Summer 2010 Recap

Well, I've certainly been neglecting my blog, but all for good reason. We have had a whirlwind summer with lots of guests and quite a bit of travel. We started the summer off with a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I was honored to be a part of the wedding of one of my best friends from high school, Bridget D'Isernia. It was a beautiful wedding in Panama City Beach with a weekend filled with wedding festivities. We had a fantastic time and it was a great way to kick off the summer!
After our fantastic long weekend in Panama City Beach, we embarked on our first summer living in Jax Beach. We had a revolving door of visitors and had a fantastic time showing everyone our new stomping grounds, biking around the town, taking in festivals on the beach, trying new restaurants, and spending a lot of time at the beach.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit --our neighbors from Tallahassee, mine and Brian's family members, friends from Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. We're now taking reservations for next summer! :)

After hosting guests for the majority of the summer, we did squeeze in a bit of travel ourselves. We met our friends Dustin and Katie in Savannah one weekend. Neither Brian nor I had ever spent much time in Savannah, so we really enjoyed exploring the city. We started the weekend with a haunted pub crawl which was a blast. The next day we took a trolley tour of the city so we were able to see and learn a lot in a short amount of time.

We, of course, ate and drank our way through the city. We made a stop at Vinnie Van Go-Go's in Downtown Savannah's City Market where we had some fantastic pizza. We also made time for dinner at Paula Dean's restaurant Lady & Sons. It's actually quite an ordeal to get reservations -- you have to get in line by 9am to get on the list for that evening. It's definitely authentic southern style food. I suppose it's somewhere everyone should try while in Savannah, but I don't need to go back.

There isn't a shortage of salt water taffy or pecan pralines in the city. A lot of the candy shops offer free samples so it isn't hard to fill up on them either.

We also spent some time at a local brewery, Moon River Brewing Company where they have a good selection of craft brews. It's a cool spot that I would certainly recommend. For our last meal in Savannah we ate at Papillote, a fantastic french restaurant; it was a great meal to end the trip. It only took us 2 hours or so to get there from Jacksonville, so we definitely plan to make it back that way sometime.

We also took a trip to New Orleans. Bridget and her new husband, Karl, were moving to Germany, so we made a quick trip to their home in New Orleans to see them before they left. We had a fantastic time and definitely fit everything we possibly could into 48 hours. Soon after they picked us up from the airport, we had a fantastic first meal in downtown with authentic New Orleans-style food. We then stopped by W.I.N.O. which is a really cool concept that I have never heard of. Basically, you put as much money on a debit card as you want, and then you can try different wines that cost different amounts depending on the cost of the bottle. It was a very cool place!

We then got to see a 9-piece brass band called Rebirth. They are fantastic and we had such a great time. The next day we did a whirlwind tour of the city -- we went to the French Quarter where we ran into the Superbowl trophy and a coach with the Superbowl ring, had awesome beignets at Cafe du Monde, we ran into the LSU band (a father of a groom surprised the wedding couple with the band after the wedding!), stopped by Napoleon House Bar & Cafe for a snack and a drink, took a stroll down Bourbon Street and tried a hand grenade, hung out at Cat's Meow Karaoke bar where we ran into American Idol contestants so it was actually really good music, and then stopped in Pat O'Brien's for dueling pianos and hurricanes. Those are just the highlights! We definitely experienced New Orleans the best we could in 48 hours and hope to make it back there one day.

We also made another trip to Panama City Beach to see my Aunt Jean while she was in town visiting from California. We stayed with her and the family at a condo on Panama City Beach; nothing tops the sunsets there.

While we were in town I took a mini-roadtrip with some girlfriends to meet baby Kathryn, the new addition to the Donatelli family. It was a great weekend with family and friends, but like all of our visits there, it just wasn't long enough.

So as you can see, I have a great excuse for neglecting the blog -- it has been one busy summer! We have had such a great time during our first summer in Jax Beach. We're now looking forward to the fall season and are starting to plan our next international adventures. More on that to come!