I *love* Savannah, Georgia!!!

We took a weekend trip to Savannah, a trip that honestly was a stretch for us but took because of a rare “you only live once” splurge.  I’ve been battling shingles plus chronic fatigue, so the 14-hour travel day took a toll on me, and I slept 23 hours our first two nights here.   But I loved thsi trip and loved Savannah! The town is beautiful, the food unbelievably tasty, and the people warm and friendly. I rally loved this town, as much as some of the towns in France.

But hereare highlights of our trip:

• To save money – and because of two inches of snow – we took the 5:30 AM bus and train to the airport.  8.50 and 90 minutes door-to-door.  Took an hour to de-ice the plane in Seattle, but once we took off uneventful plane travel through Detroit.
• Day 1 Started with a sunny but cool morning walk to put our name in line at breakfast at B. Matthew, where there was a 45 minute wait.  While we waited, we walked to the Coffee Fox and had coffee outside in the sun, plus had a chocolate scone.  The coffee was amazing, and the people were friendly.  At breakfast, our server was originally from Russia, and she was very sweet.  She is going home in 24 days, not that she is counting she said.  We had bloody Marys and I had a shrimp cheese grit thing plus biscuit and gravy that were un-real.  There were a couple of graduates from one school or another, and people were congratulating them.  We are loving that about here – people talk to you, unlike in SEattle where no one makes eye contact or makes passing conversation.
• Walked back through Savannah to a few shops that were beautiful and quaint. Went to the Savannah Hive store, which had amazing honey-based products.  We even tried Mead, and learned that Mead is the oldest alcohol by thousands of years and was discovered not invented.  It is always honey based, and we loved the beer-meets-champagne Monk’s Mead, and purchased a bottle.  We learned that the owners are a local family, and Ted the father has been keeping bees since he was 12 and even spent time in the Peace Corp where he taught people in Jaimaca and other places how to keep hives. Amazing.
• We went to the chocolate shop, which we are told was amazing.  Again, people there made conversation with us, and some customers made recommendations as we shopped.  I can’t wait to try the chocolate!
• We walked through town and along the reiver. The river has old walls, and not sure why that is – from the Revolutionary War?  Civil War?  Just a Sea Wall to protect the short? Not sure.  Anway, saw a square where George Washington attended church in 1791, saw a monument dedicated to Nathaniel Greene, the original church of John Wesley, and a plaque mentioning that the colonists of Georgia originally set out from ENgland in 1732.  I am thinking that Nathaniel Greene was a REvolutionary War general and that Wesley started The Great Reformation, but will have to research that later.  Anyway, I that Georgia is one the more recent colonies (well over 100years younger than New York, New England, Virginia, etc.).
• Dinner at Cotton and Rye. Delicious whiskey based cocktails, fried chicken and buttermilk chocolate pie!  Dinner reservations were booked past 5 PM so we settled for a heavy early dinner – our second way too heavy meal of the day, but worth it 🙂
• I am loving our taxi/uber drivers.  One is in active army duty and drives occassionally after hours for extra dollars, and two others are Savannah locals.  I am distrubed that our US Government does not pay our active force people enough – if anyone deserves a living wage, it is the people who serve on active duty. Another driver has never traveled outside Savannah and rarely can afford to eat out — here we are, eating out every night in another city and he can’t afford one night out.  That is not fair.  We need more equitable wages in this country – why should some CxO born into a privileged family deserve to eat out 7 mights a week when a person working just as hard in harder circumstances can’t afford to eat out one night.  I blame Reagan’s tax cuts for that. 🙂
• I loved this first day.  I love the historic brick buildings, the people and the food.  More to come!
