Savannah

Photo by Kev
Savannah is a beautiful city about two-and-a-half hours away, and we decided to spend Kev and Geraldine's last full day with us there. Tom had to work, so it was just the three of us. We didn't really rush, but we did get up and hit the road, getting breakfast along the way. We arrived before noon, parked at the Visitor's Center and went inside. After looking at the displays there we went outside, purchased our tickets for the 'hop-on/hop-off' trolley tour and climbed aboard. We did exactly as we used to suggest at Trips and Tours in Belgium -- take the entire tour first, then go enjoy the city, hopping onto the trolley whenever you are ready.

The tour showed us a lot, and was totally different from the last time I took a tour of Savannah. I guess the company and the tour guide can make a big difference. This time we saw the place on Chippewa Square where Tom Hanks (as Forrest Gump) sat on the bench waiting for a bus. The bench was no longer there -- I imagine there were too many people blocking traffic by standing in the middle of the street to get a photograph. It was there last time we were in Savannah, and I found it a little disappointing that Kev and Geraldine had to be satisfied with just seeing 'the spot.' Of interest is that the buses in the movie were traveling in the wrong direction!

We got off the trolley and went to Market Square where we had a delicious lunch on the porch of a quiet restaurant. Sadly, we forgot that people consider the out-of-doors completely available to smoking. The people at the next table - upwind, of course - lit up almost as soon as we sat down. Sigh. We enjoyed ourselves anyway. To the left is the photo I took of K & G while we waited for our meal. Afterward, we walked through the city to find the spots where we knew Kev wanted to get some photos with his new camera. It was a lovely walk, just a little warm. Towards late afternoon, Geraldine began having some difficulty with ankle pain and swelling. We decided to take the trolley to the car, move it closer to River Street, then find a place to sit down and relax a bit. We caught the very last trolley of the day - good timing, Kev - and heard even more about the city. After we parked the car at the new location, we walked down the steps to River St. and did some window shopping. There was a nifty candy store that had what Carolyn (my MIL) would have called 'a Rube Goldberg machine' to wrap taffy. It cut the taffy, wrapped it, sent it along a belt to a tray which periodically dumped it into a bucket. The bucket rose to the top of a tower, dumping the taffy onto another belt. This belt carried it to another belt near the wall. That belt traveled across the high wall to another, final belt, which dropped the taffy -thunk, thunk, thunk - into a chute which guided it into the revolving display shelf. Too funny. We walked the length of River St. and even found The Place Where the Girls Dance on the Bar. Tom and Gary found the name interesting when we were in Savannah last time. The girls must not have danced very well because the place was closed, and it looked permanent. I'm not too sad about that...

We walked up along the waterfront, sat on a bench to do some people-watching. When Kev realized we were becoming magnets to all the crazies, we moved on. The candy store was still open, so we made some sweet purchases there, guessed the number of candies in the jar and headed out for a bite to eat. We had seen a place that billed itself as a real English pub, so off we went to Churchill's. They did a pretty good job of reproducing an English pub - even K & G thought so. It was late and time to get back, so we put Geraldine in the back seat of the car with her feet up and headed back to SC. I had a little difficulty finding the small back roads in the dark (they never look the same without sunshine) but we did OK and got home safely. It was a nice day.