A Thanksgiving weekend Down Memory Lane in Savannah

Sorry for the belated update but it was a long (but fun) week last week and a lot of driving!

This was a rather big weekend as Jake's dad (me) was preparing to make his first trip back to the city I grew up in (Savannah) for the first time in 9 years, this past weekend. The driving factor was the 15 year reunion from my class, the Class of 93 at Savannah Country Day.

Our week really started on Wednesday when we drove down to North Carolina to spend a few nights including Thanksgiving with Grandma Dorry, Zayda, and Uncle Phillip, who came up from Macon.

Here Phillip and Jake get to hang out:


Here Jake smartly sucks up to his Zayda:

And in this picture, Grandma Dorry gets Jake ready for his Thanksgiving feast:

And this was one of the only times we managed to get Jake to sleep in a pack n' play or crib the entire five days he was away from his "normal" crib:

After spending Wednesday and Thursday night in North Carolina, Friday morning we got an early start and made our way down to Savannah.

After making a stop for lunch and one other nostalgia stop at the JEA (where Jake's Zayda worked for 16 years and where I was basically every week growing up), we headed over to the house I grew up in at 224 Groveland Circle. Here, Jake and I pose in front of the house his daddy grew up in:


The very kind, young religious family that bought our house a year ago from the people we had sold it to, happen to pull up when we were there and were kind enough to let me step inside for a real trip down memory lane:




On Saturday morning, we arranged to meet up with my childhood friend Margo Meyerhoff's mom, Harriet, who's a Savannah historical expert and it's been her business for years to lead tours around my famous hometown.

Though we failed to get any good pictures with Harriet, we did manage to get a few pictures around the beautiful downtown area in one of the famous 21 squares.

Here mommy stops to pose with the young and handsome traveler:

Surprisingly while walking around City Square, Jake seems unimpressed by the giant horse we walk up to:


For lunch on Saturday, we finally had the opportunity to meet Jenny Tillinger, who had come down from Atlanta for shopping, and is married to our friend, Aaron.

Here Jenny and Jake bond during a break from the disappointing Georgia-Georgia Tech game:

Finally it was time to get ready for the big 15 year reunion and since we had a limited time frame, I attempted to give a now bigger Jake a bath in the sink, like the old days:

Next stop - Class of 1993 Savannah Country Day reunion out on The Landings. My old classmate Mindy Nash deserves a lot of credit for spearheading the efforts to get everyone together and was instrumental in me making my return to Savannah. The event took place at her mom's beautiful home.

I am going to borrow a few pictures from Mindy's Facebook album as it was difficult to catch up and walk around also taking pictures.

Here's mom in one of Jake's quieter moments at the party:

Becca deserves a ton of credit as she spent the vast majority of the night dealing with Jake (who wouldn't fall asleep in a back room) so that I could have time to catch up with long lost classmates.

Here I am catching up with the former Headmaster of Country Day, Dr. Paul Pressley:


Here's me chatting with long lost friend, Jeff Douglass, who like when we were kids, is a foot taller than me and I have to look up to talk to him:

And here's the woman of the hour and the person who deserves all the credit for the reunion, Mindy Nash (and she herself has two adorable little ones):

Finally, on Sunday, our last morning in Savannah before making our way back to North Carolina, we met up with another long lost Savannah friend for brunch and then walked along a rainy River Street and took in one of the nicest parts of Savannah.

Here, Jake and I pose in front of one of the many boats docked along the river:

All in all, it was a very fun trip and it was really nice being back in Savannah and seeing how my city had changed. But it was a lot of time in the car and it definitely wore all of us out, especially Becca and Jake. They were good sports!