We're headed to Miami for the Bowl Game

We left Dianne's Monday morning and headed further south. We arrived in Savannah around 4:00 pm, checked into the hotel and headed for downtown. We didn't have much time so we definitely want to go back - we caught a few of the sites before dark.

Very quaint and a lot of nice shops, but many were closed by the time we arrived.

We found Paula Deen's restaurant right away and I would have loved to have had New Year's Eve dinner here, but....

this was the crowd when we went back, oh well maybe next time.

We were strolling around and came to this restaurant and it looked very inviting. I recently had a wonderful Thai meal from a local restaurant back home, provided by my boss to everyone at our office for Christmas. No comparison! The atmosphere was nice but the food was a real disappointment. Hopefully I can get Dave to give Thai another chance when we get back home.

We had a very nice table at the front of the restaurant.

Dave's meal looked very pretty but he thought it was just OK.

I had Pad Thai and Chicken on a Stick - not as good as I remembered.

By the time we reached our hotel in Miami, on New Year's Day, late in the afternoon, we were pooped.

The hotel (Don Shuler's) was very nice. The balcony in our room looked over a beautiful pool, hot tub and garden. Too bad we didn't get to use it.

Picture of the pool. Very inviting, only if it hadn't been the coldest weather Florida was having in years.

The best part of the trip was having time with family. Dave's brother Dick and his wife Cathy met us at the hotel. We had dinner with them and their daughter, Lauren on Wednesday night. Dave had not seen his niece for 20 years! She is so sweet - it was so nice spending time with her. Dick was not feeling well and was unable to go to the game but it was great visiting with them.

Dave and Dickie.

The bowl game was on January 3 at 8:00 pm. We headed over to Joe Roby Stadium in the morning for the all day tail gaiting party, we didn't stay long. It was very cold, cloudy and windy.

See how everyone is dressed. I took mostly summer clothes and never put them on.

Before heading back to the hotel we had this picture taken in front of the orange bowl trophy - looks like I am balancing those oranges on my head.

We headed back for the game. It was cold and rainy, but we had a good time.

Hokies taking the field.

Escalators taking us up to the level where our seats were.

Over looking the parking lot.

Va. Tech Band.

They were excellent as usual.

Halftime.

The game was good, even though the Hokies lost to Kansas 24/21. Katherine McPhee sang the National Anthem and she did an awesome performance.

We enjoyed our trip, but it was good to head back home. We stopped at South of the Border - had to get a shot with these flamingo's.