A nice place to visit. The coast of Georgia is often referred to as the lowlands. Driving through the area, it’s easy to see why. The marshes and inlets go on for hours.
Today the weather was very pleasant and perfect for sightseeing. We got an early start and headed into Savannah with the goal of using the Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour for orientation and the historical narration. It was well worth doing. Savannah was first settled in 1733 and there is a blend of architectural styles – Colonial, Victorian, Federal, Georgian, etc. Unlike Florida, there are many brick buildings. It is a beautiful city.
From the beginning it was organized in 22 squares, each with a park, of varying size. The main pedestrian area in the middle of downtown core is called ‘City Market’. The riverside area, where the shipping of cotton and rice occurred is bounded by Bay and River streets that still has some renovated warehouses. The British loved to import Georgia crops, in particular cotton. When someone responds to “how are you?” with “fair to middling? This phrase comes from when the traders gauged the quality of the cotton bales.
We appreciated all the interesting architectural styles and some streets are considered by many as the ‘loveliest in the country’ due to the live oaks with long overhanging branches and Spanish moss. We were used to the oaks and moss from Florida, so this wasn’t especially compelling to us. Another piece of trivia, Jones Street is a street that is particularly noted for its trees/moss/building beauty, and it was the source of the saying “keeping up with the Joneses”.
The city hall’s 70 ft dome really is coated with gold leaf that was added recently, in 1987. It has a burnished look in the sun so it isn’t blinding.
We had lunch downtown at an Irish pub, Wexford’s. I had to have the authentic Southern shrimp and grits (in an Irish pub) and Rob had a Rueben sandwich – it had good sauerkraut and rye bread. They had music outside and that is always an ‘add’ for us.
A couple more points of trivia: We realized afterwards that we didn’t see any rental bikes or scooters. There are many cobblestone streets and rough sidewalks so we imagine these were a safety factor taken into consideration when they were banned. John Mellencamp attends the First African Baptist Church (founded 1777). He has been quoted as saying that the church has incomparable acoustics and has even recorded several songs there. He lives on one of the barrier islands (Daufuskie) just over the border in S. Carolina, that is only accessible by boat.
The river front area features a promenade for the tourists. There are lots of restaurants, curio shops and monuments. One of which is the waving girl statue that is along the river front.
Florence Martus would wave a handkerchief by day and a lantern by night to the ships as they entered the area, as a sign of hospitality.
The highlight of the river front was the JW Marriott hotel because it had a huge metallic dinosaur skeleton hanging from the ceiling and an amazing display of fossils, geodes, crystals, and art. Rob stood in front of an ice cave bear skeleton quoting Ian with “I could take him!”
There were steps that led from the river front up to the next block that were crazy steep. There were no rules to standardize their height way back then!
The Savannah Queen riverboat made several trips a day for sightseers. Looked fun but we were disappointed to see that they weren’t utilizing the paddle wheel. We had experienced an authentic paddle wheel cruise on the Mississippi in New Orleans several years back so this in-authenticity didn’t compel us to go on this cruise.
We ended our day in Savannah making a quick drive across the Savannah River to the much less developed northeast side of the city where their large convention center is located. An interesting note – SCAD is the growing and prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design that has a large influence on the city’s improvements and general beauty. They’ve renovated 70+ buildings throughout the city. All in all, Savannah was a pleasant city to visit and worthwhile to wander.
