Finally, here are the vacation pictures I have been promising. I have been working on new promo and vendor materials, album designs and editing photographs like crazy but I just had to make the time to go through all the pics I took on our family road trip during the 1st week of October. It was nice to relive the memories and dream of summer when it's sooo cold outside right now!
The sunset hitting the Smoky Mountains (on the NC side) just right. It's the "golden" hour though I love the cool colors of the mountains in this shot.
We stayed at Nantahala Village, NC in a great cabin and took a day to explore Bryson City where we found this scenic train tour. We had just missed the last tour of the day but I got a shot of the train anyway.
Then it was off to Savannah, GA the next day. We were disappointed that Savannah wasn't more family friendly as all we found the night before were bars to eat & no parking anyway. But we stopped at this great cemetary (Bonaventure Cemetary--of which we took lots of pics I'll have to post later) before heading to Tybee Island where we found loads of fun stuff to do.
Our first stop once on Tybee Island was Fort Palaski Nat'l Monument and Cockspur Lighthouse.
I love lighthouses! This one's base is submerged in water during high tide making it a non-tourable light. It takes a boat to get to it but we walked out (looking like crazy tourists I might add) about a mile with our stroller in the grass to get a closer view of it. This was taken at 400mm, just to prove that even with the long walk it's still pretty hard to see. But it was worth it anyway!
Next on the agenda (yes, I'm one of those vacationers who makes an itinerary) was Tybee Island Light. We did get to tour this one and walked up (not the tallest one I've ever walked up but I didn't go out onto the landing because it was so extremely windy on this day--it freaked me out a little!). I love the charcoal gray and white with the bright red roof.
This was a very photogenic lighthouse. It was newly restored. 
Sea oats and the lighthouse from the beach.
The long building you can see in this one is actually a fort with a museum but we were more interested in getting our toes in the sand on the beach than touring it.
A weathered stump with roots. The biggest drift wood I've ever seen. ;o)
I love these fences on beaches. This was the 1st time I'd actually been to a beach that had this great weathered fence. Something about them just seems romantic to me.
This looks like a morning glory in the sand, but I'm not really sure that's what it is, seeing as this was taken at 3 pm on a sunny day and the leaves are different. Anybody know what this is? Let me know!
This was Afton's first visit to the beach. He loved playing in the sand. We could hardly pull him away or distract him. He certainly was too busy to look up at the camera. ;o)
So many new sights and sounds to explore.
I love his chubby little baby fingers covered in sand from digging around. You can even see the strong winds blowing some of the sand.
Dangerous rip currents from strong winds prevented us from swimming or getting in the water. A lot of debris had washed up on shore and the smooth beach was pretty battered.
There were these great wooden swings right on the beach so we sat down & got this funny family pic with the fish-eye lens. You can tell from the guys' hair how windy it was. Afton was not up for sitting still.
A gull gliding on the wind.
I love sea oats and the sound they make when they rustle gently in the wind.
After GA we headed down to Florida to see my family and some of our old friends from when we lived there. Our first day trip was Clearwater beach and it was the epitome of what you'd call a perfect day. Perfect weather -- not too hot, not too windy, but warm enough to get in the water. The sea was calm which was great for Afton since it was his first time in the ocean. This kid loves bath time but even the gentle waves scared him a bit.
Afton not being sure what to think of the water. He had a great time building sandcastles and searching for shells though.
Toes in the warm white sand. And he only tried to eat it once! After we were done playing in the sand and water we got ice cream on the beach. It was a wonderfully sweet sticky mess as Afton dripped his all over my lap. But I didn't care because it was such a great and perfect day. As soon as we were in the car headed back to my Grandma's it started raining -- it held off just long enough for us! And what did we see but a DOUBLE rainbow to finish off a great day. This tops the list as one of the best days we've ever spent together as a family. 
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