{travel} day 1 road trippin' USA... or at least the lowcountry

The day after Christmas came very quickly. I had a lovely 6 AM wake-up call to jolt me out of bed after an exhausting day of opening presents, cooking, eating, and drinking. But my adrenaline and excitement helped out a bit. I had been counting down the days until that day since before I left Spain. It was road trip time!!!!

My boyfriend and I decided to plan this trip so that we could spend lots of quality time together before I had to get on yet another plane to go back over the ocean again. We spent many phone calls discussing which cities to go to on our 5 day trip, and finally settled on Savannah, Beaufort, Charleston, and St. Augustine. It could not have been a more perfect trip! Especially since my boyfriend surprised me with tickets to see Corey Smith in Orlando on the last day of the trip. So now I'm adding Orlando to the list! I'm going to write up the Cliff Notes version of this trip in this blog post, but if you would like my entire (very type-A) document on all of our road trip stops, hotels we stayed in, and restaurants we ate at, email me -- cookingloveandlife@gmail.com.

Day 1: Tampa to Savannah

Thursday

Day 1 started with lots of yawns, a bit of coffee, and bagel sandwiches to go. It was completely dark outside still, so we were quiiite tired until the sun decided to wake up as well. We both decided to bring our high school iPods in addition to our iPhones, so there were lots of slow jams, intense rap battles, Whole New World Disney moments, and uh... duh.. Ashlee & Jess Simpson ballads. The drive from Tampa to Savannah was long and uneventful, until we started seeing huge wooden signs advertising peach fritters. After asking what a peach fritter was, my boyfriend so wisely said, "I don't know... want to find out?!" And road trip stop number one was born!

A peach fritter is basically a huge doughnut with bits of peach mixed in for good measure. We ate off of that thing every single day we were driving on our trip. Soooo bad but sooo good! I definitely suggest you make a stop at Eulonia Country Store to check out their awesome selection of fresh canned goods. It is somewhere in between Jacksonville and Savannah on I-95!

Feeling rejuvenated after our sugar stop, we drove the rest of the way to Savannah without stopping. Just like when I went to Savannah with my girlfriends my freshman year of college, the weather decided not to cooperate. It was a little rainy, very cold, and just downright dreary. But obviously the first rule of road tripping is to live in the moment and not let a little bit of bad weather get ya down... so that's exactly what we did!

Considering I actually plan my days around exactly when and where I will be eating for the day, our natural first stop was lunch! A family friend recommended Zunzi's for a quick & delicious lunch. When I looked it up I discovered that it was also declared the second best sandwich in America by Adam Richman. Casual, right?

The rest of the day in Savannah was a complete whirlwind filled with locally made beers at Moon River Brewery, eerie but beautiful squares, locally famous ice-cream at Leopold's Ice Cream, BBQ and fried pickles at Wiley's Championship BBQ, and a two person bar crawl.

Sadly, we were both a bit disappointed with our pulled pork meals at Wiley's Championship BBQ. Don't get me wrong... there was nothing terrible about what we were served. It just didn't live up to the high expectations we had for the restaurant based off of word of mouth recommendations and Trip Advisor reviews. Especially since my dad is a grill master.... we don't joke around down in Florida. I think our sad experience at Wiley's means that Alex & I will have to make our next road trip to Texas. Hmmm... :)

After taking a little nap to rejuvenate before the evening's activities, we decided to head on over to Congress Street for a two person bar crawl. Aka... drink one beer at each place and then move on to the next! Too bad my drinking abilities are not quite up to par with my boyfriend's so we were moving a little slowly. We were told by an information center guy (yeah... we went there) that the bars on River Street are fun for daytime drinking, but that most places close pretty early since they cater more towards tourists. He told us to start at Congress and MLK for the real nightlife in Savannah. Even though the bars were lacking in the usual crowds of SCAD students due to winter break, we still had a blast! I definitely recommend that you check out Social Club, Murphy's Law, & Rail (with some pretty awesome karaoke upstairs.) 

I wish I could leave you with the incredible rendition of Sweet Caroline by my oh so vocally talented boyfriend, but I can't seem to find the video. You're off the hook this time babe. ;) 

Next up - Beaufort, SC, Firefly Distillery, Folly Beach Pier, Charleston, St. Augustine, & a Corey Smith concert. Stay tuned. :)

xx, Jen