St Augustine & Savannah

With a heavy heart, we walked off the elegant Disney Fantasy early in the morning. The seven nights flew by too quickly. At the same time, we were eager to meet up with my parents to start the next leg of our journey. The day was overcast which was a downer after a nearly a full week of sunshine. Perhaps it was meant to be a sign of the series of unfortunate events to come. I called my parents to discover that they had slept in! They had arrived in Orlando from Sydney the night before and had stayed overnight at the airport. The car pick up at the airport was riddled with problems. Despite our chain of emails confirming car type before we left, our 12 seater turned out to be a 15 seater which wasn't configurable! This made loading and unloading suitcases very difficult. The lady offered my parents a Chevrolet Suburban at $99 per day. Err...thanks but no thanks! She also insisted that Malcolm had to be added on as a driver and show his driver's license despite already having registered. They finally arrived at the port an hour later than scheduled but we were happy to see each other and get started. Our quick trip to the local Enterprise, Alamo's agent in the south, turned out to be a waste of time. We were told that we need not have stopped as Malcolm was already registered! Unfortunately, they didn't have any other cars that were suitable. They recommended other offices but warned that most would close after 12pm on a Saturday and remained closed on Sundays.

One last photo on the Fantasy

Malcolm concentrating on driving the 15 seater

Only space for one passenger at the front. Everyone else was right at the very back! There was no way to put the suitcases anywhere else but the front

Not sure how the police did this but it popped up on my phone. We heard later on the news that it was a woman who had kidnapped her daughter in the above mentioned car. For a scary moment, I thought there was some disaster. All I read was ALERT!

A brief stop for refreshments. The orange juice was freshly squeezed and very nice!

A gloomy day...

Crossing over the Georgia

We continued towards St Augustine. Historic St. Augustine is the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental United States. We had intended to visit Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, a fortress which served as the city's outer defenses. However, due to our big delay, we had to settled for a drive through the city instead. We had to hurry on to Savannah for an overnight stay at the Country Inn and Suites. We checked in and then explored the city by foot. It was a shame that it was raining. We walked to the Restored Waterfront area lined with shops and restaurants for some delicious southern dinner. It had been a long day and so we walked by City Market and then returned to the hotel to call it quits for the day.

Glad to finally arrive at our destination

Happy to be with Oma and Opa. At the pretty Savannah

Let's get fried food for dinner!

Malcolm's choice of beverage(s)