Albert has a friend who lives in Athens, GA, with his wife. We’d be meeting Leland for dinner, so that gave us the day to explore a little.

The drive from Savannah to Athens was charming, as we took several country highways to get there. Everyone has rocking chairs on their porch, green grass that requires a riding lawn mower (has CA outlawed those yet? That would mean you had too much grass, in their opinion). It’s all just so cute!

We made it to Athens and found a park, both the people and dog kind.

We found some blackberries that needed tasting.

Then we went to this place.

No, Albert’s phone isn’t on any hallucinogens. It just took a face plant and isn’t the same yet. But this place was fun and free 🙂

Dayne and Ean are comparing their wing span to that of a Bald Eagle.

Inside this enclosure was a tom turkey who got his feathers a little ruffled as we passed by. He spread out his plumage and started strutting his stuff. Well, Ean decided to give him a little competition. It ended up being more of a tribal dance, but I think the tom got the message…

Then it was time to eat! We met Leland at a downtown restaurant called “The Grit”. It’s all vegetarian/vegan. Everything was so yummy. It hit the spot!! The best part was getting to know Leland. Albert said it best…he’s the kind of guy it’s easy to get along with and talk to, like you’ve always known him. He and his wife will be out in AZ for Thanksgiving, and we hope we’ll get in another visit!

Before ending the evening, we took a walk by the UGA football stadium. They’re trying to squeeze some road remodeling in before football season starts, so we weren’t able to get as we would’ve liked, but we saw this…

The green stuff is grass, just in case you were wondering what you’re looking at.

The best part of being there? The boys saw their first fireflies!! Now that is awesome!

Those white spots are the fire flies. One landed in Ean’s hand. Watching his face was sooo fun 🙂