Our Trip to Savannah and Charleston

On April 18, Dennis and I left for our week long trip to visit Savannah and Charleston.  We had such a great time, it was good to get away from everything and just relax.  We were able to sleep in every day (a rare treat).  Scotty P stayed with my mom and thanks to modern technology, she was able to send text photos and videos every day.  So, without further adieu, here is the photo journal of our trip!

At home, with the car packed up and ready to go!

The Inn at Ellis Square.  This was our hotel in Savannah.  We stayed here three nights.  The rooms were not very impressive at all, they were pretty small and the bathroom was tiny.  However, the location was fantastic and they had a pretty good breakfast buffet every morning that was included with your room. 

One of the beautiful, stone stairways leading down to the riverfront.  You can't tell so much but they are very steep and very narrow (especially if you wear a size 10!)

The beautiful streets in front of the river.  I love how they are worn down by time.  I also love the old rail lines running down the street.

The bridge that connects Georgia and South Carolina. This was a beautiful and rather large bridge. It was pretty amazing to see all the barges on the river, I can't believe how big they are!

"The Waving Girl" statue.  The legend states that this girl waved at every ship that passed by.  She started in the late 1800's and continued waving at every ship for 40 years.  There is speculation that she fell in love with a sailor and waited for his return (this part reminds me of the great song by Looking Glass: Brandy, You're A Fine Girl). 

The hanging moss is so beautiful.  And it is EVERYWHERE.  The live oak trees are magnificent.  The whole city is steeped in beauty.  The city of Savannah is laid out in a grid and every block or so there is a park of some sort with the massive live oak trees and lush landscaping.   

This lion fountain sits in front of the Savannah Cotton Exchange.  The building was completed in 1887 and housed the main cash crop of Savannah (and much of the Old South); cotton.  The splendid winged lion fountain was originally built in 1889.  In 2008, a driver went out of control and completely destroyed this fountain as well as damaging part of the Cotton Exchange.  The fountain seen today is a replica of the original.   

Belford's Restaurant in the City Market area of Savannah.  What a beautiful restaurant.  We sat on the patio but the inside is decorated with gorgeous dark wood and brick.  The building itself was completed in 1902.  I had baked brie with blueberry sauce and a side of fresh fruit.  Dennis had a delightful grouper salad.   

Here we are at Paula Deen's restaurant, Lady and Son's.  I had the best lemonade ever (ok, well maybe it was a tie with Bell Buckle Cafe).  We had the dinner buffet and it was a lot of food.  You could go back as many times as you wanted but once was enough for me.  I did, however, find room for two banana puddings.  For those of you who don't know me as well, this is my favorite food in the whole world. Period.

My plate at Paula Deen's.  Fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, creamed corn, green beans, lima beans, mashed potatoes, and yams.  Is that it? Oh yes, and cornbread!

Savannah's beautiful Forsyth Park Fountain.  The fountain was originally installed in the 1850's and has since been restored many times.  It is one of the most recognized symbols of Savannah and is inspired by the fountains of Europe.  This park sets on 30 acres in the heart of Savannah's historic district. 

Fountain detail

Forsyth Park was amazing.  The live oaks were huge and covered in the hanging moss.  It was a busy place, full of runners, walkers, sunbathers, children playing on the jungle gym, etc.  What a great place to just sit and watch the world go by.

A memorial stands in the center of the park to honor Confederate Soldiers

One of the stately old homes surrounding Forsyth Park. 

Beautiful live oaks with hanging moss surround the whole perimeter of the 30 acre park

The trees are so large and mature, they must be over 200 years old!

On Tuesday we made it to Tybee Island.  How do I know it was Tuesday?  When we got there the sign read, "closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and Tuesdays."  Just our luck!  I was looking forward to seeing the ocean from the top of the lighthouse.  We had lunch at the Dolphin Reef Restaurant that overlooked the ocean. 

