We went on a four night road trip during Spring Break to try to get some warm weather and enjoy a swim! Our final destination was Madison Blue Spring, one of our favorite places to swim! It’s 8.5 hours away, but we drove more than that, since we stopped along the way to sightsee. In total we drove 1,300 miles in five days!

The first day, we drove five hours to Hilton Head Island. We ate at the Crazy Crab Jarvis Creek for lunch, enjoying pretty views over the salt marsh. They even had a playground for kids! Then we walked around the grounds of the Coastal Discovery Museum, which I’m so glad we did! The grounds were just gorgeous, with big oak trees strung with Spanish moss. It definitely made us feel like we were in the South! We walked out on three boardwalks over the salt marsh and saw cannonball jellyfish and tiny crabs. We even saw a part of an orbit test vehicle space ship that was found on the beach! There was something for everyone, including a beautiful camellia garden and a horse by a cute stable.

We were happy to find that our hotel, Holiday Inn Express Hilton Head, with a pool-facing room, was very nice. It really felt like we were on vacation! After resting, we walked the gorgeous bike path that is lined with azalea flowers to Coligny Beach Park.  It was a nicer beach than I expected, since the beach had seemed so grody at Myrtle Beach a month earlier, but we couldn’t stay because my daughter was hungry. So we ate at a Greek restaurant nearby, a cute place with photos of Greece all over the walls. There are quite a lot of retired people in Hilton Head, and there were also some young people at the beach,  enjoying Spring Break, plus a rowdy crowd at the Tiki Hut.

On the second day, we had breakfast at the hotel and then rented bikes at Forest Beach Surf and Cycle. Their bikes are nicely maintained and they tried hard to make sure we had the right size. I wanted to go back to the beautiful bike path along South Forest Drive so we biked it and then tried to bike to Harbour Town. We discovered that Sea Pines Development (which includes Harbour Town) won’t let you bike in, only drive in! So weird. For an island that is supposed to be wonderful for bike riding, this was a weird rule. So, disappointed, we biked back. We passed some cute things on our ride: turtles in a swamp under a boardwalk that we biked over, azalea flowers, cute cafes, and a pond with a fountain.

The rest of the family didn’t want to reward Sea Pines for their meanness, but I did want to see it, so we drove to Harbour Town for lunch. Since Crazy Crab had been great the day before, we ate at Crazy Crab Harbour Town. Yum! We had a nice view out the window of the harbour and a tree with rocking chairs under it. We checked out Calibogue Sound from the pier- pretty! And we climbed the small lighthouse, which was a great activity. Inside there are exhibits that you can check out as you climb the wide stairs. This makes for a whine-free climb with kids! Very smart! The views of the water from the top were lovely!

Next we drove to Jacksonville Beach. When planning the trip, I was going to have us stay in a hotel along the freeway in Jacksonville but I’m so glad I had a brainwave and decided to stay at the beach instead! It added half an hour of driving there and back but it was SO worth it! For this night, we splurged and stayed in the Courtyard Marriott Oceanfront Jacksonville Beach which ended up being a delight! It was so nice to just walk down to the sand whenever we felt like it. When we arrived we spent some time playing on the beach. It was wonderful to be back at the ocean. Then we ordered a pizza and relaxed in the room, still hearing the ocean! When it got dark, we went back down to the beach and looked at the stars. It was magical!

The next morning, we watched the sun rise over the water from our room! We had breakfast at a really cute area of cafes in Neptune Beach, at Southern Grounds Coffee Shop. I’m so glad we found this spot because it was lovely, with a patio where everyone was hanging out enjoying the day. Oh the lifestyle in Florida! They had a great selection of things to eat for breakfast too, pleasing everyone.

After breakfast, we walked along the shore at the beach- bliss. Next we drove to Jacksonville Zoo, a tropical wonderland of plants, flowers, trees, and animals. It was fun walking the different themed loop trails checking out the animals. Some of the areas, like the Lost Temple, reminded us of being at the Disney Theme Parks.

We drove north slightly to have lunch at Panera Bread at River City Marketplace, a nice modern development. It was very pleasant!

Then we drove on to Madison. Our hotel, Super 8, was very cheap, making up for the expensive hotel the night before. After checking in, we got changed, blew up our float, and went for a swim at the wonderful Madison Blue Spring!

This spring is quite an odd thing because it is literally in the middle of nowhere. There is only farmland and a very small town nearby. We drove past the farmland, remembering our past two visits to this amazing place.

I was worried the water might not be clear since it is spring and there is always rain in spring. We had previously visited one October, and in the middle of summer 2016. But to my delight, the water was just as gorgeous as always, and there weren’t any bits of slime in it like you sometimes find at springs. The only problem we did encounter was that it was much deeper than usual, and the beach where we previously played was buried in water! There was a strong current pushing you from the headspring to the river, and without being able to stand, it was quite hard to get out without being pushed into the river where the alligators are! So it wasn’t a very relaxing swim. But by the end we did find a spot to stand, out of the current, and a way to climb back over the rocks to the headspring starting spot. It’s quite fun to catch the current down from the headspring, though it was a little more complex this time around.

Nonetheless we were elated to be in this tropical paradise, after being surrounded by sticks jutting from the ground (deciduous trees in winter) in the research triangle all winter. We took lots of photos and then headed back to the hotel.

