Savannah, Ga., October 22-23rd, 2006

Cathy, Matt, Josh and I drove to Savannah around noon on Sunday. Savannah is only 20 miles from Bluffton. And it’s Sunday, so you know what that means: EAGLES GAME! We walked down to Riverstreet, the waterfront area in Savannah. Riverstreet is one of the main streets in Savannah and is full of bars, shops and restaurants. We stopped in to a “Wet Willies” to get some slushy drinks and then to a “regular bar” to watch the Eagles game. The game was heart-wrenching. The Eagles lost in the last 4 seconds to a field goal. Ugh. We found another Eagles fan there (we’re everywhere!). Like my brother said, they’re the worst team with the best stats he’s ever seen.

Savannah is a city known for its drinking, and my friend Matt was determined to make that my first impression of the city. After the game, we went back to Wet Willies. http://www.wetwillies.com/ These drinks are no joke. 190% grain alcohol. Whoa. Josh thinks they should be illegal. In Savannah waitresses ask you if you want your drink “for here or to go.” You’re allowed one alcoholic beverage in your hand on Riverstreet. We carried our drinks down to the water and enjoyed people watching (or people enjoyed watching us). We had a lot of laughs and talked about high school and everyone made fun of me. Haha. Matt and Cathy headed back to Bluffton around 5 p.m. and Josh and I went and grabbed some dinner. We drove to our campsite at Skidaway Island Park around 9 p.m. Skidaway is about 20 miles from Savannah and our campsite cost us $24 a night. Skidaway is a pretty nice facility with restrooms, water stations at each site and laundry facilities. This works with the budget much better than a $80 hotel room. One thing about the South that we both noticed is that to everyone here, 20 minutes is “really far.” Huh? Maybe we’ve been living in the North too long, (or were we in the south technically? Northern Virginia? It’s debatable) but everyone thinks 20 miles is really long. In Va, driving to D.C. could take you 10 minutes, 20, 30, or 40, so being in the car for 20 minutes goes by pretty quickly. Funny.

We got to Savannah pretty early on Monday and stopped in at the Visitors Center. We really have become serious tourists with maps in our hands and questions for the workers there. Visitors Centers can really sometimes be overwhelming so we didn’t stay very long.

Savannah is a city full of cobblestone streets, large oak trees with overflowing Spanish moss, historic homes, churches and 21 green square gardens. Savannah, like Charleston, is very walk-friendly and a very eye-pleasing city to take a stroll in. This port city used to be a bustling center for cotton, and many of the older buildings that are now bars and shops on Riverstreet are former cotton warehouses. Savannah was a gift to President Abraham Lincoln from General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Savannah boasts one of the country’s biggest St.Patrick’s Day celebrations. Josh was there for it in recent years. The river is dyed green, and the open container law is even more liberal than usual.

Josh was on a mission to see all the squares, and we saw about 19 on our day in Savannah. Each has a distinctive centerpiece, usually a monument to some historical figure. They are all very pretty, but start to look like one another after awhile. Apologies to those who see our photo album and have to go through all 100 photos of Savannah. We stopped in for lunch at Café Ambrosia on Broughton street, which appeared to be one of the main drags in the city. After lunch we kept on our walking tour. We’d plop down in a square and enjoy the sun, head off in another direction, or walk down one of the popular streets. We also popped into Starbucks for an afternoon jolt (Thanks J.Shaw!) to keep us going (being on vacation is tiring ;))

As we walked down Riverstreet to head back to our car, we found a happy hour that had $2 beers. Hey, with beer that cheap, why not stop, right? So we did. We both had a Sam Adams Octoberfest and then found out that they had happy hour appetizer specials! We ordered 3 and our total bill was $10.55. Yes, 3 appetizers (2 orders of dumplings and one of MUSSELLS) and 2 beers for under $11 with tax. Woohoo!! What a great find. Thanks Cobblestone Conch bar!

Next time we visit Savannah I’d like to take a ghost tour (Savannah is known as the most haunted city in America.) But the cheapest one is $15 and that would almost be half of our budget! So we opted to skip it. We’d also like to visit Tybee Island, the nearest beach to Savannah and explore the more of the city other than the historic district. We really enjoy just walking around and exploring on our own. Savannah has a great vibe, we both really liked it. But we move on.

Next Stop: Cumberland Island, Ga. We’re ready for a break from touring city life.

Pros
Beautiful, laid back, good scene for a city
Large historic district
Close to the beach

Cons
Jobs?
Outdoor activity access
Conservative

Next stop: Cumberland Island, Ga.