I should really say OUR trip to Savannah, since there were two of us.
DAY 1: Our trip started with a trip out to
Tybee Island. We had breakfast at the
Breakfast Club and then went on to
Ft. Screven, now the
Tybee Museum. Inside the museum were all sorts of artifacts from life on
Tybee, including some of the "best friends" of the
Tybee Island children.
Woo, woo! I think that this arrangement is a little provocative, given the poor reputation that pirates have, but I didn't curate this exhibit. The other part of the excursion was the
Tybee Island Lighthouse. It's pretty tall, and after my experience
descending the Key West lighthouse (a fiasco complete with shaky crying due to my fear of heights), I decided to stay on the ground.
GMiller vetoed my idea that he take a photo from the top looking down in which I would pose as if I fell from the balcony onto the lawn surrounding the lighthouse with twisted broken leg and shoes knocked from my feet by the impact. A missed opportunity for hilarity, if you ask me. While I was waiting, I tried to talk to an orange marmalade cat they had, until I saw the fleas literally SIZZLING off him. Yikes! No thanks Bubonic Plague cat, I think I'll sit over here. The lighthouse was very pretty.
We went to another fort that day, too. I think. Yes, we did because I had
GMiller take a picture of me behind a stockade door making a frown face... because I'm in jail! Get it? When I get the picture from him, I'll post it. I also got kisses at this fort, which makes it doubly shameful that I don't remember the name. It might be Ft. Pulaski...
We drove back to Savannah and checked in to our hotel. I can't recommend it, so I won't post a link. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, either. ANYWAY we took a nap then went to the Waterfront area for a late night supper. Though it was Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day revelers, street vendors and Savannah city workers were all gearing up for the celebration.
DAY 2: We drove to Charleston, SC where we brunched at
Hominy Grill. Delicious! I got a big
ol' pork chop covered with chow chow, greens, fried grits and sweet tea.
GMiller got sweet tea, too.
The Grill is close to a Charleston hospital, and we were surrounded by doctors, nurses and administrators hence the
greenies in the background. He had Low Country
Purloo which is like a stew with chicken, rice and sausage.
Once we were through eating, we headed in to the city. Charleston is a beautiful city with lots of great spaces to walk around and enjoy the weather in. Can you imagine going to check out books from this place? I wish my library looked like this.
We also stumbled across one of the oldest Unitarian churches in the country. To get to it, you have to go down this garden path which opens up to a lushly overgrown graveyard. Through the trees hung with Spanish moss you see the church.
How incredible is that? We weren't able to go in, but we spent a lot of time exploring the graveyard.
This photo is a shout out to my best friend Lisa F. We both like the fantasy that one day, our cats will consent to get all dolled up and put on a show. You can keep your "crazy cat lady" comments to yourself, thanks. : )
We headed back to Savannah and had dinner again in the historic district.
OH, SNAP! I almost forgot to tell you about the biggest GYP in Charleston, this historic site that's trying really hard to be like Plymouth
Plantation in Mass. It's not.
GMiller sold me on the fact that they have a wild animal park of native SC species to include a lynx and a puma. Of course I said yes. So we get there and they're almost closed, but we get tickets anyway and head toward the animal park. Where are the animals? Asleep! Otters: asleep. Deer: asleep. Buffalo: asleep.
The cat exhibits were completely empty. The only thing we saw at the lynx cage was this crazy swarm of Fiddler crabs moving from the mud flats to the grass enclosure. The sound they made
SKEEVED ME OUT! They were interesting, though, with their big fat claws. With the animal park behind us, I find a nice bench to sit on while
GMiller tours the "town". Soon, like the animals, I was asleep. After having experienced the park, I can't blame them.
DAY 3: We decide to go to Bonaventure
Cemetery in the morning. What a great place. It's very quiet, as you would expect from a graveyard. It's right by the water and has great views. This
cemetery is famous for all it's grave marker statuary. This was one of my favorites.
We also saw Johnny Mercer's grave. There's no headstone, just big slabs, like Elvis has. Mr. Mercer is buried between his mother and his wife. Maybe that says something about his situation in life, but they were probably planted in order of death, not mental pathology. While we were driving through the Jewish part of Bonaventure, I saw this cute cat sitting on a gravestone among the azaleas. "Bye, bye Hebrew kitty!" I hollered as we drove away.
Today is also the day we stood in line for an hour to eat at
Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room. Man was it worth it! If you go to Savannah, eat here. The meal is served family style with about ten people at each table. The food is all set for you before you get to the table and each day has a standard menu of about 12 items plus daily specials of 3-4 additional items. The fried chicken was some of the best I've ever had and I spotted many dishes that were old favorites from Mama Anne's (my grandmother), table to include peas with noodles, white bread stuffing with egg and okra with tomatoes. We each felt like
Mr. Creosote from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. We needed a bucket.
After lunch we went to the train museum and a maritime museum. The maritime museum was full of handmade scale models of all sorts of ships. Mostly they were named "Savannah" so of course they needed to be in the museum even if they had never sailed anywhere near Georgia. In the ladies' room someone thoughtfully posted this sign.
No one likes to be surprised by a rumbling toilet. Imagine the chagrin one would feel had there been no advance notice.
The train museum was really cool because they're restoring the train yard. The rail road was once a cornerstone of industry in Savannah and meant a lot to the people there. The rail yard has been preserved really well and they have lots of neat engines and cars on display. El
Presidente gives a speech from one of the travelling office cars.
You can tell from the adulation he's
receiving that he's wildly popular and there's now no need to enact the "I hate poor people" tax he was planning to levy because the large majority of polls showed low approval in the indigent demographic. : )
We spent the rest of the day wandering around Savannah's squares. Every square that had a fountain was squirting green water. It was a little disconcerting. A few park goers were complaining that the water was less green this year than last. It looked plenty green to me.
We took advantage of the "little traveler" opportunity Savannah affords to walk around with cocktails. If only cups of beer really grew on trees...
We ended the evening with a sunset view of the Mercer House where Jim Williams shot that boy to death. Now it's a museum, but we didn't go in. I'd want to see all Jim Williams' things and they've been sold.
The next day, St. Patrick's Day saw us homeward bound. After some shuffling due to bad weather in Pittsburgh, we ended up on the same flight home we'd been told was cancelled. It was a good trip and we had a great time together.
