Girls' trip part 2!

Here goes part 2 of our girls trip to Hilton Head back in March: (part 1 here)
Saturday morning we woke up to the threat of rain.  We had a Groupon to all go horseback riding and were hoping and praying that the rain would hold off long enough for us to be able to go riding.  We were running a little bit late, because we had to go towards Savannah, but well called the stable and they were really nice and agreed to wait for us to get there before they started.  After a quick trip to the "complaint department" i.e. a redneck port-a-potty, we got in line to mount up.  They asked for the most experienced rider, and since I took lessons back in high school and had my own (gorgeous but ill behaved) horse for a while, I was volunteered for the horse needing an "experienced rider."  That usually happens to me, which means I get stuck with the temperamental horse who always likes to bite other horses in the butt.  This usually leads to an interesting battle of wits.   This horse also just so happened to be named Dash, which was slightly disconcerting, so I asked the guide why he was named that, to which she replied, "well he was named Buck but that made people nervous, so we renamed him Dash instead."  Uhhh, ok.  Still not giving me any clues to what I'm facing here lady!  I think she could tell I was a little hesitant to throw my leg over this horse's side (considering that the last time I did that I was bucked off).  So she quickly added, "Oh Buck came from his coloring (he was buckskin)."  Stilll didn't explain the whole Dash part.   Anyways, turns out Dash was a pretty chill horse that was a former barrel racer who just needed someone with "gentle legs" to stay off his sides.

Yes, I was the loser with a helmet on.  Ever since being thrown off and hitting my head, I always wear a helmet.  

So anyways we all got mounted up and were rearin' to go!  (Not literally though, that would have not gone over well for those not wearing a helmet.) Our trail ride commenced and lasted for about 45 minutes.  The stable was in a sort of industrial area around Savannah, so our trail included an interstate and a billboard.  Not quite what we were used to, but it was still very relaxing.  Allie's horse kept wanting to eat any and everything green, and my gentle souled sister was quite alright with that.  The guide behind her was all "kick him, ok kick him harder, ok you can really kick him harder than that."  Allie had such a regretful look after each kick, it was actually pretty funny.  Whereas my horse kept wanting to take off at every single move of my legs.  They weren't kidding about him having sensitive sides.  My mom's horse was a saint the entire time and just plodded along at a slow and steady pace.  I think he was 26 years old?  That's like 98 in horse years (I don't really know if it is, I didn't do the math).  Right as we were riding into the arena to dismount, it started sprinkling.  The rain held off for the perfect amount of time.  We were all quite happy aboutt that! 

Since we were in Savannah, we did the obligitory Riverstreet visit.  It had begun pouring by that point, and we were one umbrella short.  After a very awkward trip down some very tall and slippery steps replete with haggard homeless people transients in dark alleyways, with my sister and I practically hugging each other while walking under one umbrella, we were sufficiently soaked.  We looked sort of like Siamese mermaids, come to think of it.  The first umbrella we saw, my sister bought.  The umbrellas really didn't help that much though, between the deluge and the standing water on the cobblestones our pants' legs were soaked up to our knees. 

We quickly went in to Riverstreet Sweets to get us and our spouses some sweets, and then went to the Savannah Bee Company where I bought some honey that you eat with cheese.  I talked about it in this post.

 At this point we were all soaked and were kind of over the whole walking around in the rain thing.  So we traversed back to the car, by a different route, smartly.  We ate some delicious pasta salad that my mom made and asiago cheese bread (from Panera, of course) in the car on the way back to Hilton Head. Once in Hilton Head, we decided to go and paint some pottery!

 We've done this on several past vacations and always enjoy this creative little outlet that we rarely get to try our hand at.  I've always liked little figurines, so I painted these little animals to go in my terrariums.

 My mom and sister painted these beautiful mugs.  I'm always so jealous of their creativity!

 My mom's mug said Marmee (what my niece calls her)

 Allie's mug.  She did a tree for every season.  So pretty!

 We had a wonderful time painting our pottery.  It took a couple of hours and was so relaxing with the rain falling outside. 
After we completed our pottery, we headed back to the hotel to get dried off (our pants were still pretty soaked) and get ready to go out to dinner.

Me and Allie

 Me and mom

 Mom and Allie

 We debated if we should try another local joint like we had the night before, but we were disappointed with that experience, so we decided to go with a more fail proof plan.  Bonefish Grill!!! Yay!!!!  We got Bang Bang Shrimp (of course!) and me and Allie got fish tacos, while my mom got fish 'n chips.  It was all quite delicious!

Fish tacos!  Sorry it's so dark, the restaurant had some mood lighting going on.

After dinner, we shopped in a few stores and then headed right down the street to the Fresh Market.  They have the most delicious desserts!  We each picked out a different dessert and ended up with: a double fudge brownie, an eclair, and a slice of carrot cake.  The lady in front of us in line was totally judging us.  She looked unhealthily skinny, and quite unhappy and was buying a giant wad of some leafy green.  It sort of made me sad for her.  She can have her clean colon and bored tastebuds, I'll enjoy my fattening dessert (in moderation, of course)!
On the way back to the hotel, we crossed over another bridge, and while I was attempting to control the rising panic, my mother and sister decided to start discussing the gigantic manatees that were probably floating around like giant water cows in the ocean right below us.  My mom then just randomly yelled "Manatees!  They'll suck your brains out!!!"  Tha heck?  Where in the world did that come from?!  It gave us quite a laugh and definitely helped me to ignore my fear of bridges at that moment.
After that we somehow got on the topic of evolution and survival of the fittest and had a pretty good discussion going when my sister decided to add to the hilarity of that car ride by confiding in my mother and I that she thought, up until about a year ago, that baby animals were only born in spring.  Like, it was physically impossible for them to be born any other time of the year.  My mom and I were both like um, "why did you think that."  And she was all, "I have no idea!"  It was pretty funny.  (Sorry Allie, for outing you on the interwebs (: )
Once we got to the hotel, we chowed down on our desserts.  We were either still so full from dinner or the lettuce lady in line had placed a curse on us, so that I don't think any of us could finish our desserts.  We all were about to bust we were so full.  Allie tuned us in to the Animal Planet and we started watching a show about puppies.  Very fitting, after our conversation in the car.  A commercial came on for a show called "Too Cute" that was just about baby animals and my mom was all "that's ridiculous, who would watch a show like that?"  Me and Allie just kind of looked at each other, and Allie eventually said, "Mom, what do you think we're watching right now?"  That show was what we had been "awwww"ing over for the past hour!  We are the people who would watch that show!!!  We had some good laughs about that as well! 

An example of the cute puppies that would be on that show.  Always wanted one of these!

Photo cred here. Have no idea whose blog this is but this popped up when I googled corgi puppy.

The next morning we woke up and headed back towards Georgia.  It was a pretty uneventful day, just a couple of Sonic tots thrown in with some more good conversation.  We were all pretty sad to see the weekend come to a close.  We had such a great time!  We each probably gained about 10 pounds, had several laughs, and made some wonderful memories.  Thanks mom for such a great girls trip, I think this should become an annual thing!