City of festivals

I don't know if its the weather, the scenery, the tourists or the need to fill time but Savannah has a whole lot of parades and festivals throughout the year.  Several of them are related to the Savannah College of Art and Design and their students.  We recently went to Forsyth Park for SCAD's Sidewalk Arts Festival to see the art students transform the park's sidewalks into temporary works of art with chalk.  Normally this is the stuff used to draw hop scotch boards, flowers and stick people on your local sidewalk. The students, alumni and prospective students from SCAD are obviously talented as you will see.  The artists themselves were quite colorful - definitely not your typical college campus.

 We actually saw a bride and groom sit next to this for a wedding photo.

 Bees for Grandpa

 Savannah liked this one 

 Our friend Stephanie from church worked on this one.

I haven't asked about the laser beam eyes on the dogs yet

This weekend the Savannah Tall Ships Festival was hosting 14 ships at the start of the American Tall Ships Challenge which is a race of tall ships along the east coast. FYI midwestern family it is supposed to be on the Great Lakes next year as part of a war of 1812 anniversary event.  This year it goes from Savannah to Nova Scotia.  The ships are in port here for four days before heading north on the first leg of the race.  While Sue and Ellie rested and wedding shopped for some friends we had a daddy-daughter date/dude time.  Isaiah likes to go on "daddy-daughter dates" but I've had to remind him that he does not qualify for that so we get some "dude time".  Those are definitely some of my favorite days being a dad, particularly because the kids are so excited about it. Saturday Isaiah came in to our room, walked straight to my side of the bed and said, "Wake up daddy, we go dude time date".

One reason they're excited is because we often enjoy food from a new or favorite spot.  This time we went to Henry's downtown and tried out their breakfast buffet.  After Isaiah and Savannah left they may have had to change the price of the kid's buffet.  These kids love some breakfast.

The Bounty - as seen in Mutiny on the Bounty, Treasure Island and Pirates of the Caribbean

Theodore Too - apparently also as seen on TV.

I'm not up to date on my Canadian kids shows but who doesn't love a tugboat with a face?

While riding the ferry boat across the river four times we were able to follow one of the big cargo ships back up river which the tourists and kids both enjoyed.

At one point Savannah got tired of sitting on the deck and went inside to sit by herself.

Isaiah wanted to stay outside and wave at all the passing boats.

We also have found out that when Isaiah gets really tired he will find anywhere to fall asleep.  With all of the excitement lately - from Grandpa and Grandma's visit, to baseball games, picnics, and the heat - Isaiah decided he would just curl up and sleep on the first bed he could find...at 6:00. Its wonderful to have fun things to do but even more wonderful to watch kids sleep.