The water in the spring is very cold so we were happy to have hot showers at the hotel. We headed to dinner at Rancho Grande Restaurant in Madison. This town is odd because there is a very grand Circuit Court building but the rest of the town is quite rundown. The restaurant was nice- colorful decor and good food, so that was a relief. We headed back to our hotel for a horrible night of being woken literally every minute by the AC going on and off. I couldn’t think what to do about it, but in the morning I realized that  I could have tried just putting it on fan mode without the AC. Next time we won’t stay in a hotel with a wall unit. Surprisingly, even in March, it was too hot in the room to leave the window open (I had chosen the hotel because it had windows that open, since I love fresh air). I guess with no cross breeze it just can’t cool down. The hotel had nice new floors (no carpet, which is a wonderful modern thing) and was renovated, so it’s a shame the AC unit was so ridiculous.

In the morning we went in to town to check out Sunrise Coffee which had great reviews. Wow. What a shock. When you opened the door, a rush of intense dust smell hit you. It was like an antique store, full to the brim with furniture and doodads. And it was very musty. So we left, disappointed. This was the only part of the trip that didn’t go well, the night and morning in Madison, so that’s not too bad for a five day trip!

We were happy to leave the boonies and head out for the day. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove to Jekyll Island in Georgia. My husband thought this place was a bit of a tourist trap, like Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island, but it did have its pleasant aspects. Its late 19th century architecture- an incredible club house with a three-storey turret, plus mansions called “cottages”- was a delight to see. We strolled around. We skipped the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, which was expensive, crowded, loud, and did seem like a bit of a tourist trap. We ate lunch at The Wharf, which had wonderful views of the salt marsh. In the past I’ve always chosen counter service, quick places for lunch, but for this trip I chose places with views of the water, since I was missing the water very much. And I think this is a good idea. You do have to wait longer, but now that our daughter is older, we can do this. And if you don’t want to have two sit-down (waiter service) meals in a day, you can always get takeout in the hotel room that night.

After, we drove to Great Dunes Beach Park. The dunes were fabulous, large and white, but the beach itself was a real dud. The water was very icky-looking and the sand dark and hard-packed.

We continued on. I’d like to return someday to do the bike paths on this island because they look great, but I don’t know if I’d need to stay the night ever since there isn’t much to do. It makes for a good stop on a road trip, to break up the car ride.

We continued on to Savannah, stopping at Savannah Botanical Gardens and Wormsloe Plantation along the way. It’s kind of funny that the garden is called “gardens” because it’s very small, basically a long garden behind someone’s house. It wasn’t really worth driving through endless traffic lights to get to. Wormsloe Plantation was also a bit of a dud, though it does have an impressive driveway and front gate. To go inside and walk around the ruins is too expensive, and they also charge you just to drive down the driveway, so we just looked from the entrance gate.

Another new thing I’ve been trying is staying in a hotel where you can walk to nice things, rather than a motel along the freeway. This ends up costing more money, and you also usually have to pay for parking since you’re in the city, but it has its benefits. The good thing about it is that when you’re way too tired to drive and find a place to go or eat, you end up just walking near the hotel and seeing nice things, instead of having to eat at McDonalds or some other roadside place. So I’d conclude that I like this new trend! We had a great time! Our hotel was Fairfield Inn Savannah Downtown, and it was a perfect combination of being slightly out of the main touristy area but close enough to walk to everything. The windows didn’t open, but luckily there wasn’t a strong cleaning solution smell. It was raining and cold when we arrived. We ran through the rain to Pie Society. We passed the City Market, a pedestrian area, which looked really cute. Pie Society, a British pie cafe, was a disappointment. We brought the pies back to our room since the cafe was closing. We were so excited because we love a good meat pie, but the pies were overly salty and not very yummy. Too bad.

The next day we ate breakfast at the hotel and then walked around Savannah. We had been here before, in July 2015, when it was so stinking hot and full of gnats that we couldn’t enjoy it. This time it was incredibly cold, so also quite hard to enjoy. It seems that anywhere north of Florida and south of New Jersey it is either very hot or very cold, with only a week or two of good weather in between. I had thought the end of March would be a good time to visit Georgia but it was too cold to really enjoy a stroll around town.

The best part of the morning was a visit to Jepson Center, a part of Telfair Museums. The entrance fee was very expensive, $20, but the building is so incredible, a modern glass wonder. And the activities for kids inside were great, as was the art. So we enjoyed ourselves, topping a great outing off with lunch at Le Cafe Gourmet, which was also a pure delight! The lady spoke French and we enjoyed delicious baguette sandwiches like in France. This was a great end to our trip!

We then started the long five hour drive home, which was absolutely loaded with huge tractor trailers. Every truck we passed made my nerves on edge as they often crossed over the line to be within inches of my car door. This is a problem with road trips from North Carolina. Because North Carolina is in a central location, it is loaded with truck traffic. It is on two central truck routes, Highway 40 going east to west, and Highway 95 going north to south. And anywhere you want to go, besides drives on country roads, entails a very scary drive past hundreds of trucks. Road tripping in California was better, since the trucks take Highway 5 in central California rather than Highway 101 along the coast. And in Florida it was pretty good too since it is the end of the truck route, not the center of it, so there aren’t as many trucks left. Also, you can pay to go on the Turnpike which has very few trucks. This aspect of life in North Carolina was something I hadn’t anticipated, along with the insane spring allergies. And so lies the lesson that when you move somewhere there are things you could never have thought of that you will discover, some good and some bad.

It took a lot of driving to get down to some good weather, but it was a great trip!