One Lucky Day

Today will go down as a lucky one. I didn't win a lottery, a new car or even a piece of candy. I won nothing but was very, very lucky. We're still down here in Savannah and we had planned a day downtown visiting the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace. She was the founder of Girl Scouts and I wanted to wait to visit it after both girls were in Daisies/Brownies. So, today was the day!

We finally got the crew together - me, my mom, Kt, Em and little Sky - and were heading out the door when Gaia escaped. Now, this was a tragedy because Gaia is my sister's dog. She is of unknown mix, but appears to be a bit of rottweiler or doberman and german sherpherd. Gaia was a stray - and not a particularly trusting one. When she hears the call of the wild, she responds. We've heard stories of her eating exotic birds, chasing down other dogs while on her leash, "finding" the stray cats under my sister's front porch... the list goes on. Today, she saw her chance to escape and she took it. Bolted, she did, right out the door!

My sister had mentioned these past few days that she is not an easy dog to catch. My sister even has to sneak up behind her while she's taking care of business - she won't come for a treat, for a car ride or even for her loving owners. Today, lucky for me, was quite different. It may have been the hot, hot day outside or just the fact that Gaia is finally a senior citizen. She took off down the road and my mom followed her in the van, stopping to ask neighbors if they had seen a (killer) dog in the neighborhood. No one had seen her. While I waited at the house with the kids, who were upstairs making "Missing Dog" posters, I saw a tail outside the front window. She found her own way home and we finally prodded her in the side gate. We were lucky! It was a record 10 minute recovery, so...

We headed off for Downtown. We knew about where we were going, but parking is at a minimum down there. Lots of it, but rarely empty where you need them. We passed the Low house, found our first spot - 30 minute limit. Found a second spot - 1 hour limit. Found our third space, and it was just right at 2 hours. Of course, after roaming around looking for a spot, we had little clue as to where we were in reference to where we were heading. It just so happened that we parked by the old courthouse on Bull Street, on a beautiful square that was one block from the house - bingo!

The tour of the house was quite short but very informative. It was a great length for kids and they have many, many artifacts, anecdotes to share and beautiful furniture. Of course, we had to purchase the JGL birthplace Girl Scout pin, the Friendship Pin and patches that you can ONLY get at the house. I think the girls enjoyed it, even though Em told me she was bored. And our three year old was a champ! Other than wanting to sit on everything, she was wonderful. On the way home, we stopped at "Old" McDonald's for a milkshake - it was her first! LOL

In our crazy pre-downtown excitement, we forgot to bring a camera. Fortunately, CVS was right by our parking space, so we picked up a disposable one. In other words, pictures will be a long time in coming!! We did have fun and I did take a few cute pics tonight on my cameraphone to put up here for your enjoyment. My luck did eventually run out while making mac 'n cheese for dinner and discovered we had no milk. I'll take that over Gaia never returning or parking miles away from that house with a three year old whose stroller we forgot!!