life is like a box of chocolates.

while in georgia we want to get in as much southern hospitality as we can, so we decided to take a long-weekend trip to georgia's oldest town, savannah.

along the way, we first stopped at a real southern, georgia peach farm. it was something like a picture book, it was so surreal to drive through the beautiful and endless peach and pecan orchards.

i had to try out the john deere

best dang peach cobbler i have ever had! it was so good (and so hot out) the ice cream melted before it got to your mouth.

and of course out in the country we saw this along the way...which was only funny for like the .5 seconds it took to take the picture and then my LA self started in about how horrible the traffic was behind this guy. (i guess you can take a girl out of california but can never take california out of a girl...hey y'all, i'm just a different kind of southern...)

and then we finally made it to savannah, and i fell in love. i can't even begin to describe my amazement with the history and beauty of the town. every street was lined with overhanging trees and spanish moss. it was like being in a movie...

but seriously...they filmed forrest gump right here.

check it out:

our overall goal for the weekend was to try and do the best that savannah could offer. so naturally we started with the food. the first night we ate on the river at a seafood restaurant and tried shrimp and grits, a southern classic, and i now know why--delicious! our favorite by far was our second night, dining at the pirate house. a little history about savannah: it is the oldest town in georgia. being that, the oldest building in the oldest town is the pirate house, and yes, real pirates use to live and dine there! so of course, we had to try it out! and it was most definitely decorated theme appropriate.

and this my friends is a picture of the best piece of fried chicken on this great, green earth. another southern and georgia classic, pecan-crusted fried chicken. no words can express the goodness that was in every bite.

the second biggest highlight of our trip was a ghost-walking tour. because not only is savannah the oldest town in georgia, it is also 'the most haunted town in america'! so going on a ghost hunt was a given. sadly we did not see any roaming spirits during out night-time stroll, but we did learn some spooky and educational facts about savannah, such as: this use to be the hanging square of the town, and people use to hang in this tree here; or the sidewalk is sunken in where you are standing because there are graves below and the ground has given way. we found it fascinating! 

some other fun things we did over the weekend included going to fort pulaski, a civil war monument where the south fell to the north and we got to watch 19th century cannons fire; visiting every candy shop in town; making a stop to the paula deen store and getting a 'hey y'all' sign souvenir; and i certainly could not leave out a trip to the juliette gordon low house.

proud girl scout!

savannah, georgia checked off our bucket list! with all the southern charm and hospitality, we will definitely be back soon!

adventuring on the fourth.

austin's family came to visit for the fourth of july weekend, and its never a hatch family vacation without a load of adventures packed in there. to start we drove up to north georgia in the blue ridge mountains and went white water rafting down the chattooga river. it was a rainy downpour day, which made for a high water level and awesome rapids. at one point we hit a  good size rapid and sitting in the front austin almost fell out, but luckily i caught him in time (he may or may not have a different account of the event). we rafted for a good portion of the day, and by the end were wiped out and headed back to a cute little mountain inn we were staying at. with a little bit better weather the next day, we went mountain biking, following beautiful scenic routes along the blue ridge mountains. the trail proved to be a little bit more difficult than expected and seemed to be mainly uphill, and after 4 miles part of our group decided to turn around. if anyone knows my biking skills, this would have been the best option for me, however after some pushing and pleading, austin convinced me that it would we well worth it to continue along the journey since it was only 4 more miles until the end for a total of 8 miles. well...mile 8 came and went, and then 9, and 10...and the trail was soon turning into the never ending story. with much coaching and encouragement from austin and my awesome mother-in-law, i survived to the end of the actual 13 mile trail (apparently the park rangers need to seriously update the map), with a beautiful waterfall destination. after recovering from the biking adventure, we visited the awe-inspiring tallulah falls where we got to hike and climb through the 1,000 foot gorge. the only unfortunate part of the whole trip was we were having too much fun to stop and take pictures but we did get one after our biking feat

and if these adventures weren't enough, we met back up in destin, florida the following week for a beach front weekend filled with snorkeling and sand-dollar diving on the sandy white beaches. again, too much fun for pictures, but we'll always have our memories of some serious fun adventures- thanks hatchs, we had a blast!