As we walked to get to the starting location of one of the trolley tours, Ladd and I quickly discovered how cold it was, especially for Savannah. The HIGH temperature for today was 45 degrees! (We realize, of course, when you consider the bitter cold temperatures at home, that it’s all relative. But after the warm temperature yesterday in Savannah and the very warm temperatures in Panama City Beach, it seemed hard to take.) So we walked VERY quickly to the “Old Town Trolley Tours” for the tour of Savannah. The tour was an “on/off” tour with fifteen spots you could get off to explore and get back on when ready. Ladd and I stayed on the trolley tour through 13 stops for two reasons: we were enjoying all that we were able to see/learn and because it was a LITTLE bit warmer on the trolley than walking <g>. On the trolley tour we saw and learned about “City Market” (similar to a smaller version of “Quincy Market” in Boston), the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts), The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, the Hull Street location of the bench “Forrest Gump” (Tom Hanks) told his life story, the “Herb House” circa 1734 – oldest surviving house in Georgia which expanded to a seaman’s tavern and later became “The Pirates’ House”, and much more including awesome historical examples of Colonial and Victorian architecture.
We got off the trolley to explore Bay Street, but by the time we got to River Street we were freezing again. Time to get some lunch and warm up. Last night we saw the menu for a place on River Street that offered some great-sounding soups. We found the place called “Bernie’s Oyster House“ and decided to give it a try. Ladd had seafood chowder and a beer and I had crab bisque and an Irish coffee. Yum! Now full and defrosted, we set off again.
As we started walking we were surprised at how quickly we got cold again and decided to go back to my car and dig out our winter coats we were wearing when we left New York! Then we were warm and “hit the road” again. We walked to “City Market” so I could cruise the shops. Then we walked to Ellis Square to visit Paula Deen’s store.
For our next excursion we went back to the Inn to get my car. We drove to “Tybee Island”: rated as one of the top ten city beaches in America. Although I was already 100% certain it was NOT beach weather, I did think we could walk to the end of the cool long pier there. We were about a third of the way out when the freezing winds really hit. Ladd and I looked at each other and in silent agreement turned around and headed back to land. In the warmth of the car we went to visit Fort Pulaski: a Civil War fort, now part of our National Park System. First we watched a short video in the Visitors’ Center that gave a summary of the history of Fort Pulaski. It was built on marshy Cockspur Island to guard river approaches to Savannah. The design of the fort supposedly made it “invincible”. As with the “unsinkable” Titanic, this “invincibility” also proved to be not the case. During the Civil War Colonel Olmstead of the Confederate Forces surrendered Fort Pulaski to the Union Forces. It was nonetheless an impressive design and structure. Since we had arrived an hour before closing, Ladd and I had to rush on our walk through the fort, but we loved seeing the moat, draw bridges, hilly mounds surrounding the fort, different rooms, cells, stone spiral staircases that led us to the upper level with cannons, etc. We really wish we had more time to visit here.
For dinner we stayed at the restaurant in our “17 Hundred 90 Inn”. We enjoyed a great meal in a classy, historic setting. When we were served our complimentary cocktails, the waiter brought us an amazing “treat”: rolls topped with honey-butter. Normally Ladd and I are not big fans of rolls, but these were obviously homemade and TRULY melt-in-your-mouth delicious, especially with the honey-butter topping. BOTH of us asked for a second roll! (Good thing we did all that walking today…LOL!) For our entrees Ladd had shrimp and scallop scampi over linguine and I had Boursin Chicken stuffed with a garlic cheese and mashed potatoes. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! Members of the Clean Plate Club again! (Guess we’ll have to walk twice as far tomorrow – ha!)
Since we had such a fun time last night in the bar attached to our Inn, we decided to finish off our Savannah visit there. Last night we enjoyed a great conversation and laughs with a new friend, Chris. We were happy to see Chris there again tonight, so we picked up where we left off with our shared life stories and laughs!
Savannah is such a beautiful, clean, and interesting city! We hope to visit again some time!
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