Pre-Baby Getaway to Georgia

A couple of weeks ago, I got a break from this bitterly cold Philadelphia winter and took a trip down to Georgia with my mom. She thought it would be fun for us to have one last mother-daughter trip before the baby comes, and I was excited to spend time with her and to go to Atlanta and Savannah for the first time.

The start of the trip was all about zombies. My parents had visited Georgia and South Carolina over the summer and while they were in Atlanta they went on a tour of filming sites from The Walking Dead. Since my brother Brian and I are huge fans of the show, my mom thought it would be fun to start our own trip with one of these tours. Brian flew over from Dallas for the weekend and on Saturday the three of us drove down to Senoia - the little town that served as Woodbury.

(*Note* If you are not caught-up to Season 5, Episode 11 of The Walking Dead you may want to skip down several pictures and paragraphs. I'll do my best to keep things as spoiler-free as possible, though.)

Senioa-turned-Woodbury for the show. It crazy how similar it looks in real life!

Before our tour, we stopped at The Woodbury Shoppe. This store is 100% dedicated to The Walking Dead and has a ton of licensed merchandise and even a tiny museum in the basement. We bought a few things (including this sweet onesie for Baby Brier) and took some fun pics in the museum.

The cast has even signed the walls of the museum and there are signatures everywhere! Here's just a little glimpse:

Daryl, Beth, Maggie & Eugene

Our tour guide

After we finished at The Woodbury Shoppe it was time for the tour! The tour company is called Atlanta Movie Tours and they take you around in a shuttle to a bunch of filming sites. Sometimes you just drive past different locations, but other times you get out of the shuttle and explore where certain scenes were filmed.

Our guide is actually a semi-regular zombie extra on the show. He's been a zombie 11 times and has been killed 6 or 7 times. He had a ton of amazing behind-the-scenes stories and it really added not just to the tour, but to my viewing of the show from now on.

For example, the contacts that the zombies wear to make them look dead are incredibly difficult to see out of. He compared it to trying to see through a fish tank full of skim milk. Because of this, it's hard for the zombie actors to know exactly when they'll be killed or hit by one of the characters. Although it's a very physical show, he said that the number one "injury" on-set is eye infections thanks to these contacts.

Here are a bunch of pics:

Remember how The Governor would host those Woodbury zombie fights?

Here's where they shot those scenes! 

My mom, Brian, our guide and me!

Remember the apartment from the Season 3 episode Clear?

We got to see that too! Well, basically. The set people from The Walking Dead totally restored the apartment once they were done, but the mayor of this little town thought it would be a cool tourist attraction so they painstakingly re-painted it to be as similar as possible to the show. Check it out:

Remember the scene where Rick and The Governor met in the barn for negotiations (and some whiskey)?

Here it is! (They built a platform to make the floor seem all on one level for filming).

There were lots of other fun things to see, but this post is already pic-heavy and I have one more thing I want to be sure to show you.

Right next to Senioa (a.k.a. Woodbury) is where they built the new Alexandria set! (When I say right next to I mean it - you can see this from Main Street). Those of you who are caught up got your first glance during last Sunday's episode. I've read the comics, so this was much more exciting for Brian and me to see (he's read them as well) since we have an idea of how Alexandria will shape the plot moving forward.

To try to ward off as many looky-loos as possible, there are signs up around the development that make it look like they are just building new homes in the area. Um... no. Definitely a Walking Dead set :) There are also a ton of "road closed" and "no trespassing" signs. Here are some pics:

The trickster sign

We all really enjoyed the tour and I definitely recommend Atlanta Movie Tours if you are ever in the area.

The next day, Brian flew back to Dallas and my mom and I headed to Savannah in our rental car. Savannah was such a charming city! It reminded me of Philadelphia because of all the old buildings and cobblestone streets, but it was much quieter, smaller and relaxed (some of that may have been due to the fact that it was February). Given that it is often proclaimed to be the most haunted city in America, the first thing on our agenda was to go on a ghost tour that night.

In the basement of The Pirate's House

Since I've already posted so many pics I'll save you from the (many) pictures I took on the ghost tour. We heard a bunch of cool stories about the city as we rode in a trolly and we got out at two stops: The Pirate's House and The Sorrel Weed House. I'll let you check out those links if you are curious about the significance of those places.

One thing I do want to say is how creepy this tour was. I've been on many ghost tours in the past and have caught what looked like orbs in a few of my pictures, but this was TOTALLY different.

(I guess I should also state that yes, I do believe in ghosts. I even had a couple of experiences as a kid...)

Orbs were flying EVERYWHERE in both the Pirate's House and Sorrel Weed House basements. And it didn't take looking at a picture to see them, you could see them on the screen as you were actually taking the photo.

At the Sorrel Weed House they had night-vision cameras set-up and we could watch all the orbs flying around the room. Yes, some "orbs" are actually dust particles. But the shape and size and movement of many of these orbs were way different than anything I've ever seen. The creepiest part was when my mom and I were watching through a girl's camera phone as she was taking pictures (it was a Samsung with a huge screen) and a GIANT orb came shooting across the room.We ran out of the basement at that point... especially since the guide had just said how spirits are attracted to pregnant women. EEEK!

I know, I know... I sound like a crazy person. Joe doesn't believe in ghosts. But whatever :) He was intrigued by the fact they showed up through the screen and not just in the actual pics (so it wasn't a camera glare or something).

Besides the ghost tour, the rest of our Savannah stay was pretty low-key. We did some shopping and explored an old fort, cemetery, and house, but I wasn't up for too much more. Walking tours were out of the question thanks to the fact that I am pregnant and easily tired (not to mention the frequent trips to the bathroom). It was still a ton of fun, though, and a great opportunity to spend time with my mom before the baby comes.

Speaking of the baby, we found a store called Once Upon a Child in Savannah and bought him a TON of clothes. They sell gently-used clothes for babies and kids there (plus shoes, gear and other necessities) and were having a onesie sale where you could buy 10 onesies for $10. I bought 40. Plus some other stuff. On our way back to Atlanta the next day, we stopped by another location and they were having an even better sale - ANYTHING on clearance (and there was a lot) was buy 10 for $10. I think this kid got at least another 50 articles of clothing. He is certainly going to be well (and cheaply!) dressed :) Luckily I had brought an extra suitcase since I knew my mom and I would be shopping (though I never imagined I would be stuffing the whole thing full of baby clothes)!

That about wraps things up! And just in time. Tomorrow morning I am leaving for ANOTHER trip - this time to Missouri to visit some of Joe's family. It'll be great for his mom to have a chance to see me pregnant, and we are going to have a baby shower. Poor Joe can't miss school to make the trip, but his step-brother is actually going to fly out for the weekend to keep him company. So we'll both have fun weekends :)

XO - Kate