Augusta [HOT] Georgia

Another trip, another adventure is in the books. Earlier this month we traveled to Augusta, GA and then to Charlotte, NC.

Katy thinks it is very important that she keep her eyes on the road. I mean, what would we do without her?

When she finally gets tired of standing there, this is generally where you can find her. Macy spent most of the trip on that seat right there. #travelinginstyle 

On our way to Augusta we felt it would be best to break the trip in half. We were worried about pulling the camper through the mountains - you know, the mountains that my trucker uncle told us were voted the scariest roads in the country by truck drivers. Mike kept it slow and steady and our trip went really well.

We stayed overnight at a little campground in the mountains, in Max Meadows, VA. It was very small but very clean and a perfect stop just for the night. 

We arrived in Augusta, GA at 3:00 in the afternoon to 104 degree temps, at the most beautiful, well-kept campground we have seen yet. The only downside: No pool. Let me remind you, it was HOT. 

That first night we ate at Rhinehart's Oyster Bar. It was perfect and each one of us was very happy with our meals and the kindness of our waitress. 

That night we also went to a very fancy theater with reclining seats and saw Finding Dory. I could get used to theaters like that - but not the price!

We weathered our first thunderstorm in the camper that night. All 3 kids and two dogs ended up in our tiny room, but the camper did well.

Thankfully our camper has AC. However, it wasn't much of a match for a shade-free camp site and Georgia heat.

Even Macy thinks it's too hot to eat. She just can't even. 

But eat we did! And it was good! Saturday morning we headed to the farmer's market, The August Market, near the riverwalk.  We each found different foods for breakfast and left happy and full a couple hours later. Jared found his favorite breakfast sandwich.

Corban and I indulged in breakfast crepes - so good! 

And Sydney tried a little of everything. 

Here is the view from the Savannah River looking back up at the farmer's market. I highly recommend spending a Saturday morning there! 

Also, peaches. Yes please. 

After the farmer's market we drove north of August, across the Savannah River into South Carolina to visit some suburbs that had come up in our searches. Graniteville is a no. Just no. It's about 2 square miles and we ended up driving around it for about a half hour going in circles. GPS was having a tough time there. But if you like small southern towns, and when I say small, I mean small you might want to visit it. Although I'm not sure what you'd do once you go there. :) Aiken was a nice town and we found some incredible houses. But it's probably not our type of town. And every road was a boulevard. So that was fun. 

Later we drove west to Evans, back in Georgia. Now here is a great city with a lot of growth and a lot of potential. I would highly recommend a visit here!

We also had the blessing of visiting friends in Evans. Friends from up here were visiting family down there (who Mike had also known from many years ago), so that was a very fun little reunion. They also have nothing but good things to say about Evans. While there, we ate at a little cafeteria style BBQ restaurant called Goolsby's. The food was good and the customer service was so friendly! 

On Sunday morning we headed to the New Moon Cafe near the Augusta Riverwalk at the recommendation of a camper next to us. This is another must-visit. I had the grits bowl which had grits, avacado, salsa, pimento cheese, bacon and cholula sauce. And I am still thinking about it. Seriously, this was my favorite meal of the trip and that's saying something: 

We then went across the river and drove all over North Augusta, another suburb we were interested in. There are some really... interesting neighborhoods. Everything seemed to be scaled down just enough that you think your eyes might be playing tricks on you. One neighborhood had homes all built into the hillside along the river. We also passed what appeared to be a giant church with a not-so-giant parking lot. They had police directing traffic and were parking cars in the weeds of the fields around the church. Seriously tall weeds. 

We did see some parks and bike paths which we really liked. There was also a new "urbanist" community with great architecture called Hammond's Ferry. All in all, we really liked North Augusta. We also stumbled up on this little model village called The Living History Park. I have no words. Once again everything was scaled down. It was almost like Williamsburg (although on a local scale) and it was EMPTY. There were signs and it appeared to be open but no one was there. We wandered around for a bit but the heat made it just a tad uncomfortable so we left after making a big loop around the village.

Of course, all this walking, exploring and heat required us to have ice cream for lunch because HOT.

We found a park with fountains back in Evans and let the kids play there for a while. 

We had dinner at Big Daddy's BBQ. I finally had my peach cobbler with ice cream because Georgia. And then because HOT we took the kids to the theater to see another movie, The Secret Life of Pets.

So, to sum up Augusta, HOT. But we can't complain because we felt like we were still thawing out from the last couple winters in Ohio. But we were ready to head north just a bit for the next leg of our adventure: Charlotte!