I'm signed up for Flights from Home, a subscription service that reports flight deals from Salt Lake City. One day I saw a deal for $100 round trip to Atlanta, and on a whim I texted my high school girlfriends suggesting a visit to our friend Haley in Augusta, which is right on the border of GA and SC.  We had a red-eye flight across the country, and then our trip began. 

The first day, Haley took us to Redcliffe Plantation. The grounds were once owned by a wealthy cotton farmer who owned hundreds of slaves in his lifetime. We visited the tiny slave quarters, which stood in the solemnly in the shadows of the large mansion.  The grounds were green with ancient trees and the grassy fields where children were once expected to pick 100 lbs of cotton a day. Then we drove through some of the quaint Southern neighborhoods and took a walk around a marshland home to turtles, lilypads, cranes and alligators. For dinner we enjoyed golden BBQ and then crashed on the pullout bed to watch a movie. 

The next day we went kayaking down the Savannah River. We were on the water for two hours, sometimes splashing each other or racing, sometimes holding the three kayaks together and floating lazily along. After the river we stopped at Aldi, a grocery store I visited many-a-time on my mission, to get pretzels and chocolate. Later in the afternoon we visited the grounds of Haley and McKay's future home.  Right then and there I decided I want to move to the South! 

The last day, we had to leave early for the airport.  We had an eight hour layover in Denver.