After an afternoon on Tybee Island, we decided to take a trolley tour of Savannah on our last evening in the graceful city.  It is entirely ok to laugh at the pictures below, as they were taken from our trolley tour.  Many are poorly framed and halfway blurry.  However, I love the architecture of the city and think many of these photos capture the spirit and the feel of the city. 

The smallest house in Savannah

This is now a restaurant but there is actually a tunnel leading from this courtyard to the river that was used for the Underground Railroad

A large and beautiful cathedral

We ended our last night in Savannah with a trip to Lulu's Chocolate Bar.  The atmosphere was very different, it was located very close to the art college and I think we were the only "older" people in there.  The desserts were amazing, however.  I had a blueberry almond cheesecake with a dessert coffee.  Dennis had a lovely chocolate cake with mascarpone icing and fruit in the middle as well as a chocolate-tini.  It was very expensive, but quite an experience. 

Our last stop in Savannah was the 160 acre Bonaventure Cemetery.  The cemetery was set on an old plantation and the treeline here is the original treeline for the driveway of the old plantation home. 

At the end of the path is the beautiful river

If you turn around and look the other direction on the path, you see the entrance to the lost plantation

The cemetery had many patriotic graves but this was a small portion specifically dedicated to those who lost their life for our country.

It may sound morbid, but I absolutely LOVE taking cemetery photos.  Some of the statues in a cemetery are so beautiful and show such emotion and such peace.  This quiet angel stands over a white marble tomb.

A Confederate Soldiers tomb... many of the tombs at this cemetery are dated from the 1700's-1800's. 

The plot of little Gracie Watson

"Little Gracie Watson was born in 1883, the only child of her parents.  Her father was manager of the Pulaski House, one of Savannah's leading hotels, where the beautiful and charming little girl was a favorite with the guests.  Two days before Easter, in April, 1889, Gracie died of pneumonia at the age of six.  In 1890, when the rising sculptor John Walz, moved to Savannah, he carved from a photograph this life sized, delicately detailed marble statue, which for almost a century has captured the interest of all passersby."
Notice someone left a red rose on the stone. I was moved to tears by the statue of little Gracie and her story.

We are leaving Savannah!!  Here we are on the beautiful bridge that connects Georgia and South Carolina.  We are planning on spending the afternoon at Hilton Head.

At this point, I believe I should pause for a moment to let you all know about our fancy schmancy GPS.  Now, don't get me wrong... I think a GPS is a fine thing, but sometimes it is not exactly... how do you say.... accurate?!  All we wanted was a place to eat in Hilton Head.  We found a place on the search feature of the GPS and then we got directions.  Well, when we got to the empty parking lot and the GPS lady kept saying we had arrived at our destination, I knew something was amiss.  This happened a lot on our vacation. But, it all turned out ok.  Maybe we should have relied on the map more! 

We finally ended up eating at Steamers Seafood in Hilton Head.  By this time Dennis and I were STARVING!  :)  It was pretty good and the location was very nice.  We ate outside on the patio, next to a pond filled with turtles and fish.

After Steamers Seafood, we decided to visit the Salty Dog in Hilton Head for Ice Cream.  The complex was in a "plantation community" where you had to pay to enter the "plantation".  This area was filled with multi-million dollar homes that were beautifully landscaped and humongous.  At the end of this "plantation" was the Salty Dog complex.  There were a couple of restaurants, a few shops, and an ice cream vendor.  This dock was at the back door of all these establishments.  The weather was perfect. 

The Hilton Head lighthouse was pretty but surrounded by shops.  We couldn't get too close from where we were.  But I did love the American flags flying. 

Don't you think the South Carolina flag is pretty?

There were sailboats EVERYWHERE!  I loved it!

On our way to Charleston, I saw this sign repeatedly.  I thought it was pretty funny and always read it like it was a plea... Let 'em work!!!....... Let 'em liiiiiiiiiiiiive! 

