Tybee Island

June 07, 2020

Tybee Island

Since Zach had to come home from his mission in Benin, Africa we haven't had the opportunity to really see him or visit with the pandemic. We finally stepped out of the house and went to Jim and Celeste for a traditional African meal, including fu-fu, made by Zach. This was our first time going to someone's house (May 16th). It was nice to get out!

In the process of our fun visit, somehow we ended up planning a vacation at the last minute to the beach. After much debate of where to go we took the cheapest place and a place we had never been to--Tybee Island.

I was nervous about going on vacation with another family. You want to all still love each other when it's over. We are pretty easy going but you still never know...

It was great and I'm so glad we went together!

With the Coronavirus, traffic was light there and back. The beach house was really nice and plenty of space for every one. There were 11 of us total: our family of seven and Jim, Celeste, Kevin and Lance (Zach was in Utah visiting a mission companion, friends, and family). We were close to the beach and just 20 minutes from downtown Savannah.

We were at the most northern point of the island. The sunsets were great every evening.

Every day massive cargo ships would come in and out. It was really cool to watch.

Sunday we drove around the island, which is teeny, and then into Savannah after our "home" church. Savannah has so many beautiful little green spaces with the massive oak trees and Spanish moss. For a hot day, it helped provide lots of shade while we walked around. We also got to witness the beginning of protest gathering. Being on vacation we weren't aware of all the Black Lives Matter movements/protest going on throughout the country. We caught just the beginning and when we left it had quadrupled in size. The boys had never seen anything like that so they found it pretty cool.

Later we hung out at the beach enjoying the amazing creations of this world.

On the island we found a really nice park. The boys played Frisbee golf and then Celeste and I joined another night. I managed to throw it in the creek (which was nasty) three times. I've got mad skills.

We are never short of blue shirts in this family.

These horseshoe crab shells were all over the beach. Literally, probably hundreds of them. One of the islanders told me they get washed up from the currents created by the ships and get flipped over and can't turn themselves back over to get in the water so they die and become bird food. (Not sure if it's true, but still interesting story.)

Monday was greats winds from a storm passing by and made for great waves. Jarom had those boys up by 8am to catch the waves that he saw while on his morning run.

We lucked out when it came to weather. We had minimal rain and it wasn't that hot with a nice breeze. It was easy to just sit out at the beach for hours. Thankfully, we both brought canopies to provide some shade. On our last day at the beach the wind was strong and blew our tents away! Celeste and I were the only ones sitting while the boys were playing football. I think they thought it was so funny watching us chase the tents they didn't move for what seemed like forever. Both tents were damaged but the Wards were able to keep theirs. Ours didn't come back home.

Many rounds of Kan-Jam were played, especially among Kevin, Liam, Jarom and Jim. The boys managed to get a free ice cream out of a game but also managed to get bathing suits filled with sand and having to lick the sand.

Vampire Kevin--after getting fried the day before.

Tipton is not our beach man. Even though it was more fun with the cousins, he would site and wait until we allowed him to go back to the beach house. Otherwise, he spent most of his time with headphones and in the shade.