Savannah, Georgia

April 17-19, 2010

We got off the ship at 9 AM and within an hour we had picked up our truck and were on our way north to Savannah, GA. We stopped in Jacksonville, FL at Sonny’s Barbeque. They had excellent ribs and our waitress kept us in stitches with her down-home friendliness and sense of humor.

We arrived at Skidaway Island State Park outside of Savannah over the intracoastal waterway. We had to stop as the drawbridge came up to let 2 sailboats pass through. The park was a first-come-first-served campground and we found a great campsite with plenty of privacy. We relaxed and then went for a hike on some of the trails in the Park.

The trails wind through live oaks with Spanish Moss hanging from them, marshes, cabbage-palmettos, pines, and Georgia's state flower, the Cherokee Rose.

I finally figured out where the saying, “Sleep tight; don’t let the bed bugs bite!” came from. The story is that that the moss was used to stuff mattresses. Apparently, red bugs, (or chiggers) reside in the plant. I am certain that the mattress company did not last long!

On the way back, we spotted a bird called an indigo bunting. It was a majestic blue and I could have spent an hour staring at it's beauty but he flew away.

As we sat outside at our site, a lady on a bike stopped by to ask us about Alaska. Janie and her husband Bob Murrell and friends Loren and Mary, all from Virginia, came back over after dinner. We showed them some pictures and answered all their questions. It was a fun evening and we have a feeling that we will see them all in Alaska one day.

The next day, we went into Savannah and took the Old Town Trolley Tour of “Georgia’s First City” and then walked the River Front and around several of the charming city squares.

James Oglethorpe with the help of the Yamacraw Indian Chief Tomochichi, established the colony of Georgia in 1733. He designed the squares with the homes on the north and south and the churches and public buildings on the east and west.

Savannah’s historic district offered extraordinary architecture and lovely restored homes and churches. One particularly famous house was the birthplace and childhood home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts. I liked The Olde Pink House, now a restaurant. After walking several hours, we came upon Paula Deen’s restaurant, “the Lady and Sons” located in a charming brick building that used to be a hardware store.

Bob had the buffet of traditional southern dishes and it was superb and I had a delicious Cornucopia Salad. I could only eat half since Bob kept giving me bites of his. He even shared his to-die-for peach cobbler. Yum! We decided to walk back through the squares to the truck, working off some of the calories. Oh, but they were worth it. I was fascinated by the some of the old streets made from “tabby” a natural mixer from oyster shells, ash, sand, and water.

I would have loved to spend more time visiting some of the historic homes and art galleries, but we also wanted to go to Tybee Island. We settled on the Savannah History Museum located  in the old passenger terminal of the Central of Georgia Railway. It had many interesting historical exhibits and one that seemed a bit out of place-Forest Gump’s bench.

Apparently, people kept trying to steal it from the Chippewa Square. I am surprised that they did not have the feather that floated down from the nearby church.

From downtown Savannah, we drove along the Savannah River to Tybee Island. Our first stop was the Tybee Island Light Station one of the first public structures in Georgia, the original was completed in 1736. The present lighthouse is 154 feet tall, the lower 60 feet dates back to 1773 and the upper 94 feet from 1867.

 I walked up the 178 steps to a splendid view of island and the 5 miles of uninterrupted beach. The Light Station had all of its historic support buildings on the site.

We returned to Skidaway Island, built a fire and had a relaxing dinner. That is until a Chuck-will’s-widow bird started its continuous singing of its name. Bob realized that it was the same annoying and loud bird who woke him up the night before. He got his flashlight and found the tree, shining the light toward the bird. He flew away but was back by the time that we were in bed. I got the earplugs out and was out in 30 seconds flat! On Tuesday morning, we got an early start for Nashville, TN.
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