plane and flew off without him.  We went to Sea Island, Georgia for a good friend's wedding and had a wonderful time.  While "Mom" especially was a little bit nervous leaving her baby, I knew that Eli was going to have a great time with his Mamie and that he was in good hands.  Sure enough, all went smoothly and the weekend was a success.  Eli and Mamie had a great time, Ethan and I had a fabulous trip, and our friends had a beautiful wedding.  Here are some pictures and stories from our Georgia wedding weekend...


Friday... D-Day (aka, Departure Day)

Look at that nice relaxed couple traveling without kids.  Starbucks in hand, this was the start of a great vacation. :)

Our room at The Village Inn and Pub.  It was a nice cozy little bed and breakfast and we really enjoyed staying there.

Rest of the room, us in the mirror :)

Me modeling on the balcony

After arriving and checking out our room, we unpacked our bags, changed clothes and set out to explore the town.

More of our resort...you will see in a lot of these pictures all of the moss hanging off of the trees.  It was beautiful and made it feel very "deep south."

The location of our resort was great because we could explore the town on foot.  There were a bunch of neat little stores and restaurants on a touristy little strip that made it's way to the pier. 

Hello ocean!

Me and Ethan at the St. Simons Pier

The pier was fun to walk out on.  There was a mix of people fishing and tourists walking around with ice cream.  The place had a very light hearted summer feel to it.

To the left of the pier was a huge park, a playground, and a community center.

As we were walking through the park, I saw this tree and found it mesmerizing.  It was much more impressice in real life, but the way the trunk and branches were all twisty I thought it looked like something out of a myth or a fairy tale.  I grabbed my camera and Ethan was like "really Jen, are we stopping to take a picture of the tree?" 

Little did I know that within a few more feet I was going to see two much larger, much cooler trees!  Again, you can't really see it in the picture, but there were two huge trees that were surely hundreds of years old!  Ethan tells me that apparently I have a growing obsession with trees, and with the number of "tree pictures" that there are from this trip I guess he might be on to something...

More trees...shocker. :)

Ok, I took a picture of this tree for Ethan's sake.  It was huge and actually grew into the ground, back up and sprung up about 10 more feet in the air.  It was crazy.

On the pier at sunset

Beautiful!

The St. Simons Lighthouse.  This site was settled back in the early 1800s and the lighthouse was originally built here in 1810.  Needless to say, this is not the original...but it is quite picturesque.

Saturday

Saturday was a full and fun day.  We began the day with a bridal brunch for the girls at the Cloister, the resort where the wedding took place.  Ethan hung out with Patrick, the groom to be, and the girls celebrated with the bride.  After the brunch, everyone spend the afternoon by the pool, relaxing and soaking in the sun.  Here are Ethan and I on our way back from the pool.

All cleaned up and at the rehearsal dinner.  The flash got a little messed up, but you can still get the idea.

Me and my beau

"Roast and Toast" at the rehearsal dinner where Patrick's two sisters had the whole room laughing.  The dinner was delicious and fun, and a special time where friends and family shared sweet memories and stories about the bride and groom.

Sunday

On Sunday morning, Ethan and I got up and went to a Community Church in the area.  It was great and we really enjoyed the time to worship.  It was a beautiful church.  Then we changed clothes and headed out to a historic site, Fort Fredrica. 

Fort Fredrica was built in 1736.  In the early 18th century, the English built this fort and town to defend the land from the Spanish in neaby Florida.  There were a few skirmishes in the area and the English were able to successfully defend their land.  We saw the foundation of one of the storehouses where John Wesley preached to the residents of the town.  While I didn't take pictures of the remains of these structures we both found the sites and stories very interesting.  Around the perimeter of the old town, you can still see where the walls were built.  There was a large outer wall, then a moat, followed by more inner walls and other means of defense.  You can clearly see where the earth is built up and then dips down where the moat was dug hundreds of years ago.

Of course, my attention was captured by the massive trees!  As you can see in the last few pictures and then this one, these trees were enormous.  It is crazy to think that surely many of these trees were around during the time of this town and are probably hundreds of years old!

At Fort Fredrica National Park.  After we left the park, we walked over to a nearby cemetery by Christ Church, a very old church.  We saw many graves from people who fought in the Civil War and even one from someone who fought in the Revolutionary War!

Back to the tree growing in the ground...quite a comfy chair

At the wedding!

Me and my mister.  The wedding ceremony was in a gorgeous little chapel and the service was beautiful.

Ethan with his tie straightened..oops!  :)

After the ceremony, we had a "bagpipe procession" that led us to the reception

Delicious dinner, now it is time to dance!  Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Temple. Thank you for inviting us to your wedding, weare so happy for you guys and had a great time!

The next day, Monday, was supposed to be a nice smooth trip home.  While is was a little less than that (delayed flight, missed connection, more delays, uncertainty of getting home, and finally arriving but finding out that they lost your bag), we were just glad to be home safely at the end of the day.  When we did arrive home, we found out that our power and some of the neighbors had lost power.  We had a nice candlelit evening catching up with Jamie and Eli until the power came back on just before midnight.  Tuesday morning, Eli and I went up to the airport and were able to successfully track down our bag!  While the last day was a little less than ideal with the crazy travel, the trip was still a happy and fun one overall.  A huge thanks to Mamie and Pops for babysitting so that we could go!!