Category: Celebration

Birthday Celebration, Boats, Alligators, and Two Rivers

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I have reached the age where I don’t have to travel to an exciting destination or have a big party to celebrate my birthday. Last year we enjoyed our anniversary celebration in Darien so much I wanted to return this year for my birthday.

We traveled south on U.S. Hwy 17 to our destination on the Darien River in Darien, Georgia. Our first stop was Mudcat Charlie’s at the Two Way Fish Camp on the Altamaha River in Brunswick. After some delicious wild Georgia shrimp for lunch we walked around the dock and looked down on an 11 1/2 foot alligator in the muddy water.

Boats at Two Way Fish Camp on the Altamaha River
Alligator in the Altamaha River

Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia but did you know that Darien is Georgia’s 2nd oldest city?

Welcome to Darien, Georgia, Georgi’s second oldest city

For the next day and a half I swam in the pool, enjoyed the view of the Darien River from our deck at the hotel, watched young alligators swimming in the river, enjoyed seeing the huge Live Oaks draped with Spanish Moss as I wandered around the hotel, and ate some more delicious meals.

Boats on the Darien River
Darien River
Shrimp Boats on the Darien River
Young Alligator in the Darien River

Live Oak

Relaxing and spending time with my husband in a beautiful setting was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday.

Every Day is a Gift

Cellpic Sunday – Junkanoo for St. Patrick’s Day

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Every year, the Bahamian Junkanoo group Barabbas and the Tribe create special costumes for the St. Patrick’s Day and are a crowd favorite in both the Tybee Irish Festival parade and the Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Parades.

The fun starts a few days before the big Savannah St. Patrick’s Day parade when twice a night the Junkanoo Band marches through the Crab Shack on Tybee Island to the delight of everyone.

Shared with John’s Cellpic Sunday

Also shared with One Word Sunday – Green

Every Day is a Gift

Wandering Dawgs – Celebrating 13 Years of Blogging

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March 19, 2026 was the 13th anniversary of my first post on the Wandering Dawgs blog. I  started the blog in 2013 as a way to keep friends and family up to date on our RV journey from Georgia to Alaska and back. When I started the blog I never dreamed I would make blogging friends from all around the world!

I enjoyed keeping up the blog even after we returned from our Alaska adventure. For several years I mostly posted about our RV travels before I expanded my focus to include posts about gardening, birds, wildlife, coastal Georgia, and other random things. I still post about our travels even though we don’t take the RV any more.

I started participating in photo challenges somewhere along the way. In 2025, I was honored and excited to be asked to be one of the hosts of the Lens-Artists team. To learn more about the Len-Artists challenges please click here.

Wandering Dawgs then and now:

Thank you to everyone who visits Wandering Dawgs. I really appreciate all the visits, likes, and comments over the years. I value each and every one of my blogging friends! Thank you for your kind words and encouragement through the years!

I just renewed Wandering Dawgs for another year. I hope to keep this up until I run out ideas and photos!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #377 – Holiday Fun

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This week Ann-Christine is asking us to share some Holiday memories. We can choose any happy memories from any holidays we have enjoyed. The Christmas season is here and I will be sharing some of my fondest Christmas memories with you.

My favorite Christmas memories go way back to when our children and then our grandchildren were young. Those were magical times when they would get more and more excited the closer we got to Christmas. In the following gallery our grandson was 4 when we had a magical day with him at Busch Gardens in Tampa right before Christmas. I love this photo of him looking up at the giant Christmas tree. Later in December of the same year his family came to our house for Christmas. He and his little sister loved looking out our living room windows at Christmas Train lights and seeing our living room transformed into a snowy Christmas village.

Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida

Most of the ornaments on our tree have special meaning. My favorite ones are the ones our children and grandchildren made. Below on the left is a reindeer made by one of our grandchildren. On the right the two paper star Santas were made by our children almost 50 years ago.

We have lived on the Georgia coast for many years. Many of the Christmas light displays have a beach theme with lighted palm trees and even mermaids.

One summer we were in North Pole, Alaska on the Fourth of July. We visited the Santa Claus house and although we didn’t celebrate Christmas with Santa we had fun watching the North Pole Independence Day Parade which of course featured Santa Claus!

It was my pleasure to be your host for last week’s challenge of Wings. I enjoyed every one of your creative posts. Thank you everyone who responded with natural wings of birds and insects from around the world. There were even a few airplanes, angel wings, dragons, and gargoyles.

Many thanks to Ann-Christine for her challenge Holiday Fun. I hope you will join us for this fun challenge.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, December 13 at noon eastern time for our last challenge of the year.

For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift