Tour De South

11 states, 12 days, 2800 miles in a car with 10.5 month old Darby...if we said it like that from the beginning I'm not sure we would have taken on this adventure, but luckily we don't think too far ahead and didn't realize what we'd gotten ourselves into until somewhere in South Carolina when Darby's top two teeth popped through her gums.

Our final destination was Cape San Blas, Florida for a week with my best diver buddies from college and their kids. The route? Our house in the Poconos to Charlottesville, VA; Charlottesville to ATL; ATL to Cape San Blas and then CSB to Nashville; Nashville to Lexington, KY; Lexington to the Poconos. Whew.

West Virginia en route to Charlottesville

High quality photo in Charlottesville

Charlottesville has been on my list of places I have wanted to visit for a few years because I've heard a lot about it's cool, artsy, hippy, foodie vibe and was intrigued. We got a late start (theme of our trip) and it was pouring when we got there, so we didn't get to do as much as I had hoped, but we did wander the great pedestrian mall and had a yummy dinner at a place called Maya. The next morning was so beautiful that the thought of getting right in the car was sickening, so we strapped Gnarbs in the Bob and went for a great run through UVA's campus. The college kids were moving into the dorms and I couldn't help but get nostalgic about move in day my freshman year of school. We finished up our run, grabbed some lunch and got in the car for the drive to Atlanta (9 hours or so).

We arrived at my friend Tracy's house (my college roommate that I was getting all nostalgic about earlier that day!) around 9:30pm and got to see her new house, catch up a bit and then hit the hay. The next morning we got to go to breakfast with her 2 sweet kids before hitting the road for the last haul to Florida. Not long enough, but great to have a little time with her!

The drive to Florida seemed to take forever even though it was only supposed to be 6 hours. Darby pooped 4 times, requiring 4 extra stops (in some freaky little Alabama towns no less), and her teeth were bothering her which made her extra cranky. We finally rolled in around 5:30pm and after seeing all of our friends, the memory of the drive seemed to vanish.

This was our 3rd trip down to the Cape and it really is one of my favorite places to go. Our friends Clayton and Renee built a house and got married down there a few years ago and all of our friends went down and discovered this hidden gem together. This trip was a little different than ones in the past as this was the first one since we've all had kids. It was definitely different, but different in such a good way. We rented a monstrous beach house about 50 yards from Clayton and Renee with our friends Whit and Carrie and Joey and Aaron. This place had 4 floors and an elevator! It worked perfectly for all of our families and it convinced us all that moving in together and living commune style is the way to go. We cooked family meals, watched each others kids so people could go running, go to the beach, etc. It was kind of chaotic, but that's what made it so much fun. It's hard to believe that there were no trips to the ER all week!

In an effort to not write a novel, here are some pics to sum up the awesomeness!

Papa and the Gnarbs

Joey, Renee, Charlee and Kaden

Mama and Gnarbs by Clayton's backyard lap pool

Carrie and Joey imbibing

Babies sporting my homemade tie-dye and puffy paint t's:)

One day we rented a pontoon boat and we went out on the bay for a few hours. Surprisingly, all babies came home safe and sound despite seeing a few hammerhead sharks and manta rays galore!

Abs and Doug...I mean Doug and Darby

Water bug

The crew

4 out of 5 babies fell asleep on the boat...ahhh.

The boys on the tip of the Cape. (They dropped us ladies off to "return the boat" and I found these pictures on my camera the next day. No wonder it took them 4 hours. 

The (tired) thinker

We rented bikes, hooked Darby's bike seat on and headed out to the tip of the island.
 

Boardwalk to the beach on the tip of the Cape

Sunset at CSB

We spent the week rotating between Clayton and Renee's awesome patio with the pool and the beach. The waves are usually pretty small in CSB, so it was perfect for the little ones to play in. Darby loved the water and would start panting as we walked towards it...beach baby!! A couple of days there was a little bit of wind and so we were able to surf in on our paddleboards. The last day it was a crazy rain storm and the waves were cresting pretty high, so Doug decided to take the board out and try to surf some waves in. Darby and I went out to cheer him on and saw a few good crashes!

On Saturday morning we packed up the car and started our trek home. Our destination for night one was Nashville to see our friends Steph and Jeff and their sweet baby Maxwell. We got in around 7pm, just in time for a great dinner and time to chat. We didn't get to bed until about midnight and unfortunately, Darby was so wound up from all of the driving that she was up all night. We finally gave up around 2am and just turned on the lights and let her roam around the room...that lasted until 4am and then she woke up for good at 5:45. So, Sunday didn't start off on a great foot, but luckily, we were only heading to Lexington - 3.5 hours away.

My Old Kentucky Home

Our plan in Lexington was to spend as much time with our friends Jessica and Ted and their 3 little girls as we could. Jessica was also a UK diver and now Ted is the UK diving coach. They have the sweetest 3 girls ever and I wish we could have had more time with them, but we managed a dinner and a play date at the park the next day before taking off.

Jessica w/ Lily, Ellie and Ava

Darby was so pooped after the playdate that she slept for the first 3 hours of our drive home.

As per the usual, we hit the road later than we would have liked and didn't get home until 12:30am. By the time we unloaded the car it was 1am and then Doug woke up at 3am to catch a bus to head to work in the city. Yikes. We have finally done all of the laundry...just in time to fly out to North Carolina Thursday morning for a relay race. So much for "stay at home mom-ming!"