• Took a historic ghost tour.  Learned Savannah founded in 1733 by English as a buffer between Spanish-held Florida and English colonies to the north.  Our first mansion built by a wealthy man whose father owned Haiti plantations; his first wife died of yellow fever, second wife lept to her death and Haiti slave was hung in rafters of servant houes – it is said the second wife and slave haunt the home.  We saw a video of second wife descending front steps, heard tape of slave screaming for help.  We also saw where 100s of people died in two American Revolutionary battles in 1778 and 1779, and learned that Savannah is built on top of many unmarked graveyards where the bodies still reside.  We saw a house where 100s of people died of Yellow Fever, the doctor who cared for them starved himself to death, and where there are rumored to be a demonic presence.  We saw an orphanage where orphans died in one of the great city fires and it is said that there are occassional voices heard.  
• Second day, we had breakfast at Collins Quarter, and sat outside.  Wonderful meal and coffee — the coffee in Savannah has been better than in Seattle (more tasty and better tasting).  
• We walked to Forsythe park, which is a large park established in the early 1800s.  It was beautiful – long and spacious with lots of trees and the massive fountain. M snapped a lot of photos so I had a lot of time to enjoy the view.
• We walked through the squares and through the town, admiring the tree lined streets, squares, beautiful houses that line the sidewalk.  
• We walked to River Street, and had cocktails and amazing fried green tomatoes at Rocks on the Roof. The view of the river and grasslands beyond was wonderful, and we saw a rainbow. 
• We took a cab ride to the Bonaventure Cemetery, the famous cemetery portrayed in MIdnight int he Garden of Good and Evil. The cemetery was closed early due to hurrican clean up, but we saw it front the outside.  Towering trees over the old cemetery, and our driver told us that because of grave robbing and mismarkings we can’t necessarily believe the names on the marker, especially the more famous ones.  He was a fun driver – getting his masters degree, a Type A who finds Savannah’s slower pace of life a challenge for him 🙂 He was a sharp guy.
• Our dinner the second night was good, but not the brest meal we had by Savannah standards.  We honetly love the Savannah food, which is perhaps only matched by the food in France as far as flavor.  We were pretty fool so focused on a lot of appetizers, which were good but not amazing.  However, I loved our server, who was friendly and is in nursing school.  SHe was originally from New York but didn’t like the cold – she was funny and attentive with a fresh/kind face and sparkingling white teeth :).
• We took a gohost tour the second night.  This was a xombie themed tour but honestly had very little to do with zombies.  We saw the famous mansion from Midnight of Garden in Good and Evil, but learned beyond the story there have been multiple murders in the house over th years, including a boy who tragically fell from the roof but under very strange circumstances.  We were shown the spot where he fell but we could not bare to take  pictures of it, since it was such a sad story and happened only 45 years ago.  The top floor is still a rsidence – I could not live in a house with four or more murders over the centuries!  We saw 432 hosue, where it is rumored a Hag lives, where a little girl imprisoned by her father died from neglect, and which sits near an unmarked slave graveyard that is now a park (people are walking on burial sites without ralizing it); this was a creepy house, and it was good to get  away from there. Finally, we walked to the Colonial Cemetery, whose current borders are actually smaller than the actual graveyard, meaning buildings are built atop graves (like out of Poltergeist).  Next to the graveyard is a playground, which is actually built atop an unmarked orphan cemetery, orphans who basically died of abandonment when their parents died of Yellow Fever; there are two hair-raising tales: one is of a boy talking about the scary boy who wanted to play with him on the swingset, and the other is of the video shot of a ghostly white boy running through the graveyard; for only the second time in my life, that spot raised goosebumps.
• DaY 3 we went Tybe Island, which was a nice beach during the slow season. It was pretty cloudy but at 75 degrees and a beautiful beach to ourselves, we didnt care.  
• We also walked around Savannah, and saw the house that the huanted mansion at Disneyland was modeled after (exterior).  We snapped a photo, and I was wondering if the people who originally lived there had any choice of whether their house as used (it would be awful to have people suddenly taking pitctures  of your house, unless you bought it after it was already famous 🙂 ).  
• We went to a pink house for dinner in the heart of Savannah.  The Old Pink House.  WOnderful service and food.
• Finally, we had lunch at the Kaya cafe (delicious tacos) and headed home on a late flight.  

A spectacular weekend.