In Charleston, we stayed in West Ashely, just outside of the city.  Our hotel for the next 3 nights was the Comfort Suites.  It was built 7 months ago and was fabulous!  Everything was so nice and new, as well as being a large room. 

On our first FULL day in Charleston, Dennis and I decided to visit Patriots Point.  But first, let's get the car washed!!  Well, as we were Dennis was drying the car off after its bath, some lady came out of the car wash bay and slammed right into the back of us.  She had plenty of room to turn and miss us, but apparently she was distracted.  Of course, she blamed us.  What!?!  I had a very stiff neck, back and shoulders until we got back home and I could see my miracle worker chiropractor.  Luckily, Den was not in her path.  He was outside the car drying it off and saw her coming!  We are lucky, indeed.     

We finally made it to Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum!  Here is the USS Yorktown that houses the museum.  It was pretty interesting to tour the boat and see how life on the boat would have been in it's prime (1940's and 1950's).  Of course, I think Dennis was MUCH less impressed with that since he spent six months on the USS WASP. 

This scene was just to the left of the entrance walkway to the Yorktown.  So pretty!

To the right of the entrance walkway, you can see a bridge, just like the one in Savannah! 

During our self tour, we saw a hawk (or some other kind of bird of prey) catch and eat a fish.  I know, a little gruesome, but interesting nonetheless. 

On the flight deck.

The view off the flight deck.

Our beautiful flag was flying on the flight deck.  I am in awe every time I see it.

A close up picture of the flags flying in front of the ship. 

As we left, I took a picture looking back towards the ship.  All the crowds were gone by this time, so I was able to get a good shot of the walkway lined by our flag. 

If you look at the top center, you can see a C17 fly over the ship.  We spent the whole day here and once we were finished, we decided to eat dinner and go back to our room.  We ate dinner at Hyman's world famous seafood restaurant and it was really good.  The table where we sat had also sat Jodie Foster and Billy Joel.  The food was very good.  We then decided to drive around Charleston after dark and look at the magnificent mansions.  All in all, a good day (except for the whole accident thing).

Friday consisted of being all touristy.  We ate lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and it was actually very good.  I loved the whole premise since Forrest Gump is one of my all time favorite movies.  There was memorabilia everywhere. 

When at your table, if everything is fine and you don't need anything, you display this sign. 

If at any point you need anything at all (a refill, more shrimp, etc), you change the sign to this.  Your waiter also comes and plays Forrest Gump trivia with you at your table.  I got all the questions right except I didn't know Lieutenant Dan's last name!  I usually have such a brain for useless trivia like that!  What a fun time!

We decided to drive around since downtown is not laid out as well as Savannah.  Here is the famous Rainbow Row.  The streets were all very crowded and traffic was horrible.  The architecture of the city was breathtaking with many large mansions that were sumptuously landscaped and decorated. 

We ended our afternoon (and our vacation) with a visit to Urban Nirvana where we had a wonderful couples massage.  What a nice place!  The people there were so friendly, we asked them about places to eat and they were full of ideas.  We ended up eating at A.W.Shucks (mostly because every other place had a 1-2 hour wait time), but it ended up being very good. 

The most perfect end to the night came in the form of cake (doesn't it always?).  We ate at another dessert bar, this one called Kaminsky's.  It was a nice, laid back atmosphere.  It was very crowded but we were able to get a seat right away.  I ordered a white chocolate hot chocolate and Dennis got a milkshake (it may just be me, but the caramel in his milkshake looks like a giraffe!).  We then shared a piece of white chocolate/ white chocolate chip cake with butter cream frosting.  I was in love.  I also ordered another hot chocolate, caramel this time.  We relaxed and ate and had a grand time reminiscing about our vacation.  When the check came, our bill was only $6!  The waiter had not charged us for our cake or my second hot chocolate.  He simply told us it was on him and welcome to Charleston!  How grand!